LC

Klarman's Margin of Safety Buffett's Partnership Letters Greenblatt's "Genius" series Graham's Security Analysis Also I enjoyed Mandelbrot's book as well, for the "pure math" argument vs. the brownian motion assumption embedded in MPT.

I'm more concerned with the make. GM? Cmon Mohnish, treat yourself to a Maserati :)

Of course we shouldn't assume anything. Their history on executive compensation, accounting honesty, and other issues relating to the long-term health of American corporations does count for something, however. Seriously, I cannot think of anyone else who I would, ex-ante, give better odds to successfully design a succession plan. If you can then I would love to hear it, and I'm sure other Berkshire shareholders would as well.

If you could choose anyone in America to design a major corporate owner/operator succession plan, who would it be and why? Until I can come up with an answer better than Buffett/Munger, I'll remain confident in Berkshires future.

Realistically, quite a while. In the month range before really committing, but I take small starter positions as I like the company more and more.

I try to do as much research outside of what is presented in the sec filings as possible. Google goes a long way, as does talking with company sales reps and wholesale/retail distributors. Then I pretend I'm a customer of the industry and see if I would use the company vs a competitor, and why. Supplement that with the Ks/Qs/proxy and conference call transcripts and I think it's a decent approach. I also run through a checklist to make sure I haven't missed anything obvious. My checklist combines fisher, buffet and munger, and then all the reasons past investments of mine failed.

Maybe I jumped to an extreme conclusion ;D. Buy two Maseratis instead and hire more people :)

Branded marijuana. Who will be the Marlboro of Marijuana?

Why is that a joke? The existence of the Ferrari offers the person washing it an opportunity that they didn't have before. Well, it's fine but if this master/servant model is what drives society than it creates a huge wealth disparity. IMHO a strong middle class with more 40k cars and a few car washes is preferable.

Agree. Hate that business. Do you feel the same way about niche branded cars such as Ferrari, or does the fact that it is part of the Fiat family kill the idea for you?

I agree, it's why I'm too afraid to touch GM. Fiat I like due to Ferrari and Marchionne, the rest of their ops are not exciting one way or the other in my mind.

I second DTEJ's comments, I went to a top undergrad school but the friendships were worth more than the tuition. At 18+ I think experience pays more than classroom lectures.

The counterpoint may be that refined behavior is simply a way to form collusive relationships, whereas tech entrepreneurs know they can "disrupt" or "be disrupted" at any point.

short CRM: why? are there no other attractive uses for your capital which offer a safer risk/return? it seems like a stock like that has so many non-fundamental issues which may or may not drive the stock price that you open yourself up to a lot of pain while waiting for fundamentals to adjust. additionally, the SAAS business model has very attractive characteristics which you are fighting against. i think the jist of this argument is not whether CRM is a good short candidate or not on an absolute basis, but rather one of relative attractiveness.

Another shade to the industry http://m.spiegel.de/international/world/a-967198.html#spRedirectedFrom=www&referrrer=http://www.reddit.com/?count=25&after=t3_24okcb

Tobacco doesnt provide value for society? Humans have been smoking it for thousands of years. How is a business which supplies humans with a thousand year old desire not valuable?

I like this question.

Interesting idea. I imagine it shouldn't be too difficult to create some serious voting power with the purchase power of this forum, especially with those microcap or nanocap. However, how do you define a "group". Will people communicate with each other through an internet forum loosely be viewed legally as a group? Any lawyers here? I don't see how it's any different from 20 partners having a conference call or meeting at a restaurant, yet for some reason I feel the SEC or whomever may not feel the same way.

I have to come next year just to catch a glimpse of you characters. Hilarious :)

The banks get better interest rate spreads when rates are somewhat higher than they are now. Instead of borrowing at 1% and lending at 3%, they can borrow at 2% and loan at 4.3%. The 0.3% over a trillion dollars becomes significant. At a certain point rates go too high and people stop borrowing as much. Dimon is talking about hitting a sweet spot where soreads and volumes are both good. Historically banks didn't do as well in rising rate environments but most of the bigger banks now hedge off possible interest rate risk. It also has to do with the speed of a rise. That good? My fear is that increased rates will reduce the overall demand for loans. I read somewhere that banks actually do better in a lower interest rate environment because of the higher volume of new/refinancing loans, which also come with transaction fees, etc

SD I believe wrote something the last time a topic of this nature came up, and I am paraphrasing here: "If you're good enough to be a top research analyst then you're good enough to start and run a business, and contribute directly and meaningfully to society".

Thank you Sanjeev (and Mohnish!) 8)

What he's suggesting is that they obey the law. I see it more like, "I pay taxes and therefore they should, too."

I actually prefer not having a rating or "star" system on posts. That way I can judge the merit of individual posts without any pre-conceived bias about the quality.

lol, i just thought of Vonnegut's likely response to "can a woman make you rich?"..."can a glass of syrup make you a turkey?"