LC

Damn you post good stuff, SD. Thx for your thoughts as always.

Anecdotally it seems that MC pretty much lost most US. I always try to have at least one MC just in case (haha) some place does not take Visa. Through years, pretty much all big US banks switched to Visa usually without even telling me. I've got Barclays MC, but that's pretty much it. There might be smaller US banks still offering MC. Really? My citibank and capital one cards are both MC. And they are both recent (<5mo old).

perhaps sales/sqft? strategically located stores imho are still valuable. they legitimize the brand. but i agree the traditional mall model is dying.

I haven;t read Damn Right yet. Can anyone provide a brief synopsis? Is it worth it to someone having read Charlie's Almanack? I couldn't find a thread here.

kraven is a user here, who (and i feel i can quote this), fervently believes that "anyone who dares call himself a value investor in the footsteps of graham and buffett should be reading AT LEAST 500 pages daily, of only the most tediously informative material." other activities such as: eating, sleeping, bathing, spending time with your family (aside from a predetermined 30 minutes during federal holidays), or doing ANYTHING else is simple counterproductive. if you don't know how the latest soybean harvest in the Jiangsu province will impact the cost of freight in the southeastern US, you simply shouldn't be managing your own capital and better leave it to the true geniuses working at kiewit plaza. just kidding of course :D

how much stock do you guys put in them? do you listen to them at all? i feel like it's just a pony show put on for both parties and not worth the brain damage trying to delve through all the cryptic nuances of canned management responses. i've found value in them for really small, off-the-radar companies and something like Fiat. in both cases management doesn't seem to give a #&(# and is willing to be blunt and candid. the common thread being when management has no incentive to add layers of nuance to shade the truth.

Thank you marlin

A lot of people think they know enough about a certain idea but really don't (myself included!). We fool ourselves because we fall prey to the same psychological misjudgments that we profess to know like the back of our hand.

Assuming you have the standard finance & accounting knowledge and have read the oft-cited value texts (Graham, Buffett, Klarman, Marks, Greenblatt, etc.), I think your best bet may be to propose investment ideas and receive feedback and criticism. You will learn quickly by this process (and even more by actually putting money at stake). My most impressive learning experiences from COBF was having generally positive feedback on certain ideas proposed and then having those ideas flop. A cheap tuition for a valuable lesson.

Yes I was talking about cement kilns, but they exhibit the same characteristics of regional monopolies (which is what attracted me to them). I would suspect the aggregate miners are even lower margin than cement producers but without the added regulatory risk.

Miners I guess are different: I think it was Monarch Cement I was looking at where every quarter for a while they were just complaining about having to comply with tighter emission standards and having to upgrade their kilns. This was after being allowed to delay the upgrades for a few years. I agree with the NIMBY rationale you suggest, that seems to make sense to me. Also another exercise is to map out where the producers are in comparison to demand centers for cement (large cities etc.) to give an idea of relevance. One of the cement trade journals had a good map to use as a starting point with the major plants. Found it here: http://www.globalcement.com/images/stories/documents/articles/eGCMay2012-32-33.pdf

BG - true: competition is limited within the industry. the "competition" comes from the gov't imposing costly regulation every few years, usually to improve environmental effects. upgrading kilns can wipe out half a decade's profits in a year for some of the smaller players.

Rye manhattans have been on the list the last week or so.

Happy belated birthday, Sanjeev!

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans

Nice job Keith.

No better time than the present! (jk of course) ;D

I would like to see longer suspensions for criminal activity and large monetary fines for the cheating-type stuff.

ENTP here, apparently. I used to score INTP/J when I was younger, oddly.

Rational thinking should overwhelm sense organs' I disagree in some contexts. Sensory perception and body language overwhelm rational thought in most communication. Imagine approaching a woman at a bar. Rational discourse is probably the least important aspect. And yet the goal is forming a relationship which can create life (or at least practice :D)

In terms of psychologically distancing myself from the bias of cloning a PM's idea, I put in enough work to make it "feel" like it is now "my" idea.

careful of environmental issues. fly ash is the biggest problem and when i looked at monarch, the regulatory pressure certainly existed. kind of a utility, though. not much sense in setting up multiple cement plants for a given geography. oh also, perhaps send a PM to user 'Aberhound', he has a good knowledge of the industry IMHO.

what about red meats, dairy, protein in general? i ask because i think "most" people are usually trying to lose weight. i'm in the opposite camp. 155 lbs, 6 feet tall of pure skinny. so recently i've started lifting heavy weights (starting strength/stronglifts) and my diet is as such: breakfast: the ron swanson 3 slices bacon 3 fried eggs 1 cup milk 1 cup coffee lunch: the steak salad 1 serving steak, cut into pieces 1 cup steamed broccoli 1 cup leafy greens 1 handful walnuts 1 avocado doused in olive oil + vinegar dinner: we subscribe to blue apron (https://www.blueapron.com/) which is really awesome. healthy, delicious, perfect serving sizes for 2, and it teaches you new cooking techniques. very cool. during the day i snack on nuts, berries, and drink milk. i definitely feel healthier and stronger, and have more energy. i was never "fat" so putting on weight is a new feeling to me.

We had a meetup in late jan organized thru this site with a good turnout, keep your eyes peeled to the "events" sub forum.

Rrrright.... So not counting 2009, which Buffett's recent purchases have been "obvious"? Or perhaps you can tell which of your recent purchases have been "obvious"? :) Obvious to him doesn't mean obvious to everyone. Otherwise, there wouldn't be much opportunity to take advantage ;) Obviously! (sorry) Apple sub-400 was pretty obvious IMHO.