LC

JK Bank does look interesting, thanks for bringing it up. Will suggest to some of my Indian friends.

No ideas, I haven't heard anything mentioned. But next Q it will be interesting to see what % of the portfolio is Fiat.

Hey congrats! I love reading your posts and am glad to have you as a forum member.

Picture so everyone can see what having too much money looks like: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAiNulZzM8U/Tnf0ZssIj8I/AAAAAAAAANQ/b04-BvDhMIE/s1600/Alberto%2BGiacometti%252C%2BThe%2BChariot%252C%2B1950.JPG

LC, I started An Elegant Universe today. If you like popular books on physics, one of my favorites is In Search of Schrodinger's Cat by John Gribbin. Excellent, thanks for the recommendation.

Boilermaker, I wholeheartedly recommend an elegant universe. Fascinating and easy-to-understand storyline on major breakthroughs in physics. As a science nerd with no formal science education post university, it was great to read.

Interesting. Do you find that technique works well for business analysis? I can see it being very productive for more routine tasks (TPS reports) but am not sure well it does when trying to assimilate information from different fields. Curious as to your thoughts. As to me, I also do 2-2.5 hr chunks of work, then take 30-60 minutes to do an unrelated activity: cooking, playing a musical instrument, reading sci-fi/fantasy, etc. Then I usually either do some light follow up work, or spend time synthesizing/reflecting on the work done previously with a fresher mind. I guess in terms of activity...I would say do something you've always felt like accomplishing, not money related, just something "cool". I always wanted to learn violin (people can have vastly different opinions of cool!). So I practice 30 min daily. But the point I think is to do something which uses your brain differently so you come back refreshed. Heck, it could be daydreaming about a future in which solar panels and solar plants populate the landscape, we all drive Tesla's, clean energy causes re-design of pollution-soaked cities, or whatever.

ukvalueinvestment, I think it would be a shame. I've experienced university in the USA and Canada. The trend of education in the USA is definitely a downward one, and Canada seems to be following suit. The days of academic learning and then "getting out there" in the real world are mostly gone. Look at pricing at private US colleges: it's all very similar. It resembles an oligarchy and the ones getting screwed are students.

Is that part true? If it is, it really doesn't bode well for BRK post-Buffett. On the other hand, pardon me if I'm being sexist or something here, but hiring her straight out of school when he has turned down multiple super talents with far more experience (Pabrai comes to mind) who also offered to work for free/very little may not have been optimal either. http://nypost.com/2013/10/13/buffett-protege-caught-in-ceo-sex-mess/ Haha this is funny. A 29 year old exec hires her 36 year old friend's 61 year old husband. A marriage based on undying love, no doubt, and an executive hire based entirely on merit, I'm sure. Results: as expected.

Thanks for all the replies. For those interested, Punch card investing blog's recent post touches on roll-ups within the transportation industry: http://punchcardblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/c-h-robinson-and-two-sided-markets/

I have a few screens set up that I use. They've definitely become much more broad over time (thanks in part to your advice, Nate). Something like fat gross margins and low/no debt. Then I just go from there, see what looks interesting or companies that I haven't seen before. Do some reading etc. it opens the door. Even having stocks in your portfolio is somewhat of a screen. Owning BAC opens you up to competition from other TBTF banks. JPM, WFC, etc. You become invested in what they're doing, who is doing what better, etc. Then you compare those to community banks (Nate, you again) and see what offers the most compelling investment opportunity. So it's kind of stream-of-consciousness a bit, bumbling around between traditional stock screens, industries, business models, etc.

Sadly I am guilty of the same error. Your post made me think of this quote: "The term "value investing" is widely used to imply the purchase of stocks having attributes such as a low ratio of price to book value, a low price-earnings ratio, or a high dividend yield. Unfortunately, such characteristics...are far from determinative as to whether an investor is indeed buying something for what it is worth and is therefore truly operating on the principle of obtaining value in his investments. Correspondingly, opposite characteristics - a high ratio of price to book value, a high price-earnings ratio, and a low dividend yield - are in no way inconsistent with a "value" purchase.

One thing I have always had trouble with is valuing, or even having some mental models to draw upon when valuing, companies which are essentially fueled by acquisitions. Platform specialty products, Colfax, Valeant are some popular names right now but there are others of various size in different industries which exist and get lots of love from Wall Street. And through history, how many failures were there for every Teledyne? What was the distinguishing factor(s)? Obviously a great CEO but that is difficult to know ex-ante. How exactly does one look at these companies in terms of valuation? The hardest part in my opinion is due to lack of information on acquired companies pre vs. post acquisition. That causes difficulty in analysis. Also many of these companies use the model of acquiring these companies and changing the management and operating controls at these companies to "create value". What exactly that value is...this is usually only vaguely alluded to by management and not really detailed, making it harder to form an opinion on the true worth of their actions/system. It is rarely as simple as slashing unneeded expenses (although that is always the lowest hanging fruit it seems). With Valeant that seems to be the model but with other of these roll-up companies it may not be. The models I can think of are: -cutting redundant headcount to create more operating leverage. -leveraging sales channels, either to cross-sell current customers or expand regionally. -utilizing excess manuf. capacity and reducing fixed costs. -more "hazy" things such as leveraging R&D talent, patents, manuf. techniques etc. on larger scale. this seems difficult to measure. Any other random thoughts/references/information/examples is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I like the idea of this thread, either to discover investment ideas or threats to existing investments. I am looking at the concrete industry and a forum member advised me to look at newer formulations of cement which do not require massive energy sucking kilns. One such is here : http://www.blueworldcrete.com/technology/ Other innovative types include sulphur cement Slagstar cement also looks promising (http://www.welantech.com/en/6petrochemical/12slagstar.htm) Energy efficiency is becoming more prominent in the industry with more restrictive environment guidelines and higher requirements for LEED buildings.

I also look at Tesuji partners which I don't believe has been mentioned.

Congrats Keith and nice piece Norm. Tombgrt I agree :)

pull, format, visualize industry data

Ah thank you I missed that :)

More business (serious and funny) goes on in these sears threads than in the stores. i'll see myself out.

was the conference call auction taken down?

So they've been dead wrong for the last 6 years, but the market declines over a week & 1/2 period, and now they're right? This thread is ridiculous. I know you don’t like how Fairfax operates. And that’s fine! But let me ask you a question: if the market stays in some kind of turmoil for a while (a few months), if US government bond yields keep going down, and if Fairfax share price declines with the overall market, don’t you think it could be worth buying at least some shares before they announce 2014 year end results? Gio Why point was more about the point of this thread than the way the company operates. It's like someone buying JC Penny at $40, and then boasting that they were right when 2-years later the stock goes from $5 to $7. Diogenes can stop his search now, put down his lantern and rest. Here is an honest man. I had to Google this. I am still laughing. Heh me too. Kraven is one funny man :)

Davita, Collectors Universe, American Express, Philip Morris, maybe FICO? edit: Starbucks but I'm on the fence. Are they the McDonalds of coffee? If so, yes. This is one stock where I can't get over my own personal issues. I'm a coffee snob, I think their atmosphere ("third place") is too disingenuous, and I can't figure why anyone would go there time after time. So, probably Starbucks will outperform all the names above.

If there was only a way to make money off that. ;) Running for election is one way. 24/7 political news channels is another, TV/radio which air political commercials, hotels for political conventions, etc

I found I got a lot better "with women" when I started dating women I genuinely liked, not who fit some description of "hot". So much easier in the end to just be yourself and, if she doesn't like it, cordially move on.

The embedded option is what is most valuable IMHO. Rates go lower? Refi. Rates go up? Enjoy below market rates. I take a real estate finance class as part of my MBA program and everyone is questioning the validity of the 30 year mortgage, whether it is still useful. I think from a consumer perspective it is inherently attractive. The class cites how people average only 7 years in their home, but I don't see how that makes the mortgage any less attractive of an instrument.