LC

Personally I await the end of the world with an open mind, warm heart, fridge full of beer and a safe hidden behind my favorite piece of art filled with gold coins, a handgun, and an encoded map to my underground bunker located in Alaska. Let the revolution begin, comrades! ;D (oh, and I plan on using all the doomsayer books I've accumulated over the years as fire-starting material)

Happy birthday!

For what it's worth, I do in fact still think Eddie is dreamy.

A really shameful World Cup for Italy… And the second in a row!!… Very bad! :( But I am a tennis player, and I am enjoying Wimbledon right now: I think Nole Djokovic is the best tennis player out there, and the way he plays is simply amazing… though I must admit Rafa Nadal is a wonder athlete, and to defeat him in a 3 out of 5 sets match is almost an impossible task! ;) Cheers, Gio The zombie Suarez incisor incident was equally appalling!

A lot of smart people have said that temperament is the most important factor: not more data. In that case, learning from someone else's experience seems like a good way to refine and mature your own temperament, does it not?

wachtwoord - "re" is a preposition essentially meaning "about" or "with respect to" of course (here comes the nerdy part) its etymology is derived from the ablative singular of the Latin "res" meaning "thing" or "matter" from which we also get the word republic :) LC - you'll surely find this one familiar ... Multa renascentur quae iam cecidere, cadentque quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula :) Andy: that is one of my favorites as well, and relevant for this board. Reversion to the mean! :)

Through various hazards, through many difficulties we move Another one, my favorite: Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam fato profugus Lavinaque venit Litora... (Disclaimer: huge Virgil nerd...did anyone else translate the Aeneid in school?)

I think it has to do with "intrinsic value" To use a famous example...a bridge, from an engineering standpoint, has an intrinsic value. And it can be quantified. Spans X meters, can bear up to Y weight, etc. etc. From an investing standpoint, the same bridge costs X dollars to build, but can generate Y dollars in revenue. Same type of analysis just focused on different factors/variables.

Following your theory, the more niche brands will retain value better as they attract less competition. Also, the best value proposition will win out (versus the highest ad spend).

I don't really hedge other than selling and holding cash, which is my preferred "method" because I think the call option on cash is valuable, but as a second option I think selling calls would be the best bet because you obtain the float up front. It's an insurance policy so you have to value it as such, and as any insurance policy it becomes more valuable if you have the solvency to weather intermittent volatility.

If you're buying distressed bonds you have to value the company's ability to meet debt obligations, which is much like valuing equity prospects.

Yes, he criticizes the focus on income statement priority of most of Wall Street and focuses on the balance sheet first. I personally think both have faults in equal merit: asset write downs are usually after the fact and can happen unexpectadly the same way earnings can fall off a cliff unexpectadly.

utilities are the obvious example.

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.