blainehodder

I've got two possibilities: 1) The bulls already bought the heck out of them before individual names fell 20, 30, or even 40% or 2) The bears don't think that a 10% decline in the overall market signals a screaming buying opportunity I covered some of my higher beta shorts. I added a small amount to FCAU, SAN, and ATUSF. Other than that, I've remained about the same because a 10% move either way in the SPY really doesn't mean much to me in terms of trying to take advantage of the swing of fear/exuberance. It's the 25+% swings I try to take advantage of. minor nitpick - the 10% move in SPY understates the decline of the average stock significantly. There have been 25% declines in many (most?) listed US stocks, and definitely in European and EM stocks. That said, if you don't see bargains, you don't see bargains.

Yup, seems like a pretty clear thing to point to in the cases now.... if they get that far.

Thanks for the clarification. Too bad!

However it appears they must still produce the admin record correct?

I see greater upside in the common and don't see the scenario of common being wiped out and the preferreds paying off.

I've been following this for yrs now and I just today bought a large position today at 1.33 in the common. I can't for the life of me figure out why this isn't going up given recent and coming events. Good luck all! This seems to be coming to a conclusion in the next yr or so.

Oprah.

Ask him if he has actually outperformed SPY using a quant strategy of his, or if it is all backtested theory with no proven forward performance.

I disagree. The difference in earnings power of the 2 companies is just massive.

How not to Die by Michael Greger & Gene Stone. Excellent book summarizing the fairly current scientific literature on what foods are good for you (plant based diet) and what aren't (pretty much everything else).Turns out all all meat pretty much causes harm (including fish and chicken). Good diet recommendations even though I doubt I could implement it the max.

Those cerulean eyes have me convinced.

Everything! Megacaps. AAPL, GM, DIS, GOOG,

GM. Crazy cheap at 5.14 PE

If you've been tasked with managing other people's money you should make big macro calls. Got it. Greenblatt might disagree. In all seriousnes though if you are managing other people's money, the decision to make a macro call should be based on the client expectations. It isn't lazy to be 100% net long 100% of the time if that is what the client wants.

rebuying the BIDU I sold out of it seems only a month or so ago.... It has dropped from 230 to 170 in an astonishingly quick move. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Rondo Agile 3010 http://www.rondomusic.com/al3010sehsbf.html It is basically a well made Korean Gibson Les Paul clone. Countless hours of fun. The price has jumped a bit from the 250, but it is still a great price.

Berkshire doesn't sit on money as a market timing tool. They always have tons of cash looking to deploy. Also they are going to use $20B+ for the precision castparts merger.... In my opinion Berkshire does use cash as a market timing tool. Sure they might not take a top down macro approach, but they are constantly looking to do deals. If they can't find enough attractive deals to put the cash to work, it builds up on the balance sheet. Same net result. If the market dropped 50% tomorrow you would expect Buffett to put most of the cash into the market. Likewise, if the general market doubled tomorrow he might sell some stock positions and would be unlikely to find many deals so cash would increase. To me, that is market timing.

AAPL DIS

If you live in the cold, the Ford Escape is affordable, cheap to service, good fuel economy (not that it really matters anymore), and has all the cool options. Seems to drive better than the competition as well even though it is among the cheaper small SUV options. We are big fans of ours.

AAPL, DIS, TWTR, CMG, BRK.B, USB, WFC Fun day in megacap land.

Buffett of course :) His management is free. That and Vanguard. Greenblatt if not for the fees.

I agree it is a good company - as does the market. It isn't cheap by any means even with the e. coli drop. I assume it will get cheaper after a quarter or two orf terrible SSS regardless of the long term prospects. I will wait for that to (possibly) happen. Otherwise it hardly seems like a truck loading opportunity to me.

See HJ's post. Here's another nice summary of who gets what. Thank you, HJ and wknecht! This is very useful. Cheers, Gio Agree. Very useful thanks!

They can see it but what can they do about it? Lets say Apple and JPMorgan partner to offer credit and payment through the phone... Visa would like to be in the transaction somehow, but what can they really do about it? They may offer similar services, but market share goes down, competition goes up, and margins go down. Further, p2p margins go to zero. Whether Apple, Google, Paypal, JPM, or V/MA or some combination are the ones that do it, it is irrelevant. That cow is milked. Does Apple (or Google, or anyone) really want to partner with JPM, then have to go and partner with BAC, C, WFC... then go to Canada and partner with TD, RY, BMO, then go to the UK, then Europe and on and on...all to get into a business that's not within their core competency and has a very high risk of not succeeding? Or, would they rather just partner with Visa, who already has the network in place, and be done with it. They would probably want to make tons of money for the minimal work of partnering with 20-30 banks, while bolstering their platform tie-in. Why wouldn't they? Why is it so risky? The banks will be eager to cut out Visa. Consumers will be eager to use it. It won't take a ton of capital to pursue. Looking backward the moat was solid. Looking forward it seems weak. The tech players are in the perfect spot to edge out V/MA with minimal capital or effort. ...Or maybe I'm completely off my rocker. Not sure.

More like 150 bps from Visa now, so that is a huge incentive to cut them out. And, yes they would need to setup a partnership with banks, guarantee transactions etc. Not sure why this would be that difficult for Apple or Google. To some extent they are already doing this with the debit transactions on Apple Pay. Merchants, consumers and banks should be eager to go in this direction. Another crazy option would be to use some of the massive unused balance sheet cash to setup a "bank" themselves to offer the credit. I see that as unlikely, but it is possible. Article on the fees in Canada now: http://www.financialpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=business.financialpost.com//entrepreneur/cfib/visa-mastercard-agree-to-cut-fees-they-charge-merchants-who-accept-credit-cards This thread makes me want to buy more Apple and Google... And they are almost certainly more capable of stopping fraud as well.