muscleman

Does anyone know a way to reach out to Jeff Ubben in ValueAct? As a prior Microsoft software engineer and current Amazon engineer, I could clearly tell exactly what is wrong with Microsoft. I don't think Satya has done enough or is capable of doing enough to turnaround the ship. The fact that he only got 60% of targeted annual bonus means the board thinks so as well. I have a plan in my mind that may fix Microsoft. I wish I could get it to Jeff.

Cubs are on the verge of winning the WS. Govts lawyers want to bury the fact that they had a copy of "Grays Sports Almanac 85-15" Sorry. Didn't understand what you said. Could you please explain a bit?

This trade may not work either. What if the fed does not increase the rate? After a while, people will forget all the fears today and start chasing high yields again.

I think what Carl Icahn talked about here is quite similar to the merger-mania that went bust in the 1980s. He has seen it before so he is predicting it will happen again. All serial acquirers like VRX and PAH had dropped a lot since he started talking about this in May. I am interested in those serial acquirers but I don't feel like the bottom has reached so soon. After boom-bust, there will be a relatively long stabilization period (1-2 years), so we got plenty of time here.

http://www.theonion.com/article/pope-francis-reverses-position-capitalism-after-se-51363 The pope now starts to appreciate the US system. ;D

He has a bunch of non-US holdings that are unreported to SEC, I believe. BTW Horsehead was the only original idea in his current portfolio and it didn't do well so far. Mining is tough!

Could anyone please help me understand how congress works? Who is Sherrod Brown? Why can this senator along block a bill? Does he have super voting power?

Hi guys, I passed series 65 exam, registered my LLC and currently preparing to start registration with WA regulator. Could anyone of you please recommend a business checking account for me? I checked some local banks and CUs. https://www.usbank.com/small-business/checking/compare-business-checking-accounts.html https://www.becu.org/business-banking/small-business/membership-and-accounts https://www.soundcu.com/business/business-checking/free-business-checking/ US Bank's available list of services is the most extensive while the other two CUs only provide very basic checking account features. Do you know if any of US Bank's features are needed? For example, the "Viewpost® Invoicing and Payments:Create and Send Invoices for Free" feature. Is that ever needed? I know WA regulators require quarterly invoicing to the customers, sent by either email or mail. But if I setup my RIA account in IB, IB will allow me to automatically draft quarterly fees anyway, regardless of whether I send the invoice or not. Do you think this is a feature important enough for me to choose US bank instead of the other two credit unions? Thanks! MM

Well, I just think it might be better to focus on a longer term horizon. Otherwise if we go to an extreme we can also ask what's your biggest gain yesterday :)

Buffet: Focus on your inner scores. :) I think we should close this thread and reopen again in Christmas time.

Are you a lawyer? A fund salesman?

No... By your 20% threshold. :) I usually do a yearly return survey near Christmas. I think it is too early to ask about other members' return right now.

I am one of the victims who lost quite a bit of money buying those Chinese RM stocks. ::) I am glad to see justice coming finally. However, there are still a lot of Chinese Reverse Merger CEOs who made a lot of money in 2007-2011 and living happily in China right now. I don't think they will ever get caught. >:(

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/09/us-usa-puertorico-restructuring-idUSKCN0R91JD20150909 The drama has begun. My thesis is under stress tests. :)

http://www.energyintel.com/pages/worldopinionarticle.aspx?DocID=898759 "The only new element that I see this time around that wasn't there in the previous cycle is the availability of financing. The low cost of money, large amounts of private equity money is easily raised because it doesn't cost anything at these low interest rates." And this: http://www.wsj.com/articles/private-equity-firms-plunge-back-into-the-oil-patch-1441326003 "Private-equity firms are doubling down on energy, despite heavy damage from their last adventure in the oil patch." It is always possible to find one last fool to raise financing. :)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/puerto-ricos-power-authority-reaches-deal-with-bondholders-1441191429 "Puerto Rico’s power authority said Wednesday that it agreed to the terms of a restructuring plan with a group of bondholders, who are slated to receive 85% of the value of their existing bonds in exchange for new securities." If PREPA's bond haircut is only 15%, other bonds like the highway bond should fair better because they still have the ability to pay.

I've seen this kind of stories all the time in China. Brokers love this kind of stories as it encourages people to trade more frequently than they should, and the brokers can make more money out of these people. Whether it is a true story or not is another matter. Maybe this is a true story or maybe it is not. Hard to say. :)

Don't they need to report the positions?

I listen mostly to finance related things. Like Snowball, Confidence game, Alchemy of Finance, King Icahn.

Thank you! I do enjoyed snowball a lot. I just added the other two to my wish list for now. :)

Which oil stocks do you long right now? :) I have some concerns with "the laws of supply and demand", because that assumes that supply and demand tend to go toward equilibrium. However, when oil prices drop, the companies have no choice but to increase production, to keep the Debt/EBITDA not to breach the debt covenant. If you check the recent few months' US Oil output, it is actually increasing instead of decreasing. When oil prices drop, the companies increase production before they are forced to reduce production by bankruptcy. This makes the bottom of oil prices a bit further away than the "the laws of supply and demand" believers expected. Eventually it will form a bottom. I am sure about that. But I am in no rush to bottom fish right now. :) Another note: Oil was less than $20 back in 2002. China had huge economic growth and a lot of the oil price increases likely come from there. Right now China is having problems and all the factory output decreased by over 20% this year. The other countries like India and Brazil will likely rise and replace the oil demand, but that takes years.

I don't count on settling at all. As I said before, governments are highly bureaucratic and always backward looking and react quickly after disasters have happened. I guess the previous government lead attorney left because he figured out there is no way to win and these government heads were too stubborn to talk about settlement. Therefore it will be a waste of his life to defend this non-sense.

I've listened to about 10 books there and liked the format, but the selection is far less than in kindle or physical books in Amazon. Can you recommend some audible books for me please? :)

Yeah. Just as I expected. :) When is the deadline for the judge to rule?

It extended Fairholme's obligation to respond to the government's supplemental motion to dismiss. A newbie question, is the deadline for government response EOD today? What if the government fails to respond? Seems to me that they are not capable to come up with valid arguments and responses.