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JBird

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Posts posted by JBird

  1. I'd buy neither. I prefer to invest in real, not hypothetical, companies. Even in the land of the hypothetical there is not enough info here to make any kind of decision. To say that a certain kind of investor would buy one over the other does a disservice to the investing process.

     

    The point is well taken, and basically I agree. The purpose of the board though is to learn, and it seems this thread created an opportunity for at least one member to learn something new about inflation. To somewhat slam a post born out of intellectual curiosity is a disservice to the learning process.

  2. I am really impressed with this question.

     

    I pick A because of its advantage in years of inflation. I also think that the returns are sensible under current interest rates.

     

    Could you explain the advantage of A in years of inflation specifically?

     

    I would but Buffett does a better job than I could; check out the 1983 Berkshire Annual report. At the end he attaches an appendix called Goodwill and its Amortization: Rules and Realities. It is a financial masterpiece.

  3. Company A, hands down, in any environment. As a long-term holding, A will compound your money at a rate so much higher than Company B that a decade later you'd wonder why you ever considered the three percentage point difference in initial yield to be worth contemplating.

     

    Of course, this assumes that Company A can and does re-invest its cash flow at 25%.

     

    Of course you're absolutely right. I didn't consider reinvestment because it wasn't raised as consideration in Ander's original post.

  4. I'm pretty sure risk IS volatility. What other concept of risk is there? We had this discussion a few weeks ago, but even measures like shortfall risk etc use volatility as an input. As one poster stated on that thread, risk can be seen as the asset's true standard deviation....but that's obviously unknown.

     

     

    What Birdman is referring to is a totally different type of risk. Operational risk is important, but it is not the same as the market risk of an investment.

     

    Investors with a long time horizon have no reason to consider what you've labeled as market risk. Volatility means that an identifiably wonderful company worth X, will sometimes sell for 2X, sometimes X, and sometimes .5X. And if you can just figure out what X is, you're going to get very rich over time. Market volatility is the friend of the intelligent investor.

  5. 1) When you calculate intrinsic value, assuming it's by DCF, generally how many years out do you project owner earnings? When, if ever, do you project into perpetuity?

     

    2) How do you decide the appropriate discount rate? Do you ever factor in a change of the risk-free rate over time?

     

    3) If your projection of earnings goes for, say 10 years, Year 11 and beyond are "out" years. How do you deal with the valuation of Year 11 and beyond? Do you apply a terminal multiple, value all future cash at zero, etc.?

  6. The Goldman report seems overly optimistic.

     

    Their estimates are of EPS, rather than just earnings. They don't describe to what extent they believe EPS will increase due to earnings growth vs. repurchases. Frankly, that's not surprising.

     

    The question I'm asking myself is, does Goldman expect the S&P 500 to be a massive net-repurchaser of stock over the next 3 years? I've been trying to find information on repurchases for the S&P 500. I've found plenty on the dollar amounts going into repurchases, but little else. Does anyone have info regarding the changes in shares outstanding for the S&P 500 over time?

  7. I suspect Fed selling is just around the corner.  It will be interesting to see how markets react when quantitative easing turns into quantitative flooding. 

     

    I hate predictions, because they make you look stupid when you are wrong, but I bet we will see a major sovereign default in the next 12-24 months after rates begin to rise.  Let's see how stupid I look now in 12-24 months!  ;D  Cheers!

     

    Sanjeev, what do you believe the probability is of a major sovereign default?

  8. It seems obvious to me that the investor shorting treasuries now will generate a capital gain in the long run; the inevitable rise in interest rates will see to that. But just how successful will the investment be? It's largely dependent on when interest rates rise, and by how much. Heeding Aesop's investment insight, I'm shying away from the investment myself because I can't answer those questions.

  9. Inspired by a lecture from Charlie Munger, http://ycombinator.com/munger.html, I thought it may be useful to have a discussion on probabilities. Specifically, attempting to quantify the probabilities of some future events, as well as explaining the thinking process behind the estimation. I'd like to stick to events that are both important and knowable. Consider first the questions Warren asked of Charlie during the Berkshire meeting this year:

     

    What is the probability that inflation runs at 5% or higher in the next 10 years?

     

    What is the probability that the US dollar is the world reserve currency in 20 years?

     

    Of course, answering these questions cannot be done with precision.

     

     

  10. Sorry, but I don't see much consistency in your arguments so not clear how to reply to that.

     

    You have started this thread due to worrying and concern about a general market/economic situation.

     

    Not sure what I've been inconsistent about...I was pointing out the fact that markets have risen dramatically and the risk premium that investors are paying aren't adequate for most stocks and definitely the broad market...that I'm concerned about this.

     

    You do agree that timing the market in the long run is impossible, so why worry about it. Just don't time. And if it drops again 25% as you say, you can rinse and repeat again.  Even the dip last year was used for that.

     

    Timing the market "perfectly" is impossible.  But when broad market valuations increase to the point where risk premiums are lower and lower, you are indirectly timing the market when your investments have reached intrinsic value, and you do not have replacement ideas so you have more and more cash...it's just prudent behavior.  Cheers!

     

    I disagree with your thesis that returns for the general stock market are insufficient over the risk-free interest rate. I think that stocks are reasonably priced. In any case, what you're saying is perfectly reasonable.

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