Palantir

^Fair enough.

^Why does it matter? The US' goal should be to defend US interests, not to worry about whether it is hypocritical or not...

^A mention here: http://books.google.com/books?id=V-JlVl_dPFwC&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=Tom+Bancroft,+investor&source=bl&ots=2TOGnZRoC-&sig=PsEMt_LJL7rc5tirBydH_RDXVXc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sAwWU_CMCKeL2AXcyICoCw&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Tom%20Bancroft%2C%20investor&f=false

^Ask the Caucasus......

^I wonder if this was the business he was really referring to with the farm example. A business where he's not the expert and doesn't understand all the details, but he sees no possibility of losing. I disagree on that last count....but anyways.

On IBM...

I think the resident bears will finally get their correction. http://a.fod4.com/images/user_photos/1162079/gun_width_600x.jpg

I think this is reasonable. The missile shield has been a sore point, restarting that is a good idea I think.

What is a "cycle"? ;) Now I don't hold it against web for underperforming, but why not a mea culpa? He had been touting the metric in previous years, he should stand by it now.

Yep, he's moving goalposts now. Maybe he'll start talking about 10 yr track records! ;)

Why don't you start by looking at some of the simpler firms (non-tech) that are discussed on this message board, and come up with a long or short case for them...that way you will have some decent qualitative information in front of you.

+1

Those are some great articles by Oddballstocks.

Even after the bailout he would have had enough time to pick very cheap stocks...

To follow the line of reasoning expressed earlier in this thread, I wonder what this says about Google. They also offered 10B for this, they offered 3B for Snapchat, and they're paying 3B for Nest....Maybe they're seeing weaknesses in their business model that the market is not?

^Where has he been wrong?

^I assume it had to do with this: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/a-new-message-board/msg157953/#msg157953

As a matter of policy, is it ok with forum members to discuss ideas generated here on other forums? If you want to keep ideas private here, I definitely understand.

Perhaps TSLA at 23B is not so expensive!

Ok I need to start one of these apps.

GNCMA

I actually like the simple outlay of this website, I think the search function could be improved, but I would urge changes to be at a minimum. For threads like SHLD, perhaps somebody can write a "summary post" in the original post that summarizes the various bull and bear arguments. This is only for the very long threads though.

I have a better idea...we need to start meeting as a secret society in a smoke-filled opium den and engage in blood rituals at the full moon. This is how great investment ideas are shared. May Ben Graham guide us all...

How about GNCMA? Packer16 pretty much laid it out very clearly.

Wouldn't the Buffet Foundations be the controlling shareholders in the future?