jouni1

any views on what's going to happen here? seems pretty tense. obama told putin not to use force, and hours later putin asks the upper house for approval on using troops in ukraine. ukrainian sources say there's 6000 russian troops in the country already. they've taken over airports and other locations in the russia-minded crimea part of the country. most of the people there consider themselves more russian than anything else. is eastern europe turning into a battleground or can they find a peaceful solution? most of the time russia deploying troops is a bad sign. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26400035 - Putin seeks Ukraine troop deployment

well from reading the papers around here, i know finnish neste oil is one of the biggest refiners of this stuff. at least i think so. haven't been following too closely or done any analysis due to the government holding 50,1% of the stock. i think they are using other renewable oils as well these days, as they were continuously attacked by greenpeace etc.

the sitting on your hands thing sounds right. usually when you feel you have to buy, you probably shouldn't. anything you could make(or lose) on those savings in 6 months is worth much less than 6 months of watching and learning. just read up on companies/industries/investors you're interested in or know have down well. when you're (i was 8) ) just starting up and you look for the opportunity all the books told you about, you find none. then you get frustrated and do something anyway. if you can avoid this pretty common misstep and do something sensible when you first get your toes wet, you're off to a great start! good luck, and keep a large (over 50%) cash balance for the first 1-2 years. you can still get great returns!

generally developers who have a lot unsold newbuild inventory when the correction hits, have not done so well. also if shit really hits the fan, the buyers of the presold properties will back out if the cash hasn't changed hands yet. if there's debt, this is a recipe for destruction. if not, they can probably wait it out without losing too much money. i was just trying to point out that one should probably not look at book value growth when looking at these after years and years of price appreciation. being lazy, i just shove these in the too hard pile.

i'm happy to let someone else create the electricity for me. if you get some stupid tax breaks or something for tinkering with panels, then go for it. but i doubt it'll make much sense in the long run, especially if you have to pay for labor (can't do it yourself). usually when i see people thinking they can do a better job than the utilities(wind, solar etc) or cable companies(putting up own antennas) it just makes zero sense, and that time and effort would be much better spent elsewhere. edit: forgot to mention that there is one exception to this and it's geothermal energy used for heating in cold places. it makes sense on a small scale too and pays for itself in 7-8 years. it's also almost zero maintenance.

the point is that part of the book value growth is because of this possible overpricing. if the correction comes their long term results will not look so rosy. i find accounting for real estate outside the US to be really idiotic. for example in finland we just got REITs here. the first one (that went public) keeps revaluing their properties, shows this as profit and pays for a dividend by selling the (overvalued in books) apartments for an accounting loss. as long as they sell considerably less than they have, the ones that are getting their "values" bumped will more than make it look like a profitable business. meanwhile, people are going crazy over easy ways to invest in real estate, and of course dividend yields ??? i'm not sure this is the case in HK, but when i looked at some of these i read that they value the properties to market and show this as profit. didn't check up on it, as it seems to be the case in most places.

in customer products, i think brand means less with so much information available so quickly these days. just look at nokia and blackberry for example. these used to be red hot market leading brands. products that stay the same (cleaning products, sweets etc) seem to have more sustainable moats in their brands.

i don't know if it's just a way to cheat myself, but i do one with financing. something i can pay off in 2-4 years with the tax-free pay i get for using my car. i'd rather have a nice car than be all ingvar kamprady about it. makes a big difference in life quality and happiness if you drive over 5km daily. also, get the jaguar xf. bmw and mb are so passé ;D

this is great for investors right? decades of underpriced assets, just shoot and you'll hit. i have no idea whether this will happen or not, but i wouldn't mind one bit.

agreed, keep the cash. everything with REIT or mortgage in the name will get hammered. the businesses that aren't as affected will be buys at this point.

congrats on starting in value! when i first got into this game i had all the wrong ideas. spent about 4 years losing money and some of the best opportunities i will see in my entire life. i would just find out an owner/operator type company that you love. the business itself interests you and you like the management and reading their annual letters etc. then put the thousand bucks in that and read everything and go to annual meetings if possible. it's not that big a portion of your future portfolio that you should stress about it too much. buying a great business with great leadership is always better than buying a car for example. so you might not make the biggest profits but the stuff you learn from doing it cant be valued in dollars. this way when you start getting a salary and have more to invest, you have some understanding in business and investment through your own experience. just get your toes wet and when you're ready swim you'll already have an idea of what it's going to feel like. the point i'm trying to make, the best way to learn is probably not making as many investments as possible, but probably just making one and trying to get as comfortable as possible with that. once you've gotten to that point with a company, it's practically impossible to invest in companies you don't know enough about. your head just won't let you. eventually you'll start seeing companies you like, at prices you think are way too high. once every 1-2 years something seems to be priced reasonably and you possibly do something. i'm relatively new to this and still young, but this is the point i'm at in my learning curve. every value investing book told me to sit on my hands but i knew better. glad i've come to my senses. hope youll find your style (whatever it might be) quicker than i did :)

exactly! i like buying stuff this way: 1) spot a superb business you want to own 2) wait for a super investor you have respect for, or the largest owner/insider to buy in heavy 3) wait a bit and get it cheaper

my approach is the other way around. i buy to hold, not to sell. so my sells are not because of target prices, but because the underlying business has gone bad or the stock is super overvalued. i understand the gains might not be as great in my strategy as in a buy low - sell high strategy, but i find great undervalued companies so rarely, that it's hard for me to let go of them. the ideal situation for me is that over the course of the next 20 years i add 10-15 companies to my portfolio when undervalued. maybe sell a few but preferably none.

actually a lot of the people addicted on hard drugs give thanks to legal prescription meds rather than weed. at least around here.

To answer one stereotype with another: You must not like many artists (writers, actors, filmmakers, musicians, painters, etc). nor high-level sports.

where's the working class? ::) no degree here. i'm an electrician, i like to think i understand the construction business, electricity and power grids.

for me it's super important to understand the country i'm investing in, at least on some level. russia is not a place i (or anyone not russian) can properly understand. the culture and way people think are just so different from what i'm used to. so at some ridiculous P/E 1 valuation i might invest, but in the end i'd much rather do 10% per year in civilized countries than 20% in russia. the point being, russia might not be as fair to investors as americans have come to expect if shit hits the fan. this makes it uninvestable for me. -100% feels like a possible outcome. in 30-40 years i'm probably going to feel like an idiot because of this, but thats life 8)

national oilwell varco would be my pick ::) not a straight-out resource company but basically picks&shovels for oil&gas. possible catalyst for 2014 is the spin-off. i plan on holding for a few decades.

this site is used the most. when quickly looking at stocks i like to use morningstar mostly. their 10year info usually holds true. the next one is probably seekingalpha, although i feel like the quality has gone down lately. sometimes i like to look at yahoo finance also. can't really say why. the news they list under stocks and the "key statistics" page are the ones i look at. so 3 others + yahoo is my answer.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/11/14/miller-to-step-down-as-ceo-at-national-oilwell-varco/ http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/11/25/nov-names-leaders-for-new-company/ succession plans and short comments from the new ceos. found it interesting that miller will be joining the new company as executive chairman. any thoughts on the spin off? before i was thinking i'd probably sell the shares but might have to look into this a bit more.

-6,7% :( most of the year i've been holding just one stock for the long term, and they gave a warning ::) oh well, over 3 and 5 years i'm still doing fairly well. edit: everybody else is making profits so i had to calculate. over 3 years i've done 21,2% per year compounded. i figure if i keep this up for the next 20 years i might be able to retire after all.

way to go gio! my goal is to get to where you started your company and move down there! after that i'll focus on eating well and enjoying life. i won't quit trying to compound capital of course :D just trying to get rid of my day job, not hobbies ;D back on topic: if the boss you speak of is the one you would like to work for in equities too, maybe doing as he wishes truly does put you in front of the other competitors when more enticing jobs come around in the firm. i have found that volunteering for the shitty jobs makes me first choice for the better ones also.

i'm three years older than you and work in a completely different industry. you didn't mention which pays more, i'm guessing the new fund job? a few years ago i had to choose between a much higher salary and a "nicer" job. i chose more money. i will always choose earlier retirement over a fun career. it would be nice to like your job but if you have to do 2 times as much to make the same money, it just doesn't make sense to me. this doesn't mean you should. just thought i'd share the way i look at career choices. it's happiness vs. early retirement. if you don't have to make this choice you should choose the job that makes you happier and gets you closer to what you ultimately want to do.

45% konecranes (finnish crane company - KCR1V in helsinki) 37% NOV 18% CHRW in total 150% in stocks. should be back under 100% in a few months i hope due to money coming in (if i don't get any ideas).

allan mecham of arlington value. what little i've read about him and seen on the 13F's, he seems to be smart and doing the right things. still young at 30-something i believe. his fund is closed but the portfolio wouldn't be too hard to copy. i look forward to any new buys from him more than brk ones these days. and richard handler of leucadia? i'd be willing to bet that at least one of them is going to beat the market by a nice margin for the next 30 years.