jberkshire01

How did you get past the password protection when merging? I'm trying to create a master file as well, but starting with the earliest and then ending with the most recent, but a handful of them (and the most recent ones) required a password in order to merge the files.

Buffett was also on a new show (actually the revival of an old show) last night with Charlie Rose and Lara Logan: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505383_162-57373393/person-to-person-warren-buffett/?tag=storyMediaBox;postSpecialReport

If you want to go cheap and not have to spend higher $ to set up a partnership, then..... If you're going to have few than 15 accounts and not planning on marketing to the public, then I'd look into the Friends & Family option from Interactive Brokers: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=friendsFamilyAccounts If you're going to manage more than 15 accounts and/or want to market to the public, then you may have to register as an investment adviser (which requires passing the Series 65). You can get all that set up for about $3k: http://www.riainabox.com/our-fees

I have no idea, but there is a book that was recommended by Chuck Akre called "100 to 1 in the stock market" that covers this topic (although the number of used books has dried up recently and driven up the asking price): http://www.amazon.com/100-stock-market-distinguished-opportunities/dp/0070497729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323203064&sr=1-1 Basically, it covers over 360 stocks that could have been bought from 1932 (obviously plenty to pick from this year in hindsight) through 1967 where they were 100+ baggers if held to 1971, when the book was being written (so the last was a 100 bagger over a 4-year holding period). It is an interesting bit of stock market history and there are a lot of names that are long gone, but also a few more recognizable names (GEICO and Disney as examples from the 50's that were 100+ times higher in 1971). I tend to think there is a lot more unpredictability than the author often lets on, but it is a well-written, interesting book nonetheless and a good reminder that there is always something out there that is likely to be a great investment......the tough part is to find it and avoid being fooled by randomness and your own psychology along the way.

Matt took some notes at Saturday's Pabrai Annual Meeting if anyone is interested: http://www.valueinvestingworld.com/2011/09/note-from-pabrai-funds-chicago-annual.html

Video of speech: http://valueinvestingworld.blogspot.com/2011/04/video-michael-burrys-vanderbilt-speech.html

For the best fruits, see this: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/best-and-worst-fruits/ For a good discussion on the Twinkie diet, see this: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/11/twinkie-diet-for-fat-loss.html One more point from Taubes that I really enjoyed was the Munger-like inversion he uses when he says that someone doesn't get fat because he eats too much, he eats too much because he is fat. The main point being that by eating the wrong things, one can get fat, which then makes their body need to eat more to maintain the same level of activity, etc. The studies with the squirrels being fed the same foods but being given different amounts of calories was especially interesting. When it came time for hibernation, all the squirrels got just as fat, even though some were being nearly starved. The ones being fed less just became far less active than the others. The "get fat because it is time to hibernate" genes made the squirrels get fat, even if they weren't fed that much. It should also be noted that genes do play a role. Some people need to eat nearly no carbs to avoid gaining weight while others (i.e. Warren Buffett) can eat a lot and stay in good health. Muscle composition also makes it easier (or signals) for your body to burn fat instead of storing it in your fat cells.

I'm going to second Eric's recommendation about reading Taubes. Nassim Taleb actually got me interested in Taubes (via Taleb's Amazon book reviews). I decided I needed to do a value investor type work on figuring out how the body really works, stores fat, etc. I would say the idea that the way to lose weight is to burn more calories than one takes in is equivalent to the efficient market hypothesis in investing. The body is a complex system with various feedback loops and trying to simplify the formula using the first law of thermodynamics is quite misleading (as Taubes describes at length in Ch. 17 of Good Calories, Bad Calories). When people ask me for recommendations now that I've read a bunch of stuff, I now basically direct them to 2 books, both fairly short: 1) "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes; and 2) "The New Evolution Diet" by Art De Vany. Taleb also has a great 10 page essay at the end of De Vany's book. If someone wants the extremely short version of diet because they'd rather spend all of their free time reading annual reports, I direct them here: http://www.archevore.com/get-started/ If someone wants the extremely short version of finding a workout that they can do once or twice a week for 10-20 minutes because they couldn't possibly imagine spending more time away from their stack of annual reports, then I usually recommend checking out both Doug McGuff's "Big 5" workout and also De Vany's 15-8-4 hierarchy workout (can do using the same machine's as the "Big 5"). Big 5: http://www.bodybyscience.net/home.html/?page_id=2 15-8-4 - See "Ascending Threshold Sets": http://www.arthurdevany.com/categories/20091026 The entire De Vany essay above is worth reading too, although it can get a bit technical in spots. All of the above is pretty similar to the advice Ferriss gives in "The Four Hour Body" in the section where he elaborated on this essay: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/29/from-geek-to-freak-how-i-gained-34-lbs-of-muscle-in-4-weeks/

I compiled some of Buffett's writings on this topic here if you haven't seen it yet: http://tinyurl.com/y92sbzb The shortened version is that Buffett recommends businesses: - that have an ability to increase prices rather easily (even when product demand is flat and capacity is not fully utilized) without fear of significant loss of either market share or unit volume - that have an ability to accommodate large dollar volume increases in business (often produced more by inflation than by real growth) with only minor additional investment of capital - that generate cash, not consume it - that are high return businesses that still have free cash flow after working capital needs - and that are preferably run by guys who understand the above (i.e. Warren Buffett, Tom Murphy, Henry Singleton, etc.)

It is now a 100 page document. The tables at the end were a little messed up in the first file, so I shrunk them so they would fit. If you printed the 102 page version, you may want to replace the section that begins on page 86. Sorry about the inconvenience. -JK