CorpRaider

Blockchain/distributed ledger is something to keep an eye on, but probably the big guys just end up employing the technology to reduce costs. Was an interesting read, thanks. Kind of like the usual hard transition from making an undervalued investment to trying to hang on for full upside. Buffett's hold forever filter probably makes it a lot easier. I do wonder how much bigger the big guys can get, they are kind of constrained by GDP and where they will go for growth. Maybe outside U.S.? Dimon comes off as such a stud in this piece (he is). How stupid I am for not buying gobs of JPM when it was clear in/after the financial crisis they were the high ground. I wonder wow much longer Dimon hangs around? Who is his heir apparent? Staley at BCS? I kind of like him but don't really like that bidness. I like the guy at CITI but they have gone bankrupt like three times in my investing life and I can't do it.

Yeah, I'm not sure. It was a reader e-mail question. They didn't send statements or anything but were concerned about commissions that they would incur unwinding all these positions (leading me to infer they were paying $ per trade). I also saw a similar situation posted on a more personal finance focused message board. I just told them I'm not an investment advisor and to talk to vanguard or another RIA about moving their money over (and maybe a plaintiff's attorney who has handled some securities litigation/arbitrations, if they felt they were ripped off badly enough to feel like messing with it).

Look forward to reading. I haven't bought my BAC back. One reason is that I had occasion to see what a Merrill Lynch broker did to a retail account with a few hundred thousand bucks. Churned it up, really badly....like one share of this, four shares of that with probably hundreds of micro positions. Pretty highly unethical/disturbing to me. Once that person learns about vanguard and/or RIAs they are probably never again going to be in the market for any BofA product in my opinion. I also saw an advertisement from one of the banks for something they were calling a CD, which was basically a variable annuity. Not sure if that is still alive. Maybe I can go with JPM and avoid this type of retail "grifting" bidness? Much prefer a rogue trader or two.

It was good. Funny about the BRK meeting. 40K is probably a miniscule portion of the public/investors/professionals. Also, you have to back out the private office marketing people from China. hah.

Yeah, the millennials are coming. ;D

Sorry to hear that. Didn't Munger and Buffett have to offer some sworn testimony on the amount of time required to invest (maybe in their matter with the SEC)? I think Munger was quoted in some press accounts too about an SEC inquiry or some other proceeding concerning the Daily Journal Corporation (centered on his superb investments in banks during the financial crisis, which mirrors your own investments if I recall and could probably be substantiated via your brokerage statements) where the activity level of his investment operation was an issue. Perhaps you could flag those ideas for your attorney to see if she thinks they would be helpful to track down.

Just don't be so freaking long, ok? Bring back Gettlemen. He's GM of the Giants now though right? He's probably not looking around.

Beating the Market - Same as it Ever Was.

This thread reminds me of SuperMoney when the Hedge Fund guy was like "you have to bring in some kids to trade this trash."

BS tech stock questions are already rolling in 1994 and 1995. I guess they've seen that in the 70s and 90s (and maybe the 50s?) so they aren't too bothered by the questions the last couple of years.

The Tithe man. Get with it.

I think most investment dollars always got their asses whipped after fees and taxes, but it wasn't measured well. Buffett thought that too if you read his partnership letters and note his focus on the Dow as the most formidable opponent.

I watched all the highlight reels first. Yep, I noticed that too. Fits with other the videos of him around the same time, like the UF and UGA vids. They were definitely working on perfecting the act. They look so much younger, but they were already in their 70's right? I always thought the eyebrows and glasses were a neat touch. The two liters of coke on ice were also a trip. Charlie seems the same, but he has really started to open up the last few years it seems to me. Good question about books and he started to get going on Ben Franklin, but WEB kind of cut if off with a joke. He also recommended a Connie Bruck biography, about Steven Ross (time warner guy not the RE guy). I also added the Janet Lowe biography of Ben Graham to my massive backlog/wish list based on his mention in this year's meeting. I went ahead and got the kindle version of the Gibbon's, The Decline and Fall of Ancient Rome (looks like it's an abbreviated 3 volume edition), but it was only $9. I really need to try and accelerate the transition to gentleman of leisure, as the day job is really crimping my reading time. ;D Either in 1994 or in current year WEB made some interesting comments about managements generally having an interest in running a larger enterprise regardless of profitability. He sounded like a charming Icahn there for a minute. EDIT: Man 1994 was good. I listened to the second half (no video). Did a little summary post on it. Chris Davis tried to ask a couple of security specific questions and got shut down. haha. WEB talked about Keynes at the end. Gave a pretty robust answer (I've heard him kind of shut that down before). I noticed Munger didn't say a peep (and WEB didn't ask him to) when WEB was talking about Dexter shoes and how great the management was. They even talked about derivatives and reinsurance.

Suppose you're a small fund generating a lot of alpha. What happens? You attract more investor money. Because you invested your original capital the best you could, this additional money must be invested in less promising ways - i.e. the law of diminishing returns. As long as you generate alpha, you continue to attract more money which lowers your alpha. This is why big hedge funds with unlimited resources have trouble beating ETFs. Just because it's hard for them doesn't mean it should be hard for you. This said, I usually advise people to stick to ETFs except where they have specialized knowledge the market is unlikely to price in. That's kind of the big muscle movement of capitalism, isn't it? Excess returns get pushed toward the average by the allocation of capital. Should apply to industries, markets, and investment styles and/or funds. I agree with OP that the average investment dollar must underperform the index materially after taxes and costs are included.

This thing is amazing. Watched the 1994 meeting in entirety last night. Enjoyed it very much. Bill Ackman asked a wiseass question about Citi.

Yeah kind of bummed. Might replace FT with it next year if I find I'm hitting the limit a lot. Also, might pay if they stepped up the TV product.

I did a post kind of about this. I don't know what will happen, but NFLX is trading at an "untouchable" valuation and I don't really see how its better positioned than HBO and I think DIS can probably knee-cap them at will.

I had an order in for BRX, but it didn't quite fill. I'm probably going to start with BRX and KRG. In addition to my VER, that is.

Pretty sure the behavioral and finance academic research indicates that is likely to be the superior approach (less likely to pound in your conclusion and generously slather the availability and confirmation biases on your brain), but I don't feel like spending the time to look up cites. ;D

Best wishes for his family. Bloomberg article contained some interesting background, including about his wife and charitable work.

Time to "do some hedging trades." ;D

I think I will focus on compounding, deferred gratification stuff, maybe the bit about owning a slice of business.

I haven't looked at them, but I know there has been some financial distress among their tenants (I think some of them are owner-operators, right?). I would be concerned about the reliance on the single payer (medicaid) and debt trends. Also, I would expect the market to have fully discounted the fact that there are going to be lots of old boomers. Let us know if you find anything interesting.

Ahh, neat. Good for him.

You know who I liked on there? That Whopper Investments guy. I guess someone hired him as an analyst or something.