sleepydragon

are you kidding. the Chinese govt (and Russia too!) is actively supporting trump and promote him in their country's official news. Murdoch's ex-wife is a Chinese spy and have close relationship with Trump's daughter. in PA, one of the biggest financial backer behind Chinese churches who supported trump is the owner of a coal mine in Guizhou China. Why? because china want to import their coal to America and they believed Trump will increase coal usage in America.

ever since Murdoch bought WSJ, I found the articles by WSJ (marketwatch is owned by WSJ) are very biased. Definitely very pro-trump. Sometimes you will see FT and WSj have totally opposite headline on some trump-related news on the front page. I called WSJ and unsubscribed.

Same here. I had a coworker who paid off his mortgage and keep the rest of his money in cash for last few years, and was telling me he is planning to buy some bitcoins

Up 26%. Fifth year up more than 20 pct/annually now. Biggest contributors: dva, axp, bac, wfc

I am adding a bit more of TWX. Think even if deal doesn't go through, downside is limited. I also like pnc, which holds a lot of blackrock stock. It should benefit from the tax cut (large unrealized capital gain) and easier banking regulations. Also, loading up on ibonds. As much as I could (the maximum 50k :)

I am just thinking PNC may be in the similar situation. PNC has a huge holding in blackrock, I think 20 billion. The tax bill shall lower their deferred capital gain tax. Plus PNC also get benefit of lower income tax rate, future higher interest rate, and participation of the passive index market (blackrock)

globalfinancepartners: would you mind to say why? why apple? and why buy the options instead of the stock? Thanks!!

I bought a little bit of TWX in my tax free account yesterday. Given the valuation of the FOX/DIS deal, it seems TWX's downside is limited. If the deal close, the spread is almost 20% now. If the deal does not close, TWX is trading at much lower PE compared to FOX. I had to sell/take profits on my other holding (WFC) in the tax-free account to do this though :(

Omaha philanthropist Susan Buffett marries her longtime companion http://www.omaha.com/money/omaha-philanthropist-susan-buffett-marries-her-longtime-companion/article_baa41052-de30-11e7-8477-1b44ac662c6b.html (Via Omaha.com)

I am just saying 20 seems a reasonable PE (compared to S&P500's current pe)

UNP is trading at 22 pe. So I give 20 PE to the 8.5 earning, this is a $300 stock price.

Why do u say Diageo is a Berkshire holding? Diageo is an alcoholic beverage company. If I remember correctly (and I don't think I'm wrong) Buffett stated very clearly he would not own gambling, alcohol and tobacco companies. After that, it would be a big hit for his reputation if he owned diageo and he wouldn't take that risk. He did say that about casinos and tobacco, but not alcohol. He owned Guinness the beer company before.

Why do u say Diageo is a Berkshire holding? I see. Interesting.. thanks! I think you are right.. Though DEO seems been there for many years now. It's up 40% this year :o

Why do u say Diageo is a Berkshire holding?

Yeah, i heard a joke recently: earth people picked up a signal from outer space. They spent years to translate the message and finally got it. The message says: how much ft/sqrt the real estate at your planet?

You want to look for something that gains market share or can buy distressed assets or be a cannibal during a downturn. Many options here: Brookfield Asset Management Oaktree Capital Constellation Software Interactive Brokers (trading volume spikes in volatile markets) Industrial distributors (FCF increases as they reduce inventory and collect receivables) CVS - Non-cyclical cannibal trading at a cheap valuation (cannibal thesis disappears if they buy Aetna) BRK (can do distressed deals like BAC and can get better pricing for insurance) NVR CACC Liberty Complex (e.g. SIRI acquisition) - though debt can be a problem here AN/AZO Non-obvious examples were WFC (and possibly JPM) during the financial crisis. They were able to buy distressed assets, capture deposits from weaker institutions, etc But this is generally true for the stronger (and smarter) companies during a sector crash. Canadian Natural Resources did a pretty good job buying assets during the oil crash. It wasn't anti-fragile, but it managed to maintain it's value and is now leveraged to any upturn in oil prices. A few key ingredients: good capital allocators, cash (or at least low leverage), strong FCF. I like oak tree, but i hate filling for K1. Heard it's possible i would have to file state tax returns for all 50ish states( whereever the incomes are generated). And using an IRA wont always shield it. How others deal with this? Or is my understanding wrong? Thanks!

Added more DVA

Only a few bucks above current price is the rumor? Really hope GGP says no to that I just googled and found a similar story (BAM buying GGP), dated 2017 Jan. :o

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-07/brookfield-is-said-to-hold-preliminary-talks-about-ggp-takeover

Curious what gave you that impression? Son is a self made billionaire. From what I read, he seems to be a great entrepreneur/businessman, very well respected in east Asia. Can't be more different from DT (but who am I to judge). Also, he is a korean. His family was forced to change to a japanese name when he was young. He grew up being discriminated by japanese

I think it might be NYC, cause the CEO used to work at Goldman building at downtown NYC, when he was in the IT department, before he left for Seattle and started his company.

Thank you! Have you used TD? I didn't.

I am using ML and I don't like their executions. I noticed whenever I put on a trade, and do a "preview" of the order, the bid/ask price will change a lot from the moments before I click on the "preview" button. 80% of the time it's a higher bid for my buy orders. And when I submit the order, 80% the bid goes higher. It's as if the moment I "preview" the order, the market already knows my order. There were about 3 instances where I bought at the highest price during the day, for a large cap stock. Maybe I am too skeptical :) But their quote systems is definitely slower than google finance. Plus, you can't buy international stocks. And they don't give you lending fees which Fidelity do. But they do have good research. IBKR is definitely better. But you have to pay $10 minimal commission there. I used to have an account there. I don't use it anymore because the interface is too "good" - it makes me want to day trade a lot. All those futures products and cheap commissions. Very easy to over trade there.

Not SRG?

This begs the question - if you like Bridgewaters unique management style so much, why did you leave after just 3.5 years? In my book that is not a long time to spent with an employer your really like working for. One possibility: there are people who think they are good fit to Bridgewater's culture but not the other way around. ;)