RhubarbXIV

What about it? On initial glance it looks fine to me... (That doesn't mean it's necessarily bug free though...) It's the same as your all cap column. Same for the spreadsheet.

Check your 2007 > 500m column.

I've subscribed to Bill Mitchell's newsletter for a few years. I've invested in some things that have been featured, but not necessarily because of it. Not to be snobby about idea sourcing, but to highlight that he and I tend to look at situations a similar way (so to me he seems really smart). In each issue there's always a list of upcoming and announced spins so you can do your own valuation to keep up to speed. He also does good work with spins internationally, which won't necessarily show up in SEC Form 10 searches.

I copy the links from the sec into feedly RSS aggregator. Start here: http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html

+1 Oaktree. Great place to look for some credit-informed ideas.

Bill Mitchell of Spinoff & Reorg Profiles does excellent work. Publication schedule has been a bit stretched lately. Here's to hoping he doesn't become another OID. I subscribe. It isn't cheap, but it's a good place to learn from an excellent analyst in "special situations." http://www.spinoffprofiles.com/ EDIT: I should probably also add that I met Kevin Byun of Denali Investors a few months ago for breakfast. He strikes me as a very capable analyst. He takes great pride in his work with options and non-recourse leverage in general and as such tends to hold a lot of cash. Portfolio management is really a big part of the art of investing, and he takes it very seriously. He's probably the closest to the spirit of Stock Market Genius-style investing of anyone I've met lately. If I recall correctly he worked for JG at Gotham for a while, but I could be mistaken.

It's in the discussion forum. You can view it with a guest pass. http://www.valueinvestorsclub.com/value2/Topic/TopicDetails?topicId=252

Training the Street is very popular for bringing new hires into value funds. I recommend it, as does the consensus on VIC. https://www.ttsuniversity.com/Index.aspx

I occasionally find them helpful in learning about a business I'm unfamiliar with. Sometimes weird metrics, legal analysis, or commentary can help me think about the business in a good way. And sometimes it helps for me to check my work against when I disagree. Nothing is as much fun as a report coming out that knocks down a core holding ~10% which, upon closer analysis, is severely flawed in one way or another.

Not dissimilar to the SumZero model. It seems to be designed to encourage those who would otherwise be interested in subscribing to submit write-ups. Hard to imagine anyone paying the full price for access.

I don't have a consistent DD workflow. It really depends on the business and how well I understand it. Usually, once I have an idea, I try to figure out what the heck they do. Could be "business of the company" in a 10K or a website, or a call to customer service or sales or whatever. IF (and only if) I can get a feel for the sort of business they're in, I try to get a feel for how they do it, how they measure themselves, and how they reward management. Usually start with ARs/10Ks going back a few years to get a feel for a business in transition (which is my primary interest), then presentations, check VIC/Distressed Debt/CoBaF/etc. for writeups, then conference calls of the past year or so. IF (and only if) after finishing the above I have an idea what the two or three most important factors are going to be for valuing the company 2-3 years out, I'll try to value it and test my assumptions under very punitive scanarios. I probably get a bit deeper in than most, but I really like trying to figure out what makes businesses tick. I take the 5-8 positions theme seriously, so my historical max position was ~40%, and a minimum investment is around 10%. Hey, after doing all this work, I want to get paid for it! Luckily, it's my full-time job. Last year made a total of two (almost- one was just a shift in investing in the same co's capital structure) major new investments. Probably the most important part of my DD is a two-week-or-so hemming-and-hawing period in which I pace back and forth in my office and try to talk myself out of investing. Usually it works. Has saved me a lot of pain. Also, helps me sleep better after having taken a position knowing I exhausted my arguments against it and have committed to playing the odds (whatever they may be).

Excellent work! Gosh engineers are helpful.

In my earlier post I forgot to mention: Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith Kind of blew my mind considering when it was written and how good his thought process was re: capitalism, specialization and the implicit effects of good capital stewardship. Not just another old philosophy book. Seriously, more folks need to give it a chance.

With the continuous references to "pain" and the tables showing short interest side-by-side with share price, this book more than anything probably convinced me that short selling wasn't going to be my millieu. It's still very much worth reading because the case studies are great a'la O'Glove and short selling is a great frame to use when thinking of what not to buy.

1. Genius. Both planted the seed and set the standard. 2. The New Finance- Bob Haugen. Helped me overcome my early doubts that little old me could beat the market. 3. Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. Probably the best-balanced book ever written on Buffett. 4. All Buffett's partnership letters + Berkshire letters + Fortune columns. Not a book, but these together taught me a lot about how to look at investments. Cunningham for the Cliffnotes version, but a lot is lost. 5. The Little Book That Beats The Market. More than anything helps me explain what I do for a living to the casually interested observer. Priceless for that alone.