Jurgis

The essay has some nice aspirational goals. Couple thoughts though: Maybe I should talk to Peter about what he meant, but IMO this is quite bad way to approach relationships with people. Nobody in the world is a saint who is all the time. So if your attitude is to probe and probe and probe, you will hit a bad day or bad spot or whatever and become upset and disillusioned with the person. Instead, if you see that a person embodies a lot of qualities you are looking for, then you should accept that sometimes they won't. And ideally you'll be able to be with them at these times and perhaps help them to become a better person. And not just abandon them and go looking for some ideal that does not exist. Just be aware that (commonly?) a lot of people are already hanging onto the givers. Can you support the giver? Another note is that the taker/matcher/giver categorization is incredibly simplified. There are people who are great givers within certain area of their life but not in other(s). There are people who are givers for some people but are indiferent-sers for others. And there's the perception issue too: what someone regards as giving another person may regard as nothing (I find the whole taker/matcher/giver categorization extremely limiting 8)) Peace.

On the other hand, the wages and costs in China have been rising for some time and some companies have already moved or planned to move some production to cheaper countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, etc. So some of moves will accelerate, but also some of moves are not trivial. Depends on whether you're talking about zippers or steel or iPhones. ;) Also unlike previous moves based on cost, there are few places of the size that can replace all China production. This is not insurmountable, but would need planning, cost analysis, etc. Another two factors: some things are fungible and China production will just go to other consumers rather than US; some products are multipart and possibly the answer is to make parts in China assemble in ??? and then ship to US. TL;DR: Situation is complex, some things will move or have moved, some things won't. That's why companies presumably have good sourcing depts. ;)

Not to hijack the thread: if Chinese currency drops comparatively to tariffs, why would anyone move manufacturing? The price remains the same.

The call that he was talking about is so deep in the money that it wasn't selling at a premium. Ah. Thanks.

I suspect the call buyer would exercise the call immediately, so you wouldn't get the chance to lend your stock. This is indeed what happened. Looks like my shares were called. For general education purpose can someone explain to me: why would someone buy a call at premium and then immediately exercise it? Why didn't they buy stock which would have yielded the same result without paying call premium?

Not sure if this was intentional, but it was funny. ;D

Joel Greenblatt "The Little Book that Beats the Market"

Sonja Lyubomirsky "The Science and Practice of Happiness Across the Lifespan" She published couple of books too, so maybe I should put this into books section. But I have not read the books, so this thread might be a good fit. 8)

I subscribe to Barron's using miles. The drawback is I don't get online edition and they are starting to put more stuff online. There was a public library that had Barron's print edition online for library members. It does not have it anymore, so that loophole closed. I think I'm in black on ideas from Barron's although there has been a pretty negative sentiment towards it on CoBF in the past. "Barron's is contrary indicator" or so. Edit: here: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/barron's-magazine/msg250715/#msg250715

FYI, It's probably more efficient to buy tencent through naspers. Depends on the likelihood the South African government expropriates a big chunk of Naspers' value. Is that a real (big?) risk? References?

I took my wife to a skating rink with a half-off coupon. She called me a cheap skate. ;D ;) 8)

CoBF? ;D 8)

Sell BRK and FFH now! ;D 8)

In short you are tired of CoBF. 8) ;D

Is CUERVO.MX really $102B market cap? https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/cuervo?countrycode=mx I somehow thought it was smaller when we talked about it.

http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/another-interesting-gambling-story/msg332926/#msg332926

Great book.

Amazon link: http://a.co/d/8pLCUhL Haven't read the book, but read the excerpt/adapted piece here: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/valley-of-genius-excerpt-google Likely mostly infoporn, but somewhat interesting in drawing the progression of Google from "Don't be evil" startup to corporate juggernaut. And some interesting tidbits.

Overall, I am surprised that people post about small names at all. Posting nanocap on any somewhat widely followed blog and definitely on CoBF will lead to price spike, which is bad for author if author is buying and is somewhat pump-and-dump if author uses the spike to sell. OTOH most of these names are not forever holds, so expecting the author not to sell on the spike is rather silly too. IMO, people should not post about stocks that are less than XX market cap and YY daily volume at all. But of course it's their choice and sometime I benefit from it, so KEEP POSTING. ;D

I wonder if this means that post-Buffett BRK future looks more like Softbank or Liberty. 8)

Some of the biases might be interesting to discover, but the tests are very annoying especially when you continue taking them. And some biases are not really implicit... i.e. I know I have them. Which makes the test even more annoying. 8) I did two tests, closed third without finishing. I'd be interested to do more if tests were more fun...

Or you could just ask what I buy and short the companies making the products. Some people have highly idiosyncratic tastes and anecdotes don't mean crap. In a lot of cases CoBF population is highly non-representative too. I've had numerous products that I like discontinued, restaurants closed, companies not doing well. In case someone takes the first sentence seriously, it's not 100% sure call YMMV.

You change tires for the winter? :o Yeah, I know my relatives do this in Lithuania where it is required. I think you're the first person I've heard to do this in US. I live in W. Canada, where this is pretty much a requirement for anyone who drives in the winter. I would have thought lots of places in the US would be similar (Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, Vermont, etc). I haven't lived in any of the states above. It's not a requirement in MA (or NH AFAIK). Personally I don't drive if there's snow and it hasn't been cleaned from the roads/streets. It seems that in Europe (even rich(er) countries like Finland) they don't clean the roads as much as in US. In MA next day after snow it's all clean asphalt pretty much even on minor streets (Boston area, might be different in western MA, I don't know). In Helsinki, for example, you have snow and slush on the streets even if it hasn't snowed for a while (?). So I don't use winter tires although I agree that they would be needed if you had to drive during snow (e.g. have to get to work even on snow days, etc.). Studded tires are allowed/banned per state, so check state laws. More discussion: https://community.cartalk.com/t/do-i-need-studded-snow-tires-in-ma/82516/21

You change tires for the winter? :o Yeah, I know my relatives do this in Lithuania where it is required. I think you're the first person I've heard to do this in US.

Being cheapskate value investor I just drank a glass of tap water instead. 8) I am sure I or someone paid for it with our taxes.