BPCAP

You’ve thought this through and find it useful. That’s fine. I’m not about telling people how they ought to be managing money. I do see PEG as unnecessary, even dangerous, in my own practice. It’s like technicals: May be some merit there, but the difficulty and ease of misuse means it better to avoid altogether. I believe in thinking of value as the present value of future cash flows, but I am not smart enough to measure this via PEG. I like obvious; I like real assets not properly measured on a balance sheet; I like great businesses selling at a discount; I like management I trust. I own Google, think it’s relatively cheap still, don’t think it’s at 36 time normalized earnings, and I have never assigned a long term growth rate to it. Don’t need to.

PEG really became a thing to justify dot-coms in the 1990s. Nonsensical. It’s like joining PE and gross margin, or price to book with inventory turns—there is no relevant analysis there. Looking at P vs E is relevant, and looking at G vs what you pay is relevant. But a ratio implying indefinite term is silly. Garbage in and out.

Who approaches real estate investing and stewardship the way Berkshire/Fairfax/Markel (BFM) approach insurance underwriting? I like the way BFM has little regard for volume but rather focus on profit and increasing net worth per share. With real estate stocks, I’ve noticed volume is everything, and there is quite the principal/agent problem. Managements care too much about increasing their square footage no matter what. (Their overhead % as a whole seems high too) Who is a good example of a more fiduciary mindset, with a focus on increasing gains on a per share basis instead of gross size? Sam Zell might be one, but I was hoping to find a particular REIT operator I’ve never noticed. Thanks

Asian malls are typically in dense cities, thus they have optionality (they are also loved for the air conditioning). Mall outlet malls are often on cheap land you have to drive far to get to.

Not sure how SKT fits as a Graham stock. Quality does matter as it affects liquidation value. I see too many outlet malls as losing value by the day. Less consumer appeal. Lower quality leases. Too much debt.

Amazon and Costco—intentional. Pharma—biz just gets harder. GE—poor choices.

Semiconductors and airlines

Costco. Huge sacrificer of short term gains for long term value.

Michael Lewis writing it is irrelevant. The whole movie is about two guys trying to approach a game/business with a rational, value oriented approach—and the establishment’s resistance to them. More finance in Moneyball than some movie with guys trading stocks and waving money around in a strip club or buying fancy cars. And The Blind Side is about the power of charity and motherly love. But I guess you’ll tell me it’s about football.

Funny, I thought that was about baseball. Serious? Just a baseball movie?

MONEYBALL

Thanks, I read it, but it doesn't answer my question.

Anyone very knowledgeable about U.S. GAAP and can help with this question: Berkshire deferred tax liabilities now $82 billion. Does that line item reflect the actual deferred tax that is (in theory) owed, or is that number the unrealized gain or something else? I can't think it's the gain amount, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks

Fun question I like asking when two companies I like happen to have the same stock price. What's it going to be?

Good call. An under-appreciated moat, although the stock sort of reflects the company's merits now. One the stocks I always hope goes on sale...

I'm putting together a due diligence request list for a purchase of an operating business. Anyone know of any resources or anything I can clone? Thanks

Add some 30 year U.S. Treasury. Just curious, does anyone here own any?

Any recommendations for good, safe brokerages through which to buy Indian stocks? Thanks

Haha. Good thing is because the yuan market is so huge, there's room in the trade for everyone. No crowding out.

1. You don't have to be in China to buy yuan. A number of banks will allow you to buy yuan--the limits of which I don't know. There seem to be some yuan related ETFs like CNY and FXCH, but I'd rather not deal with these or even short them. Buying yuan is easy, but I'm wondering how one efficiently shorts the currency or otherwise benefits when they (finally) devalue. 2. "Rolling" means buying a new contract(s) when one expires. To go back to the USO example, that ETF doesn't hold or warehouse oil. Instead, it buys a short term future or some other derivative, and when that thing expires, it has to buy a new one. Rolling contracts has risks and costs, especially when the markets know exactly what derivative your fund is buying--and when. Hope this explains things.

Does anyone have any tips on how to best short the yuan? By best, I guess I mean cheap and in a way where your only risk is that you are wrong on the yuan, rather than contract roll risk (think ETFs like USO that, years ago, didn't track oil because it allowed itself to get front run by hedgies as they rolled their underlying contracts); or liquidity risk; etc. The short would be for a retail-type account. Thanks, and appreciate the help.

Thanks for the help!

I'm interested in a few Indian ordinaries. Anyone have ideas on the best way to buy them (for a U.S. based investor)? I'm not aware of any U.S. brokers that can do the trades. U.K. account perhaps? Thanks for the help

Not seeing the registration window on the site; is it too late? Thanks