Travis Wiedower

This has never been my understanding of the typical value investor's viewpoint on macro stuff. I don't make any investments without at least getting comfortable with the macro environment and the dynamics of that specific industry. I think the point Buffett has tried to make is that there are many, many macro things that are simultaneously affecting any single company and it's damn near impossible to predict how all those things will come together a year or two down the road (or longer). In my opinion it's still important to understand the major macro stuff, but macro tailwinds that may or may not come to fruition shouldn't be used as an excuse to overpay for stocks.

While I can't know his actual reasons, there was a case a few years ago where a league (want to say NFL but can't remember details) looked through a player's texts related to a specific issue and some random employee in the league office leaked a bunch of texts about drugs, partying, girls, etc. So there are legitimate reasons to keep his cell private. Hell, even if he kept it on principle because the league demanding to see his private cell is bullshit I'd respect him for it.

+1, every year the NFL gets worse. This is precisely what NASCAR did years ago to lose so many fans. They started fining drivers for cussing, fighting, "rough" driving that was completely standard, etc. But that's a big part of the sport and the personalities in the sport. Take away that fun and excitement and a lot of the fans go too.

I agree with the above and think it may put off many classic investors on this board. I highly respect Damodaran and am an avid reader of his blog, but I attempted to watch some of his course videos and thought he spent way too much time on stuff that really doesn't matter.

Just how Manny is. Whether it's interviews or during fights he's never not smiling.

OUTR and LGIH

Elon Musk's keynote address introducing the PowerWall and PowerPak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVjW9XdPlhg Pretty incredible the number of things he is doing to transform the future of humanity.

Highly doubt you get many real responses, that's a pretty personal question. And yes, AUM has a huge effect on one's returns, but knowing the personal AUM of posters on here isn't going to give you any real insight into that fact. Buffett has been talking about the huge effect that AUM has on returns for decades.

It annoys me to no end that my parking garage has no method of autopay. That's the only bill I manually have to pay. (#firstworldproblems)

+1. Recently I read two separate articles about the 2015 price of oil--one predicted $20 and one predicted $120. And both had perfectly logical assumptions. Exactly why I've been working on avoiding this type of stuff altogether, no one knows.

Not Manny: "Despite earning nearly $200 million during his brilliant career, Pacquiao always hemorrhaged money. Gary Andrew Poole's 2010 biography, "Pacman," laid out how Pacquiao's contracts were split: After his manager's took their 20-percent cut, his trainer Freddie Roach took 10 percent, strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza shaved off a few more points. There were also training camp expenses, tax bills in the U.S. and the Philippines, and his boundless, ever-growing entourage, all guzzling funds. According to a 2009 New York Times article by Greg Bishop, "Team Pacquiao has perfected the art of dysfunction. The entourage consists of trainers, assistants to the trainers, advisers, assistants to the advisers, cooks, dishwashers, car washers, publicists, gofers and security." For each fight, Pacquiao also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars flying his entourage to Las Vegas, buying hundreds of tickets, covering hotel rooms, and providing spending money. In the Times article, Michael Koncz, singled out Pacquiao's Achilles' heel: "The downfall of Pacquiao, if there is one, will be his kindness and generosity. At some point, I fear that's going to catch up to him." Beyond Pacquiao's generosity, he reportedly squandered millions from gambling. That doesn't even account for his fleet of cars and extensive property holdings, including houses, condos, apartments and such an intense desire to give his money away to the poor he had to hire people simply charged with the responsibility to apologize and prevent him from throwing money at all the open hands spread out before him."

I don't know about that. I feel like most institutional investors haven't figured out the game, e.g. capitalizing stripping expenses to inflate GAAP earnings. Unless it's recently changed, I believe stripping expenses can be capitalized under IFRS but not GAAP.

Except in the extremes (2000, 2009, etc) you really don't know until it's over and can look back. Cycles look nice and pretty on historical charts but it's not that easy in the moment. I like Buffett's recent comment which was basically we're in the zone of reasonableness, beyond that he doesn't know. Of course we're in an up cycle, but it could keep going up for 5 years or today could be the peak--no one knows until it's over with (and the next cycle begins...). That probably doesn't answer your question, just some thoughts that came to mind reading your post.

Highly doubt the OP is referring to cable internet as he specifically mentions TV in the post. Anyway, I got rid of my only TV ~3-4 years ago (so obviously haven't had cable either). I occasionally watch shows through Netflix/Hulu (usually lazy nights with the girlfriend) but TV is such a time sink. Also agree that this forum is about the opposite of a random sample to this question. All of my friends have TV (some have gotten rid of cable though) and they all follow quite a few shows/sports.

Pretty much sums it up.

I really took to Mohnish Pabrai's thoughts of only investing in companies that can at least double or triple over the next 3-5 years. If I can't realistically envision a stock at least doubling over a couple year time frame it's a pass. Having this high of a hurdle forces me to be extremely picky which I love.

Yeah I did a little more research. Definitely a challenge for individuals to invest there. It seems foreign investment managers can apply to invest in India if they have >20 clients and no one client has >49% of AUM.

Not that I've placed an order but it appears I can buy RAIN through IB. Am I missing something?

What specifically are you wanting to know? I've switched brokers twice in the past ~5 years (now I'm on IB and staying put). It is a hassle (switching costs!) but worth it in the end.

+1. He's only one so it'll be a few years before he understands anything, but young investing should be mostly about getting him interested in investing, teaching him about saving, etc. Putting the money into a brand he's interested in and wants to follow (Disney could be a good one) is more important, IMO, than some stock with a higher expected value that he'll never care about.

I try to get 7-7.5 hours per night. If I get less I take a 20-30 minute cat nap in the early afternoon which I've found works wonders.

Consolidated Tomoka (CTO) owns income producing properties plus a bunch of land down in Daytona Beach, FL. They got a new CEO in 2011 who is putting effort into realizing the value of this land which explains the stock being on a tear recently.

Just bought off Amazon. Can't wait to try it!

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. I'm sure plenty on this board have read it, but it's a fascinating history of the oil industry and I highly recommend it if you haven't. I'm ~75% through it.

In recent months I had noticed myself checking prices on Interactive Brokers, Facebook on my phone, etc several times during the day and it was pissing me off. I decided every time I do something like this that isn't productive I have to donate $10 to the American Heart Association (I have congenital heart disease). It penalizes me but it also goes to a good cause. It made a HUGE difference immediately. I only sent in $10 last week :)