Gregmal

So the CDC greenlights no masks outside...something everyone with a brain knew a year ago...but the worst offenders, ie NY, NJ, CA still require masks. What I want to know, is who's following the science, and who needs a new campaign slogan? Because both cant be correct.

How long does an ACH take? Why do trades still take multiple days to settle? Why do banks still take in some cases DAYS! to clear a check? Ever dug into the uselessness of the margins dept at financial institution? Why do wires take hours to even days? What, now? because they've finally bothered to provide us with the "instant transfer" and charge us 1% for it shit is solved? Chosing to look at the issue like you are above is being deliberately ignorant. I'm not really a huge believer in crypto. As I detailed here, in real time, I saw a trade I thought was outrageously easy and did really well with it. Bought everything with the highest basis being about $11k and have been steadily selling little bits ever since. I still own some, but in no way do I consider this stuff buy the dip material. If you didnt already have a position before it broke $20k I think you're better off waiting til things cool down. But applying some sort of narrow minded and silly ethical application to an investment case is just locking yourself into never making money. People rooting against crypto act is if theyre making money when it goes down(they call it "crashing" but if I had to guess, BTC has crashed its way to better performance than most of its haters have mustered up)...but most I would assume arent making money shorting it...and if you arent trying to understand it, its probably best to just move on rather than wasting time rooting against it for hobby.

Anyone else looking forward to this? May touch on a lot of hot topic subjects from the past year or so. Particularly, why experts often dont know what theyre talking about.

These are all pretty great businesses, or at least to this point in time, have been. I have investors who were Arthur Andersen Consulting(current day Accenture) and man, you want to talk about a compounder, Accenture is a total beast. Totally changed their lives owning those shares pre IPO; granted being an ACN partner means you're making like $700k a year minimum...but many of those dudes ended up with 7/8/9 figure fortunes. My understanding now is that growth is declining(almost negative in many areas) and also there's some cultural stuff as the older guys dont really carry their weight anymore. BAH has always kind of been the red headed stepchild. Definitely more government focused...pretty sure this was Snowden's company. Random small cap honorable mention would be to check out CRAI. Like that business and growth trajectory a lot although I dont own any unfortunately; took my eye off it for a bit and its run up. But still seems OK-ish in terms of valuation.

Eh 50% from its highs...still puts it at about +12% for the year. Plenty of people cant even do that yet they'll dance home calling it a "crash"!

Rebought some MX. ~21.50

If you like something and are passionate about it, it will come to you on its own through curiosity and exploration. There's definitely WAYYYY more value in $300 worth of classic finance/stock market books out there, ranging from Reminisces of a Stock Operator, to Market Wizards, and everything in between. Most can be had for under $20. If you arent passionate about it, dont waste your time and money. In terms of a style of investing, well...just my opinion, but everyone needs to find their own, and then let it evolve with the market. Trying to mimic someone else will leave you chasing your tail.

Yea...dont hold your breath. Its not really a secret Gates was said to be a sex maniac and that many firms, like the prestigious NY Times, purposely buried it. I'd definitely wager its the tip of the iceberg. Dont know if we'll ever get to see the iceberg, nor do I think anything comes of it for BRK...but the world we see is rarely the world that is.

Added a few shares of CPNG after hours. Still not really a material position and I still think tech has some ways to fall, but after spending a bit of time on it, I also think this is a very promising company and a reasonable proxy for SK growth. At the least its worth keeping an eye on.

The point is that the free markets are pretty awesome and that no one should be dictating to others what they can or cant do with their money. Ultimately, Robinhood was right about GME and right about HTZ. This fundamental issue, at least how I see it, is that the establishment, and elitists, are all fine and dandy with "free markets" their way. But then when they lose control they want to change the rules. Much like a casino operator once people figured out how to count cards. They are holier than thou but its an act because you cant be OK with gambling with asterisks when the asterisks are basically just conditions that allow you to prevent others from winning. "They" thought GME was worthless and then when others thought and wanted to buy it at $100 they said "no way". They "knew" HTZ was worth 0 and say "no"....and in both cases they were massively wrong. There doesnt need to be evidence it was a good or bad investment. Was there "evidence" TDOC was a good investment at $15 half a decade ago? Or Tesla at $40? At the end of the day people should be free to spend their money how they wish. A year ago you had no shortage of people lecturing from a pulpit about how everyone else needed to be doing things and the high majority of it has turned out to either be wrong, or at best, misguided.

There were a number of threads a year ago or so on the subject of Hertz, but I figured its worth revisiting. The main subject matter discussed here on COBF was the ridiculousness of Hertz being able to issue shares to retail investors while in bankruptcy. As was symptomatic of many things going on about a year ago, there was a tremendous arrogance with "the professionals", "the experts", etc. There was also this holier than thou attitude about how "immoral" and "unethical" it was. The underlying arrogance hinged upon a beyond a shadow of a doubt conviction that said preachers "knew" Hertz was worthless and retail investors knew nothing. And now it turns out that perhaps Hertz is going to be worth as much as $8 a share. And its just another reminder of how the experts and professionals dont know any better than the Robinhoods, despite the ruthlessness with which they mock and look down upon them. Arent the markets wonderful?

Covered a bunch of my ARK shorts. Added to APTS and been picking at ALCO last few days.

Trimmed more BRKB. Exited LIT(GB).

Over past week I converted some AYR to NVR+MSGE plus paid down some margin.

Don't feel like starting a separate thread, but nice release here. https://www.alicoinc.com/news/detail/1359/alico-inc-announces-strategic-actions-to-increase So again, not the most exciting setup, but to me its a great quasi cash alternative(or free-2% carry if you've got some balls and some margin tolerance). Similar to FRP Holdings setup. You've seen the stress tested downside last year. Now there's material changes to the upside, and a proven management team. Alico has quietly taken some very positive and pro shareholder steps. The targeted ~40M annual EBITDA in a few years makes this compelling and still gives you a lot of free call options. And yea, there's started to be interest in the land. Which IMO is definitely not the best located land in FL, but FL land nonetheless and the soil they are situation on is ideal for building w/ high sand content. If, as alluded to by management, land sales start coming in(some already under contract), you could get a massive rerating here. Regardless, should see continued balance sheet improvement, cash flow ramp, and dividend increases. Just my 2C. Feel free to short it as well.

You can either have a discretionary buyback, which is subject to blackout restrictions. IE 2 weeks before EOQ-a few days after subsequent ER. Stuff like that. Or you can have a 105b type which allows consistent repurchases within the guidelines of normal trading rules, IE nothing for first 15/30 last 15/30 of daily trading.

Any way you cut it, homebuilders will be very busy, for a very long time. There is no credible bear case for something like NVR, IMO.

added to ALCO

^I actually kind of had the opposite thought yesterday. You are correct that 25% is a big deal...but its also not crazy given the pull ISS and those shops have. Theres no shortage of lazy institutional money that just blindly follow their recommendations. Its also trendy so say you're fighting for those initiatives even though theyre stupid. Separately, I was marveling at how Buffett and Berkshire have basically been cool with every administration Ive been alive for. The guy is, to quote Stuart Scott from his 90s SportsCenter days, "As cool as the other side of the pillow". They have no diversity whatsoever, they're nepotistic, they basically said "fuck ESG" in a very high class way....but its all very polished and gets the job done and I expect that to continue. They are world class operators and that seems to be the overriding theme with everything they do. Its very reassuring.

Cant complain about anything Ive read so far. Hopefully there is a minimum quarterly repurchase allocation that ramps with discretion. If BRK can buy ~5%(or lets say$20B) of its outstanding shares per year minimum, this becomes a big time winner under almost any circumstance if you have a 5-10 year horizon. , My fear would be that at a certain price, they stop altogether. Which I am sure some folks embrace, but also is ruthlessly ignorant of the fact that people have been calling the market wildly overvalued for almost the entirety of the past decade. At the end of the day, nobody knows for sure what characteristics or variables will be the true drivers, and as a result, flexibility in the approach is probably the best way to go. Hoarding cash in the current environment is more dangerous than hoarding Berkshire shares.

Maybe we're just crackheads for info. Going from the compactness of an SEC filing, to what could be compared to a kids picture book in terms of consolidated content, leaves me antsy. I agree to on being respectful about the effort that was put in. But Im sure Sanjeev also values and appreciates the input as to what people liked better.

They loved it at X and now hate it at .15X....how many times have we seen this story before? I love Kuppy but how many times do we need to see these "follow the manager" things not work out?

If you've bought a home in the past half decade why wouldn't you be looking at a cash out refi right now?

Yea the new one takes some getting used to. My only issues, and what Ive heard from a lot of others, is its harder to stay on top of new posts with the layout. I really liked the 20 or so post list of most recent postings at the bottom on the old site. If that could be implemented it would be great. This site IMO ind far more mobile friendly though. Main thing though is seeing if, and then why folks liked the old site better and then seeing if its possible to replicate those things.

I realize Sanjeev put a lot of effort into this, so its appreciated. However theres a lot of folks who have indicated preference for the old format. Curious what the numbers would say.