DooDiligence

Thanks to all! I've always been attracted to the "sister..." if I get a shot at the red dress later; awesome, but the sister is pretty hot!

Thanks a ton! Any suggestions on getting an entry level job with someone who'd sponsor me for the 7? I'd be happy to pay all my own fees, etc., but if I understand correctly, an applicant for the 7 needs a sponsor/employer? I was thinking maybe bank teller or office receptionist since I have no creds (other than a 1600/3000 ton Oceans Masters license which would be worthless in finance unless someone wanted hire me to transport a boat load of money...)

Thanks...

I know most people here are aware of the Sitestar story & for those who aren't it's an interesting study. http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/syte-sitestar/ ----- 2016 shareholders letter http://sitestarcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2015ltr.pdf ----- If a thing such as this gets done it should be for the right reasons (as Mr. Moore & Kiel have done) & not simply to do it...

My head is in exactly the same place (reading Jeff Gramm - Dear Chairman...) What market cap would be appropriate?

I 2nd that (been using it for years with my library card & am able to access it from anywhere in the world...) Fair values are to be taken with a large dose of salt & SOME of the analysts seem to just copy from the shareholders letter & MD&A and will omit facts that makes it seem like they didn't really read up on the company. I like reading the K's, Q's & Proxies first & then see how it matches up with Mstar analysis. I really like the Monthly Stock Newsletter & find Matt Coffina to be very candid in his analysis & the mistakes he's made (WEB should hire him) although I've never bought anything he's recommended, he has helped me build my watchlist.

Thanks! I just got through reading Pass the 7 reviews on Amazon (same author) & it looks good. I really want to make sure I understand the material. I investigated getting a BA & a CFP this week & holy cow, I'd be pushing 60 by the time I got the planners certification. I really enjoy finance & helping people & believe that this would be a win, win career move (my boat lost its contract with Chevron & although I'm not laid off (yet) I think it's now or never on a career change...) All I need is $25-30K a year to do just fine!

Can anyone suggest some good study guides?

Winner (so much for New Years resolutions...)

I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF. I will not engage in rancorous political debate on COBF.

Care to explain the mechanics and reasoning behind doing that ? This was the first oil boom and Calgary had little experience with the boom and bust cycle. Jobs were plentiful, adventure was everywhere, pay was good, and as in booms everywhere; people bought ‘toys’ and expensive houses – sure it would never end. Dome Petroleum was the ‘darling’; and I was a 2nd year petroleum engineer flying up and down the McKenzie Valley pipeline, teaching Cariboo to walk under elevated pipeline, & doing engineering tests on cold weather metal fatigue and heavy drop parachutes (D9 cats yanked out of a Hercules in flight, & dropped softly onto a 50m target, when the plane is going at 200km+ an hour). Then the bust struck. Petroleum Engineers with 30yrs experience couldn’t get a job, & went from king to bum in under 6 months. It lasted a long time, folks couldn’t pay their bills, and mortgage foreclosures went through the roof (often every 2nd or 3rd house on a street). Alberta’s depression era laws were still on the books, & they had the effect of making recourse loans ‘non-recourse’ under certain conditions. If you had title, you could essentially ‘quit stake’, sell your property in a public auction, and just give the banker the proceeds; if it wasn’t enough to pay off the mortgage – the banker had to take the loss. Block party auctions were common, underwater homeowners would put their property on the block, and ‘enforcers’ would ensure that nobody offered more than $1 - or competed against the selected ‘winning’ family (cant bid if you’ve been rabbit punched, & are on the ground with a boot across your throat). It was community action, and it saved a great many people from poverty. I went to university with many of the sons & daughters of these people, and many of their dads owed their companies to a successful win at poker – when it was common for roughnecks to ante up their partial well interests, so that the winner would have a better chance at building something. They were being wiped out, and there were more than a few suicides. I found it utterly amazing, & extremely odious, that Canada’s banks didn’t know their sh1t; and that this level of misery had been allowed to happen. I changed majors to finance, researched what had made it so bad, left Calgary, & swore it would never happen to me. I learnt these things are recurring, what you can do to avoid getting burnt, and how to exploit them. It turned me into a counterculture value investor, & I have been forever grateful for it. Not much different to the experiences of many of the ‘greats’. SD Sounds like a great book idea!

I use the Flipboard app on my phone. I put in my interests & the names of companies I follow & then flip through the results. Twitter is good if you follow the right people ;) I agree completely on Yahoo (Finance news & forums (now conversations) are worthless.) I've made literally thousands of posts trying to talk intelligently about companies & get shouted down by wiggle watchers & posters looking for anonymous individuals to tell them what the price of xxx will be tomorrow (most posters can price everything but value nothing.) I finally deleted my account after repeated attempts to sway people towards reason, turned into teasing a bunch of dewshy day traders (an addmitedly guilty pleasure...) (Haven't wasted any more time at Yahoo since...)

8)

New rule to curb the ability of companies to engage in earnings stripping. Before the rule, a US company which, by means of an inversion has become a subsidiary of a foreign based parent company, could issue a note or bond to the foreign parent & subsequently pay interest to the parent. The interest could then be deducted from the net income of the subsidiary. Under the new rule, the debt can be treated as equity (in certain circumstances) & as such the interest would now be classified as dividend payments & would not be tax deductible. The "in certain circumstances" part will probably mean that if a "debt instrument" is issues by a US subsidiary & they do not receive the funds from the issuance then it would be characterized as a stock transaction instead of a loan.

Frugality, temperament & courage combined with the ability to see reality. Buffet is like a Buddha (if the Gautama had money...)

Adding to Schwabs wonderful rationale for staying private; you can avoid the temptation to manage earnings & manage your business instead. I just watched "Something Ventured" by Zeitgeist films & although the historical presentation of VC is old hat to most members here, I was riveted! It seems to me that unless you have a business which needs a huge volume of capital to achieve scale (or you're trying to create a roll up) staying private & finding local or regional VC's / partners would be the best way to go.

Funny you should mention this. I'm prospecting around for a real estate venture & while looking at properties yesterday, I passed a cemetary & thought "float!" Is this truly a dieing business? (pun totally intended...)

That "just in time for delivery" model, at scale, must have had a lot of PC makers smacking themselves in the forehead...

They charge all 2-3 years in advance? Or annually? The drawback of the SAAS companies is that they are investing heavily in Customer Acquisition Costs. So the float dynamics are burdened by the customer acquisition costs. Assume you spend $1500 to acquire a 3 year contract at $500 per, billed annually in advance. Technically, the float would be $500. But in reality, net cash is -$1000. Could this be gauged similar to an underwriting profit? Probably. The dynamics are very similar to when Buffett bought Geico. The cost to acquire an auto insurance customer is much higher than the income generated in the first year. But the Lifetime Value of each new customer is much higher than the acquisition cost. So Buffett ramped up advertising, even though it hurt short-term net income and FCF. He could do this, because it was now a private company. Interestingly, Mr. Market let's a few tech companies act as if they were private (try to maximize long-term value at the expense of short-term profits). Long term value putting a squelch on short term noise (sounds like my kind of business manager...)

They charge all 2-3 years in advance? Or annually? The drawback of the SAAS companies is that they are investing heavily in Customer Acquisition Costs. So the float dynamics are burdened by the customer acquisition costs. Assume you spend $1500 to acquire a 3 year contract at $500 per, billed annually in advance. Technically, the float would be $500. But in reality, net cash is -$1000. Could this be gauged similar to an underwriting profit?

Would these items be specific to insurers? I don't see how liability risks have a big affect on software (other than litigation for interuption of business due to inoperability) & I can't see it affecting payroll processors at all (insurance could mitigate these...) Inflation is a given & predicting it is difficult. As long as the float gets deployed effectively (or returned to owners) what other risks could you outline?

Nice! I hadn't thought about software. I'm wanting to develop some investment ideas & possibly another entrepreneurial endeavor & your comments are extremely helpful...

Does the revenue have to be collected or can the float come in the form of an asset which generates returns, like inventory as in the case of jewelers? I don't think that most jewelers have "float". Most of the jewelers that I deal with are "cash on the barrel head"...of course I am dealing with 1 man or family operations and not regional or national retailers. Even so, I don't think that the big jewelers turn their inventory faster than 30 days....or whatever terms they acquire their inventory on. Further, the cost of gold & silver & platinum is a pretty small percent of the cost of the item sold...especially at places like Kay Jewelers. I've made some incredible "investments" buying women's jewelry before it got melted down. I pay a small premium to it's melt value and get to pick out what I like. One time, I got a bunch of necklaces & bracelets, a lot of which had their Kay Jewelers box. For example I bought some gold bracelets for $70-$100...Kay was selling them for $500 to $800 in their retail stores. It is mind boggling what the markup is on low end jewelry! I think an ITR of 1 +/- is about average (higher with larger stores/chains accepting lower margin.) I quit offshore in 2000 & tried my hand at wholesale (miserable failure but I learned a lot...) Thanks for your comments...

Does the revenue have to be collected or can the float come in the form of an asset which generates returns, like inventory as in the case of jewelers?

I'm interested in identifying businesses which accumulate float & industries which are conducive to attracting float (other than insurers...) For instance, I think that jewelers may be able to do this through vendors. Many vendors offer memo programs (AKA consignment) & stock balancing (buy $100K & they'll memo & issue more merchandise as you sell.) ----- Would asset managers AUM be considered float? Are T. Rowe Prices AUM floaty? ----- Are bank deposits floaty? ----- Are PBM's floaty?