DooDiligence

I have used this short put strategy a few times & it worked out well. I'll probably do it again in order to back into a position where I already own 1/2 to 2/3 of the equity that I want. I've also sold covered calls with success. --- Thanks as well to Gregmal for your input. --- I'm not much of a short term trader. My crystal ball is murky, at best, even after reading this, https://www.amazon.com/Long-term-front-running-template-market-speculation/dp/1973323400 I'm generally comfortable riding an issue up & down except in the case of MO where I felt they were taking the business in a bad direction. I've read a lot of analysis by people I respect which leads me to believe that MO will turn out OK but I think I'll pass on vice in the future. edit: It's just too gut wrenching.

I am in total agreement. I bought MO $52.50 Jan 2020 Calls in late July of 2018 (equity was at $58) for a premium of $8. They went up slightly after purchase & then plummeted along with the equity. If I would've just bought the equity, I would've been able to hold on for what will probably hopefully be a gain over the next few years. I also bought MO $50 Jan 2021 Calls in late Nov of 2018 (equity was at $53 BTFD) for a premium of $7.50. I have watched a similar but less drastic drop in these options & a slight recovery since. If I'm lucky the 2021 Calls will get me close to breakeven on the option debacle. I was trying to replicate my luck years before with Edwards Lifesciences Calls, where the options nearly paid for my equity. This was an expensive, but not debilitating, lesson & I believe that from now on I'll leave the long Call trading to the experts.

No deal until Trump is finished gorging on market swings.

El Camino Christmas (Netflix) was great.

Could Pilot / Flying J buy Applegreen? What are the chances that WEB starts kicking cash down to subs for acquisitions? I mean, who knows their industry best? (Including all private competitors...)

This seems like a good list for BRK to prospect. www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-100 I don't know how friendly any of these companies would be to a buyout, but the hands off / shareholder friendly philosophy of BRK seems like it would fit well with a majority employee owned business. If top management were onboard, they could sell the idea to employees. Have they ever bought similarly owned businesses? --- Waffle House isn't on this list but seems like it would be a strong business. www.eater.com/2017/5/2/15471798/waffle-house-history-menu Too bad we missed What-A-Burger. I almost never see coupons & the restaurants are always busy. Employees seem happy & I've never experienced attitude or bad food. Kind of like the Publix of fast food.

Why not reboot just like he did with the dissolution of the early Buffett partnership? Then we'd see if he really could rip it up with a smaller capital base. www.businessinsider.com/why-warren-buffet-closed-down-his-first-fund-2016-9

I really like the mental model of a good (or at least decent) business that is undergoing market dislocation of some kind as a potential compounder. Less has to go right, and multiple expansion can improve things materially. One that might fit that narrative right now is Ulta Beauty. Growing, strong economics, but concerns about everyone switching to ecommerce and missed earnings have brought the stock down quite a bit. Morningstar has a very good write up on ULTA. ULTA hasn't been this low since June of 2016 Last time I got interested in retail I visited some mall stores & got over it. Ulta only has around 10% of stores in malls.

A little FOMO cash is a good thing in the right hands. We'll see what results from glacial patience.

CVS for a 12%ish gain in a non-taxable account (chalk one up for luck?) Too much political risk (real & of the jawboning type) + a possible write down on the Aetna purchase = this could drop significantly again --- I'm holding cash for something that looks obvious. Thanks for the time spent by fellow members in helping me understand this & other businesses.

Exactly. Then the question becomes: what enables high interest rates. And the answer there is, scarcity of capital. Now, I would argue that human capital is cheap. Financial capital is cheap. Material capital is cheap. So, what will cause a contraction in capital availability? That is the question. Incineration of capital?

Morningstar's new format looked seriously f'ed up at 1st. But after the initial shock of the format change, & after browsing a few Morningstar profiles, it looks like an improvement. There are a lot more fine grained details available now. Elements of the balance sheet, cash flow & income statements can be expanded or shrunk with a click. New pop up info is available on some fields. Very few page refreshes. Still got to get used to the way some of the data is presented and it's probably better suited to large displays. --- edit: Can't select your own comps any more. You get 2 of whatever they throw up.

Shortening of telomeres? According to my Intro to Biology prof.

Does anyone besides me hate the new Morningstar online data format? It looks like a crappy financial finger painting. Add to that the fact that 1 day the "stock favs" screen shows 20ish questionable 5 star results & the next it shows 400ish questionable 5 star results.

Was it AMD? No. I still work at the company (or rather I should say, I now work there again), so I'd rather not say. Ticker does start with an A though. Followed by a D and an I. That team in Texas that was doing this no longer exists though, they didn't survive the 2000 crash. My Dad worked for AMD a long time ago & the office had a disproportionate number of impressive (yet largely unknown) musicians.

Cool stories. Thanks for sharing. I played guitar for a while, but I always was more an appreciator of music than a musician. I think my syneshtesia might make it harder for me to hear/visualize pitch the way others do (it's not so ordered for me, more a jumble of shapes and colors), and that was always a hindrance learning more advanced techniques and figuring things by ear. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Pitches are a bitch.

Guitar flipping makes it sound fun.

Was it AMD?

Here's a great forum with up to date discussions about Yamaha keys & synths. http://www.motifator.com I've been researching a keyboard upgrade for months & have settled on the MOXF8 instead of the newer MODX8. For some reason, Yamaha cut the sequencer out of the MODX & you have to use a DAW for this function. The MOXF still has an internal sequencer so there's no need to have a laptop open during performances. The sequencer allows you to specify voice changes on the keyboard at specific measures / beats. This is a really nice feature to have & you can get it for $1000 +/- new or used. Yamaha beats Roland IMO unless you want that fully weighted spongy key bed feel. Personally, I like the lighter "graded hammer action" of the Yamaha keyboards. The Yamaha key bed is in between a fully weighted & synth action. Anyone on here play? Guitar, bass, keys, other? I'd love to work up a Weird Al styled set list with rejiggered finance related lyrics, for Warren & Charlie. We could spam the crap out of Omaha until they relent & let us play at an AGM!

Nice. This is one I've just started browsing. https://www.keyboardforums.com

Naturally, such kind of exchange of information is subject to all kinds of censorship here on CoBF. Don't get any ideas! - You stay here! I don't add much to financial discussions here (surprise), but I get a ton of value from reading all you guys, so I'll be hanging around for a while, and occasionally throwing my bent, f'ed up, 2 pennies in. I'm curious about what kind of music boards Liberty visits. Are there some good theoretical & practical discussions going on about popular music of the present & past (I'd find that super helpful & would be able to contribute bigly)?

Don't suppose you were on the Hollertronix board? I've always had a slight curiosity if there's any crossover between the music boards I hung out on, and here. What kind of discussion is going on at these music boards?

Seems like just losing pocket change in the sofa.

You can put size tags on it. img width=400 or something like that. Example here is a picture with width=400: here it is with no width tag: that guy has an honest face

But isn't life a series of compromises? Take for instance (there will be a link with goats and the environment :) ), Bernard Arnault. The products offered (and potential associated returns) make us dream...But isn't there a need to reconcile instinctual desires with down-to-earth realities? Anyways, I thought you'd appreciate the following link, which you may have missed and which explores some of the subtle intricacies of the wolf in the cashmere coat's personality. https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2019/10/31/the-100-billion-man-how-bernard-arnault-stitched-together-the-worlds-third-biggest-fortune-with-louis-vuitton-dior-and-77-other-brandsand-why-hes-not-done-yet/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#7a5eff834efb "Arnault and ten LVMH brand chiefs took turns on a brightly lit stage reciting their commitments to environmental stewardship, their presentations interspersed with slickly produced videos of models strutting down catwalks and cashmere goats frolicking on the Mongolian steppes." (my bold) To keep a reasonable balance between pleasure and guilt and because of recent concerns raised on this Board which may have been hurt by videos showing models frolicking, I include here a link describing an uncomfortable environmental side effect. :) https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/exploding-demand-cashmere-wool-ruining-mongolia-s-grasslands Apparently some people have difficulty pronouncing the word "Vuitton". It sounds very bizarre at times especially in presidential mouths. Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face Stars fill my dream I'm a traveler of both time and space To be where I have been Sit with elders of the gentle race This world has seldom seen They talk of days for which they sit and wait All will be revealed Talk in song in tongues of lilting grace Sounds caress my ear There are not a word I heard could I relate Story was quite clear All I see turns to brown As the sun burns the ground And my eyes fill with sand As I scan this wasted land Try to find, try to find what I feel Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear. (the song was not even written in or about Kashmir, but the lyrics kind of fit.) --- Interesting that Arnault wanted to be a concert pianist. I watched his son play a Chopin concerto (skip to minute 3 if you want to get straight into the piano) He definitely has the articulation down, but he's all forte & mezzo forte, and lacks the nuance of a player who has world class dynamic control, like the chick in the next link. I say this as if I'd ever be able to play this piece even as well as Arnault (not.) --- edit: Before proclaiming his vision for his conglomerate, he catches himself. “In a way, I should not say that, because you may think I am pretentious,” he says. But then he lets loose: “[LVMH] is a French monument. Because it represents France all over the world. People know better the name of Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Dom Pérignon, Cheval Blanc, than anything else. Maybe they know also Napoleon? General de Gaulle? We think it’s important that this group, for the long term, is controlled by a French family.” [Jeez, pretentious much?] [And out of the entire universe, he chose Trump to do ribbon cuttings on 2 new stores?] [the king of garishness & heir apparent to the role of Louis XVI] :o [[[Really?]]]