Paarslaars

In that case: - DEST: - 80% - FELP: - 40% - PWE (OBE): - 50% - BTE: -50% Have not been having a good year, my best performers were NVTR and CDU, though they barely make a dent in the losses. To think I almost bought crypto's in the beginning of the year. :-\

Would have been a great call 6 months ago... ;)

The question is, what are solar ETF's investing in? Companies that will use solar cells or those that make them? Currently solar is dirt cheap because of the Chinese that have a huge stock of PV's they are dumping well below cost price. I believe the current production cost is 0.40-0.45$/W while the Chinese are dumping at 0.20-0.22$/W. This is already putting some competitors out of business (like SolarWorks).

I wonder what this poll would have given in 2007...

Indeed, Buffet has also made it clear he will not use buy-backs as a price floor in a weak market.

I was taking a 35% position :)

Depending on the country.. here investment income is only taxed for dividends, not realized gains.

Damnd thought it was post-tax. Toward about 60k post-tax, which should be a little over 100k pre-tax. well above average in my country, that would make me one of the poorest people here. :) Putting that into perspective, here are the things I don't have to pay for (or only very little) in Belgium: Car, gasoline, internet, cell-phone bill, health insurance, education, medical bills... All either paid for by goverment or employer.

I see, I've been curious about the MJ industry for a while. The industry will do well in the future for sure but it is hard to pick out the company that will end up the big winner. On topic: opened an investment account for my new born, bought some BRK for her. Will add the same amount to BRK every year until she moves out. I'm going to be so pissed if her account ends up beating mine though ^^

What do you like about Aurora vs other cannabis companies?

Agreed, LEO only really offers an advantage in latency and that is not something the market is asking for. The market revolves more about capacity, which is much cheaper for GEO than LEO. Note that in contrary to GEO satellites, LEO's lose a big part of their usefulness when they go over the poles.

Anyone have an idea what Damodaran's returns have been? I find him to be a good professor when I watch his courses but I'm wondering if he also walks the walk.

My guess would be, with the market at such heights, most people estimate they can pick up these quality stocks cheaper in the upcoming years. These are good stocks for people investing OPM in a low/medium risk fund or are living off their investments and cannot handle a lot of risk. But like flesh said, as a value investor you want a substantial discount and I don't think these stocks are offering that at the moment. I've held most on that list, currently only have BRK left. Ontopic: sold KONA and added some extra DEST on Friday. Have been adding PWE on occasions when it dropped below 1.5$, currently my third largest position.

#11 GDP per capita. So you are implying there are 10 more desirable places to be? I looked up those countries: Hong Kong, Litchenstein, Macau, Manaco?? These are not countries, they are small towns. The largest countries I found are Norway and Switzerland...... those two are the only real countries in my book. To be only beaten by Norway and Switzerland is pretty impressive, no? If it's small it's not relevant? How American of you :) I'm sure the Irish are glad to hear they are not a real country. There is a reason why I added per land area as well. If you have a large sparsely populated area, their income potential (farm land) is higher than a small densely populated area. This should be taken into account. Overal I would not ignore the small countries, I would ignore the ones with a lot of oil as a natural resource (which includes Norway). Then have a look at both GDP per capita and GDP per land area, maybe combining both.

Well who knows, with global warming Canada might become the new Florida :) I do believe social security is a much stronger reason for immigration than the weather. Why else would most Syrian immigrants insist on traveling from Greece to Germany and Britain? Immigration to the U.S. is also not that easy these days unless you win that green card lottery (small chance) or find a U.S. employer (doable but getting more difficult, especially without a nice diploma).

The human condition. Almost all humans look at themselves in the mirror each morning and think "I look good" yet that's not what everyone else thinks.. this is culture agnostic I think that is more of a male condition than a human condition :)

Wouldn't this indicate that the health of the citizenry is tied to productivity? (provided the spend is effective...) Well you would have to do an actual analysis on the correlation/causation here but I'm sure there are pro's and cons to this. Do note that in order to pay for that healthcare, most countries have a higher tax rate. ;)

Is America that rich? You're #11 based on GDP per capita. You're #66 based on GDP per land area. The U.S. is just a big country Quite a few countries that rank higher spend way more on healthcare.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". - Edmund Burke No judgement though, to each his own. I'm honestly not even sure what I would do until I am actually in those circumstances. I'd want more details to estimate life expectancy ^^

Well I believe I just bought the most expensive thing I'll ever buy, yet the value is unlimited: My first child, a baby girl! 8)

Agreed, I have no intention on retiring early but I do plan on reducing my 50h work week gradually towards a 25h work week over the next 10-20 years.

In my country (Belgium) I estimate I need about 600k to be financially independent to maintain my current (not frugal but not lavish) lifestyle while investing conservatively. This assumes a 5% return after tax (so 30k, of which 10k can be saved/reinvested) and my wife still bringing in a least 15k. This is irregardless of age. (side note: gains on stocks are not taxed here, only dividend at 30%) Once I hit retirement (at 67) my pension should be more than enough to cover any living/medical expenses, especially with the added pension fund of my employer, even if I have no savings. I do not intend to work this long full-time though...

Interesting, though I don't agree on the downside protection. That cash will likely get burned throughout the process. I see it: tails this goes to 0, heads you get a 7 bagger. So if the odds of getting heads (ha-ha) is > 1/7, you can expect to make money with these kinds of plays. I might take a nibble at it or wait a while as it will take years before we know if this is going to be a winner, it might get cheaper. :)

BRK is my longest held position, almost 5 years now, made about 100% return on that part. It was at the time a 30% position. Currently still holding (and added at 130$ in the beginning of 2016). It is now a 20% position Excluding that, I have not held a lot of stocks for very long, usually 1-2 years. I would say BAC for 3 years (2012-2015) for a 125% return. Originally also 30% of the portfolio. Did buy in the brexit dip again at 12$ and sold at 17$ in oktober. No longer holding this one.

Really only applies to those that actually do some thinking for their profession. Many manual jobs can already be replaced (to a large extent) by current technology in robotics. I work as an engineer with operators/technicians, most of them just execute work that can be fully automated if investments are made. Hell, if you write the software for it, the robotics already exist to partially replace surgeons. Self driving cars will be here soon enough to take out the taxi/uber drivers. And as we all now, most money managers can be replaced by a small script that will outperform them :)