cayale

Swiss Franc, Danish Krone and/or Euro

Folks, an uncle of mine lives in Switzerland, is a retail investor, and wants to find a mutual fund that adheres to value principles (good businesses, strong balance sheets, reasonable prices, etc.), with the intent of buying about 5000 francs a month and cost averaging in over a period of years. Is there a low fee way to access this? I'll research the funds for him but don't know if there are discount brokers, if there are good funds available to retail investors or if we can find something that invests with a focus on his functional currencies as opposed to USD. If Switzerland is not an option, access through Denmark would work, too. Thanks for any recommendations!

I did too, so for today I picked out some Blanche de Chambly. A nice unfiltered wheat bear made by a company outside of Montreal. Not a big fan of white beers, but this one hits the spot once in a while. La fin du monde is one of my all time favorites. I'm drinking rye Manhattans, with antica vermouth, bbq smoke and angostura bitters and luxardo cherries. And with stock prices where they are I'm drinking more than one.

"Everybody has a plan, 'til they get punched in the mouth" - Mike Tyson

I think they're really more distributor than convenience store. In part, margins need to be higher because turns are much lower than your average retailer. That said, the industry has found a way for suppliers to finance the inventory, and hence ROA is sky-high. It's impressive.

From the annals of COBF... http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2013/06/27/whitney-tilson-wisdom-on-value-artists-like-buffett-and-klarman/ From this I'd highlight the following: Forbes: You’re going to bite out of Apple? Tilson: Are asking do I own Apple stock? I do. I got back into it just before they reported earnings a few weeks ago, a little under $400 a share. Added a little more after earnings. My feeling about Apple is: I’m not sure what to think about it long term, but I think it’s likely to do well in the next six monthsor so simply because I think they’re in a new product launch. And later he talks about JC Penney..... Tilson: I actually am back in it just in the past month or so......I think the stock is a quick ride into the mid-$20s. And then again, then I’ll have to decide if I believe in the long-term turnaround or not. And then the interview ends with this: Forbes: Finally, what’s the best money advice you ever got? Tilson: I would say Warren Buffett, years and years ago (he’s repeated this many times when he meets with students) has always said, “The best way to think about investing is you’re coming out of business school or you’re coming out of college now. And you have a card, and it has 20 punches. And every time you make one investment, you have to punch that card, and that’s all you get for your whole life. Not for the month, not for the year. That’s your life. You can make 20 investments.” 20 punches, eh?? ::) We all say dumb things, but if one is going to go on the record so often, one might end up saying something like the abovementioned.

I've been told that capex on a hotel equals D&A. It merely manifests itself on about a 7 year cycle.

That is awesome. She tried to warn us...

I cancelled it. I found it to be a guilty pleasure, as the investment ideas were generally not my kind of investment ideas. The commentary was thoughtful and well-written. The history component was valuable, too. I'd pick it up again the next time I feel like indulging.

Dead on. Do what will enable you to make the right decisions at the right time. It's a little bit different for everybody, but there are examples of superiority across the value investing continuum (cigar butts to GARP).

Two types: 1. Balance sheet mistakes MWA, for instance, some banks pre-crisis 2. Business quality mistakes- buying something that was a melting ice cube, ACCO comes to mind. Paying too much for a good business has never been a problem. If a business is truly a good one, an extra turn of EBITDA or PE has not been a problem.

If I remember correctly, the telecom/tech boom was humming along and anything old industry was being sold down to obscenely low multiples in 98 and 99. I think the underperformance of many value investors was more due to their unwillingness to jump off the cliff with the lemurs than to overpaying for businesses. At least that's how I remember it. 96 and 97 may have been different. I was a REIT analyst in 97 and REITS were richly priced, but real estate opco's could be purchased for attractive prices (Hilton/Promus, Newhall Land, etc.)

No clue. But for point of reference, there is still Exxon Valdez litigation going on. That incident was I believe in 1989. There is still asbestos litigation and that has been going on for 30-40 years. I'm not saying this has anything to do with those things or even that it's similar. But litigation can sometimes go on endlessly if the parties want it too (i.e. can't reach any kind of agreement). I know this is all too late and maybe they didn't foresee the risk, but why wouldn't your agreement with the Fed (BSC) and FDIC (WaMU) specifically state that those entities were responsible for any successor liability. Huge oversight. Ha! It will next time!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1081859/ Interesting first page of the SI article. I am going to go back and finish it tonight. Thanks.

A true humanitarian... There is one sentence in the sneak peak for which I cannot dispute its prescience, "My friends all impressed upon me that I am doing something certifiably insane."