alpha231616967560

For quantitative information, I use the Morningstar members site. It is free through many US libraries and provides 10 years of all financial data and links to all K's and Q's as well as debt listings. I don't pay too much attention to their analyst ratings (star system), but I do usually read the commentary by the analyst. For qualitative info, I use this site most 8) among a few other value-oriented sites.

This sounds like a cool bank too, but I bet they don't have as many brunches as BECU and its partners. :) USAA has hardly any branches outside of San Antonio, but what do you need a branch for? You can scan your checks to deposit, and their phone service is excellent for things like loans and credit cards. As Brian Moynihan recently pointed out in an interview, "Everybody is carrying a branch in their pocket right now with a smartphone". Also, USAA refunds up to $3 for ATM service fees (presumably as an alternative to not having a ton of branches). So when B of A charges you to take money out of your USAA account, USAA is there paying that fee.

Well thanks for the info at least. Now I can try to prevent this ever happening to me. I believe they do pay fees from margin, this really seems like a tripped bug in the system given that it was a near-zero balance or something. I mean, if you've got a margin, it is impossible to *not* pay fees from margin, and they certainly don't liquidate in those cases. If I recall correctly, they wouldn't pay fees from margin because it was a transfer in. A different policy may apply once the account is established, but they definitely liquidated 100 shares to pay for the fees.

Wow, indeed. You say you didn't have cash in the margin account, but didn't you have holdings there as well? Otherwise I don't understand why you couldn't pay the fee on margin. Also: why liquidate so much? Would''t a single share be more than sufficient? Apparently they will not pay fees from margin, and yes I asked the same question about one share. Apparently they only liquidate full lots.

I recently transferred a fair amount of BRK.B to IB and had almost zero cash in a margin account at the time of transfer. They liquidated 100 shares to cover the transfer fee. I thought that this was fairly ridiculous (seems like they could have at least pointed this out or had a system set up to alert their customers of this sort of thing), but I've been very happy with them otherwise. Their international trading fees are hard to beat.

Persistentone , you're right, I typed Morningstar but meant to type value line. Value line will sell you raw data on a cd. It is going to be somewhat pricey anywhere you look, but they do have it for retail investors. I would give them a call. The salespersons I spoke with were willing to negotiate on price to some small degree.

I would like to join this as well if you all are up to having virtual visitors. Google Hangouts is free and good quality.

I like the idea of having the raw convertible data updated daily with pricing. The only link I saw for that was to their institutional sales department. Do you know of a contact to buy raw data for a retail customer? Thanks to other poster for the dividendyieldhunter web site. That is also useful. I am a retail investor. I called Morningstar and they were more than happy to sell me raw data. They offered a few different levels of pricing. More data equals higher price.

I use the Value Line Convertibles survey for this sort of thing. They will also sell you the raw data last time I checked. Sounds like you would need that. Also, many US libraries offer the VL subscription for free. http://www.valueline.com/Products/Convertible_Products/The_Value_Line_Convertible_Survey.aspx

I happen to be reading John Train's excellent 1980 Money Masters. In it, Warren Buffett describes his 'bad investments' and includes retailing as an investment type that he avoids: "Buffett's worst investments have been in retailing (including trading stamps), a field he says he never really understood. In addition to investment losses on several retailing securities, his negotiated purchase of Hochschild Kohn, a Baltimore department store, also proved a dud. Figures and close observation are not enough: you need a special flair to understand what's going on in that field. A store can report good figures year after year and then, as Buffett learned the hard way, suddenly go bankrupt... (In checking back with him before publications found him buying another retailer: the moth returning to the flame.)"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514c5dGceQL._SL500_AA300_PIaudible,BottomRight,13,73_AA300_.jpg Super interesting book (audio version) with useful commentary from the author on why experts in the field still disagree on some of the fundamentals of when humans first inhabited various sections of the planet. I had to listen to the first chapter twice to adjust to the dense information nutrition. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MqCRUxnHL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-65,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg As worthwhile as everyone says. On deck: ====== http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41S8ATKDK7L._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA160_.jpg What an inspiring woman. Looking forward to this one. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2Bi4jFvfNL._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA160_.jpg One of my very favorite authors. Bill Bryson is hilarious and thorough in his descriptions. By far the best travel writer I've come across.

I took a bridge course with my wife about a year ago and plan to take another when the summer activity schedule lightens up. I really enjoy the game and found it a nice way to enage with people. We have had some challenges finding bridge friends our age (early 40s), but I like playing with the older bridge generation pretty well too. If there are any bridge playing value investors in Denver, give me a shout!

Congratulations, Sanjeev. Your humility and wisdom is an inspiration. The COBF message board is something truly special. Thank you.

We got some good seats to see Warren and Bill playing some friendly table tennis with Ariel Hsing at Borsheim's on Sunday! Warren is a super agile guy for 82...you can see that Bill is giving him some room here. Enjoy! http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/img/warren-bill-pingpong.jpg

I've recently been using the Morningstar tool to get a quick idea of Delta and other common measures of valuation http://quote.morningstar.com/Option/Options.aspx?sLevel=A&ticker=AIG - does anyone else use similar tools to identify mispriced options / leaps?

Thanks for sharing these. The report is really well done. My favorite sentence:

Nice thread idea! ADVC is one that I like: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/advc-advant-e-corp/msg95886/#msg95886 and AUTO is another one that I have been looking at lately and have a starter position in. Both are (in my opinion) companies with potential to develop significant moats.

I actually downloaded Antifragile from Audible.com today for free with this promo link http://www.retailmenot.com/out/2466917 - I believe that the price was only $7.50 without the promo code. Also, if you live in the US, you can get many audio books from your local library. http://library2go.lib.overdrive.com/2C66D511-FD56-4E6C-BE28-025DB8AC4709/10/438/en/Default.htm is a good place to start since it is subscribed through many libraries and the selection is decent. alpha23

George Risk actually makes not so much home alarm systems, but switches for the security industry. They're mostly highly specialized (read: moat) switches for all kinds of security applications from preventing fuel theft from 18 wheelers, pool alarms, museum lift detectors and the like. And they are super cheap right now.

IAVT, You are correct. I was thinking long-term. Your blog looks interesting. Just subscribed. Cheers, alpha23

Seems like there must be a mammoth opportunity in shorting treasuries. Has anyone found a particularly smart way to do that?

Berkowitz's basic checklist http://www.marketfolly.com/2012/03/bruce-berkowitzs-basic-checklist-for.html

I just listened to this yesterday also. I thought that the technique that they used (giving every 10th vending machine customer an empty bottle) was pretty audacious. That would obviously never fly these days, but it was an interesting way to increase prices, and an interesting comment on pricing strategy. The bottling agreement that Coke initially signed has to be one of the worst business deals in history (though they eventually overcame it). Also that so many Coke glasses came from the company's efforts to control (set a minimum for) portions was interesting. We still have lots of Coke glasses to this day. I don't even drink Coke. It helped create their legendary brand awareness. Fascinating case study in how certain omissions (i.e. luck) can create a whole lot of good stuff by accident.

No, no upgrades, but sometimes these SMF forums get overloaded and display an error. If someone sees one of these again, it would be helpful for our tech support folks to have the exact message that the forum is displaying and we can look into optimizing the forum for whatever the problem is. Thanks!

I have also been looking at this sector and came away with the idea to start a small position in Exelon, which will also benefit from higher NG prices and has maintained a strong profit stream. It is also yielding 6% presently. Any reason that you like NRG better?