augustabound

Yeah, something most of us take for granted. The standard of living here is pretty sweet. I thank my lucky stars every day that I met my wife and that we have 2 beautiful daughters.

Unless the contrarian play is a severely depressed US housing market? :P ................no, I don't believe that either.

When I first attempted the Intelligent Investor about 10 years ago, my first thought about Zwieg was, "who the f@ck is this guy?!" Now when I read it I just skip over his commentary.

I can't vouch for it in anyway but Investopedia has a simulator. http://www.investopedia.com/simulator/

Sears Canada's secret weapon, Mike Myers. ;D http://business.financialpost.com/2014/11/07/mike-myers-pitch-for-a-flagging-retailer-sears-canada-my-brother-works-there/

On the contrary, you were patient and got it for 50% off. You don't even need to read the book. ;D

Oh I'm long gone. I left to start building custom homes, ironically the first one for an upper level exec from the Bay who retired. They were a company with no direction just trying to tread water. I didn't want to end up like the other "lifers" there who had no direction and just tried to stay under the radar and fill their days with busy work. Upper and lower level management alike.

The irony of selling the floor model (or not selling it) has to do with the markdown. I worked for HBC and selling floor models wasn't an option. The backwards rationale was, why sell a floor model for 30% discount when we can sell stock at full price. (If and when it ever appears). Not taking into account, like your experience, pissing off a customer in the process. Some staff would do it anyway and get a stern lecture in a closed door office on why they can't be proactive to please a customer. While at the same time the customer would usually put in a positive comment in the comment box or online poll. So the staff member would get lectured in the office and then the next week after the comments were tallied, get a big pat on the back for going above and beyond to help the customer. Positive customer comments usually resulted in a gift card to the staff member too. So, no mark down but we'll give you $25 or $50 because you did your job. ???

No need to be careful. The only person who noticed me was the kind lady at the cash. I'm sure if I had approached someone on the sales floor it would have scared them to death. Or worse, if I actually asked a question...............

Ok, the guilt is killing me................................ I actually bought something. :-[ And it felt goooooooooooood. The lady at the cash was about 80 and she was very pleasant. I paid cash, so no complicated hocus pocus debit machine that may give her cancer from the radiation off the futuristic electronics. I spent $37 and I don't regret it.

Same here, swap Ackman for Berkowitz.

Confession time. I went in one today. I went in for a long time. I went in and it was great. I went in and I loved it. I don't know why more people don't go to Sears. It was a Friday, so in retail that's part of the weekend but nobody was in there. It was great, I had the whole 80 000 sq ft to myself! There were no other customers to run into and no staff bothering me if they could "help" me. I just wandered through all alone in my own little world. There's even some dark corners where the lights are off and I could have had a nap. I may go again next week.

TSE is Toyko. Toronto is TSX now.

The more I thought about it I realized some of these fantasy players may very well go as in depth as we do in K's and Q's. My roomate in college was a fanatic. Sunday's he was up at 8 watching pre game shows until the 1PM games started and didn't move from his recliner until the night game was over. ~16 hours in front of the TV. I guess that could be considered research. ;D He played fantasy pools too. And yes, I had my own TV in my room.

All fantasy sports players love the game. Your friend may need to love investing to be successful. So he may be right in that he doesn't have what it takes to do it himself. Or, he may have it and need someone to show him where to start like you seem to be. Looking at sports stats is different than drilling down on a 10K. I'd say fantasy sports is like looking at ratios and the quick run down on Morningstar. But I agree there are similarities.

That one would be nice. I'd put money on him and Bryce Harper. Not because I think Harper has really done all that much (and certainly is no where near Trout), but at 22 I fully expect him to at least be around and doing well in 10 years. So far at the ripe old age of 22, Trout seems to have a good head about him. I've read articles saying Harper is arrogant to a fault. I hope it doesn't get to Trout and I hope it doesn't adversly affect Harper. The true test for Trout will be when Pujols retires or goes elsewhere. As a Blue Jay fan, I see the benefit of 2 great hitters back to back. When Encarnacion was injured, Bautista saw fewer good pitches to hit but being the hitter he is, he adjusted. I hope Trout can too. But I'm with you on Harper too. :D Edit to apologize for taking the OP's thread off track. :) Edit 2 for mixing up 2 fish that played for the same team. :P

Does Angels centrefielder Mike Trout trade on a stock exchange somewhere? 8)

If there was only a way to make money off that. ;)

Liberty's comment was benign, I don't see where anyone has called you a sexist? I'm not sure where to begin, why don't you think rape is a problem? Yeah, the rape and Ray Rice comments both. One rape is a problem, less rapes this year than last year, still a problem. Ray Rice is twice her size and could put her in the hospital. As far as her defending him, that's common of a victim. The problem seems to be you (yada), make statements like "it's been debunked". By who? "Studies have shown", which studies and by which institutions or independents? Generalities rarely win people over. I know this because I used to do it (and still do at times). This is all just your opinion, which you are entitled to of course but if you're trying to prove or disprove something, you need facts to back it up.

I think this is from Mohnish Pabrai; Excess Capital = Book Value – Fixed Assets – Goodwill – Working Capital Needed for Operations (2% of Sales)

Look out iPhone, Blackberry Passport is gunning for you! ;D I wonder why they went back to naming the phones. I figured they were going the way of all other tech companies and numbering their offering as not to have a negative connotation toward any one product like Vista. Yeah, yeah, Blackberry is still living in the past decade, hence the names and not numbers. The real problem was the Z10. Americans insisted it was called the "Zee" 10 and not the correct, "Zed" 10. :P Hence the number failure.

I take issue with this. Seinfeld is timeless. 8)

They're trying to win back Canada...Gretzky came out wearing his Canadian tuxedo (full denim) with a hockey stick, light beer, and Blackberry. What self respecting Canadian wouldn't buy the phone after that eh? Is this an American's perspective on a light beer? :P I heard him on the radio yesterday and while he's usually a pretty good speaker, he had a tough time getting through that. The Blackberry is snug and tight in his GWG jeans. http://hockeygods.com/system/gallery_images/10117/normal.jpg?1360275514

Really though, I only have a BB for work. The keyboard is great for emails but I'm getting my own phone when I move on in the new year and most likely it will be a Samsung. The new BB looks too boxy.

The beauty of the BB is it makes checking myspace a snap. One annoyance on the size of the new iPhone and Android phones is the ladies with them in their back pocket. The hot mom's at my daughters school have them that way..................the phone just gets in the way. Kraven's talking all crazy. Everybody knows the only way to check sports scores is the newspaper tomorrow morning. Unless of course it's a West coast game, then we have to wait until Saturday morning. I'm off to Sears to buy some pleated pants and maybe a digital watch that's also a calculator.