meiroy

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/casio-paying-microsoft-linux-patent-deal "Casio paying Microsoft to use Linux in new patent deal" So, the milking of the cash cows continues. What I dont get about the stock price is its stagnation over so many years. They just declared the dividend to go up by 25%, it's not that high to begin with. What could be a real catalyst?

I havent read Security Analysis but have thumbed through it. INMO which isnt worth much considering the first sentence MOS is a much easier read. Also MOS reads extremely well after 1-2 years of investing you go back and are like wow that makes perfect sense. I think the Dhando Investor is one of the better books to read regarding starting in investing. Indeed, SA was very hard to read (as was the second time reading it) , its words "wet" with humor and emotion like a dry stone in a desert, yet it does seem to contain so many hidden gems it's absolutely worth the effort. The two major ideas I got from it are: 1. MOS 2. Not to mistake qualitative for quantitative. Will look up the Dhando Investor, thanks.

My impression from the book was that these guys did a lot of investigative work and sought out experienced people to assist with their research. If I'm not mistaken at some point they actually hired a professional, paying him a nice sum of money each month. No doubt though that what they did, at least in the beginning was speculative.

Regarding Margin of Safety, it's the third book I've read after starting to learn about investing. It didn't seem to be anything special at all, the content was pretty much already included in Security Analysis. What am I missing? Regarding "you can be a stock market genius", I have the first version, is there a big difference compared to the second version, worth enough to acquire?

I second that.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-14/to-save-euro-turn-to-mutual-fund-banks-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html "The subtext of this fiscal crisis is the horrendous financial meltdown that sovereign defaults could trigger. The government bonds are held, in large part, by European banks. Many of them would be insolvent today were they marking the bonds to market. But, as the International Accounting Standards Board just confirmed, these lenders are booking this junk at much higher prices than the market will pay."

Thanks Nnejad

Could someone explain this? Thanks. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-01/wells-fargo-redeems-5-78-billion-of-securities-amid-new-rules.html Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the fourth- largest U.S. bank, said it plans to redeem $5.78 billion of securities with cash on hand after new financial rules triggered a clause allowing the lender to repay the instruments. “This action constitutes a redemption as a result of a ‘Capital Treatment Event’ under the securities’ governing instruments,” San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said today in a regulatory filing. “The company has determined that a capital treatment event occurred with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.”

*cough* he is still alive and kicking... my 100 year old grandpa would call him a young man (if you're 60 he'd call you a kid, seriously). There's one point in the interview where is asked what would happen if things won't turn around, he then goes all solemn and says it will be very bad. In two seconds, though, he catches himself and mentions the USA will overcome it as it usually does. At another segment he states that he does not predict a second dip, yet then says that it might happen if the EURO mess spills over, though he doesn't know if that will happen. Meaning that in fact a second dip can happen and that he has no way of judging the situation. Pardon me for saying this, but it seems a bit like a motivational speech. I really want to be happy listening to it but I do find the above two points somewhat concerning.

Well that sure is a convincing argument to hold BRK... if in a bear market it goes down less than the general market, sell it and buy other great opportunities.

You can also use Google alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) to receive notifications about related news for a specific company or event etc. Many times the alerts received are not instantaneous, though. AOS, you might want to have a look at the large kindle DX, it's quite easy on the eyes although not that friendly to PDFs and lacking touch feature to easily mark text. Amazon has another device coming up 4Q which looks quite promising (I'm holding off any e-reader/tablet purchase to see what they'll bring to the market).

If you want to see fast, go in preferences and enable the checkbox that says "Enable Instant for faster searching and browsing". It takes a few minutes to get used to it, but it's pretty neat and makes it hard to go back to other browsers once you get used to it. oo. will give it a try. "The Instant feature can help you search and browse faster on the web by showing search results and webpages in the browser window as you type in the address bar, even before you press Enter. If you don't see the results you want, just keep typing and the results dynamically update."

Currently I'm using Chrome, it seems to be the fastest option and integrates well with other Google services.

Dear Mr. Buffett, It has come to my attention that you are unable to get analysts to publish buy ratings for BRK. I'm sure we can work something out. PM me. Regards Mei

Bronco, Obviously brilliant timing on my part... although still holding. Lately I've noticed massive amount of women wearing all sort of types of [very] high heel shoes, like I've never seen before. Any ideas? Cheers

One day, a couple of years ago I realized I'm fat, it kinda crept up on me slowly but surely, without me noticing. After realizing this I slowly lost weight reaching a point where one might say I'm somewhat thin, or "just right". It did not involve any diet or exercising more than once or twice a week. What did the trick was the understanding (or making myself believe this) that some food should not be included in the category of food. What you eat is far more important than the time you exercise, unless you're running 30 miles a day. For example, a chocolate muffin, it sure tastes good but if you break it down to ingredients, you'd get a small pile of sugar and a small pile of fat. Unless you'd be willing to scoop these up with a teaspoon and insert into your mouth you should not eat the muffin as well. I'm not counting calories or anything just trying to have a general idea of what I'm eating. Another example is french fries, this stuff is like an "oil sponge", would you drink this oil directly? So this food is no longer in the "food category", together with all the sweetened drinks and snacks which do not have any real dietary values other than tasting good for containing fat/salt/sugar/made up stuff. I just never touch it. A child's body might handle this and remain thin, but as an adult it's just something we have to give up. There's no other option really. If you stop cold turkey eating this non-food foods, you might feel ill or unwell for awhile while your body gets used to it, but after a couple of weeks or a month you'd feel much better and with less craving. Hope this helps.

An interesting read: http://forensicaccountinghelp.com/forensicaccountantsadvice/analyst%E2%80%99s-downgrade-tanks-skechers%E2%80%99-stock-skx-should-wall-street-analysts-be-immune-from-scrutiny/

Footwear Industry Sales Report: November 2010 was posted yesterday at: http://counterkicks.com/2010/12/03/footwear-industry-sales-report-november-2010/ "The driving categories for November were Toning, with sales up nearly double, Outdoor, up more than 30%, Running up about 20% and Basketball improving about 10%. Toning, after some bumps and bruises, posted some strong numbers, as we begin to lap the surge from last year. Dollars sales improved more than 85% while unit sales grew 1.5 times. Average selling price declined about 25% to $75, as retailers reacted to the over inventoried situation, even as customer demand remained high. Sales doubled in the family channel (which provides 55% of sales). Sales grew 3.5 times at full line, as they were late to the game last year. Toning at the mall was flat. Skechers (51% share) grew by about half while Reebok (37% share) doubled. New Balance achieved 6% share in Toning and Avia 3.5% While it will take some time for the Toning inventory levels to right size, it appears consumer demand remains robust." Looks like toning is still going strong, same impression from the report for October. "SKECHERS' investor presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, December 8, 2010, at 10:05 a.m. PST." I guess it will be good news.

Thanks for the fashion tip, I'll be sure to pass it to a certain woman who wears skechers. *cough*. I wont take your offer on joining DECK, though, they seem to be overvalued.

I'm long on SKX, can't think of any real reason why they would be so low other than the institutions were disappointed with the estimates miss (it has very high institutional ownership, doesn't it?). Well, their stock problem is somewhat of a pain so I'm assuming they will be able to manage it.