Liberty

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/sino-forest-and-executives-charged-with-fraud-in-canada/

Well played, sir. 8)

I'm already set to the max, which is 50 topics. I wonder if there's an easy way to set it so that the max is higher (100 would be good).

To see what SpaceX really wants to do to cut down costs much further, check this out:

Being a "find a few stocks I really like and hold them for a long time" kind of investor (Claude Shannon style, if you will), I don't have that many original ideas that I consider good enough to post here. I def. want to post more ideas, but I have to find them first. One thing that I think more of us could do is update existing threads. The Investment board has so many great ideas, but some of them have fallen to page 5 despite being as attractive (or more) as the stuff on page 1. Sometimes, out of sight, out of mind..

SpaceX is amazing.

I would guess that most people on paypal use it with their credit card, no? I guess over time there could be a movement to direct account linking, but for that paypal would have to make people feel as safe as CCs which protect people from most forms of frauds right now.

Thanks for posting that link, seems interesting. Will dig deeper when I have a chance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/business/is-insider-trading-part-of-the-fabric-on-wall-street.html?_r=1

While reading this I couldn't help but remember all of those news items from 2008-2009-2010 where European leaders talked about how the U.S. model didn't work and how Europe was so superior financially, more careful and conservative, and so on.. Funny how things changed (or rather, reality just caught up with them at a different speed).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577408493723814210.html Interesting piece. If behind paywall, you might be able to access it here: https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&tbm=nws&sclient=psy-ab&q=what+chinese+consumers+want+wall+street+journal

MA & V would be my picks as well. They're essentially a small tax on global consumer spending. As stated above, the transition from cash to plastic will provide growth for years. Both companies will also be able to leverage their brands and technology towards mobile payments. This all requires very little in terms of capital. MA has taken advantage of this by regularly buying back shares. Eventually both will be able to pay out sizeable dividends. First picks that came to my mind too.

I've been playing with checklists lately to try to improve my process and I thought I would bump up this thread since I think checklists are probably still underrated. Once mine's done, I'll probably post it here. If you have one and want to share, it would be greatly appreciated.

I started a thread about a similar topic a few months ago, but I can't seem to find it using the search function. I remember some interesting answers. If you dig a bit through the archives you should be able to find it.

http://www.marketfolly.com/2012/05/notes-from-ira-sohn-conference.html

Maybe that's his watchlist and he'd just like a buying opportunity :)

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/how-ackman-won-in-the-fight-over-canadian-pacific/

Hopefully that's be a small step in the right direction for corporate governance in Canada.

Wow, I hope they release the rest and that some heads roll.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/05/15/gm-says-facebook-ads-dont-work-pulls-10-million-account/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/facebook-said-set-to-finish-taking-ipo-orders-tomorrow.html

Thanks for all the good suggestions! I've added Billion Dollar Lessons to my library queue.

(Not sure if this belongs here or in the books sub-forum, but I figured that since it wasn't just about one book, it probably belonged here) I love to read about other people's mistakes and flaws, or how some frauds were perpetrated, hopefully to try to learn something and avoid making those mistakes and falling for those frauds. I'd love to know what are some of your favourite books - or at least books that you learned something from, even if not a real favourite - about this kind of thing. Here are some of mine, in no particular order: Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb Black Swan - Nassim Taleb Too Big to Fail - Andrew Ross Sorkin Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind Confidence Game - Christine S. Richard Fooling Some of the People - David Einhorn Financial Shenanigans - Howard Schilit The Great Depression: A Diary - Benjamin Roth I've got "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" on order at the public library... So what books about these kinds of topic did you like?

I don't, I've just liked following Ackman ever since I read the book Confidence Game about his fight against MBIA.

Kind of a summary of the saga so far: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/05/11/shift-underway-for-canadas-clubby-corporate-culture-after-cp-rail-proxy-fight/ and about canada's corporate board culture: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/05/08/bill-ackman-slams-cozy-canadian-corporate-culture/