Liberty

Thanks for the reminder / recommendation on this one. Just bought it and am reading as of today. Enjoy! Let me know how you like it.

I'm reading Sapiens right now, liking it so far. Also reading "Boyd", and liking it a lot: https://www.amazon.ca/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316796883/

Thanks, that *is* better. Appreciated.

Compilation of all Howard Marks meme between 1990-2017: https://twitter.com/VenkateshJayar2/status/980026327255388161

With the caveat that "more stable" doesn't mean "stable", because nothing is 100% stable forever... MCO and SPGI, or things like aerospace parts (TDG, HEI).

Not to nitpick, but I think regulatory moat are very much so not the best moats of all, exactly because the regulations can either change, or they lead an industry to become fat and unresponsive to customer's need, creating a huge umbrella under which better competitors can come in (often assisted by new technologies that give them an edge). Regulatory moats seem more stable when they deal with B2B stuff rather than B2C.

I think you're over-thinking it. Google had basically already abandoned Google Finance years ago. It just kept running on inertia, but after a while, technical debt catches up with you... The charting engine was build on Flash, which is being pretty much deprecated all over the web and wasn't going to be tenable much longer. They decided to build a new minimal version inside the search so it's additive to the core product (even if everyone agrees the new version sucks) rather than being something on the side to keep maintaining (even if millions relied on it and it did the job). As for SeekingAlpha, seems like they're just trying to squeeze more out of the model, but there's a danger of killing the goose if they squeeze too hard, which is why they're still keeping the paywall not 100% airtight.

Do you read conference call transcripts? What is your source?

There's been some M&A speculation premium in the past year that seems to have been unwinding in phases too. I don't think Rutledge wants to sell, and I don't think Malone is going to get a check big enough (and not a bunch of stock that he doesn't want to own), so this has depressed the stock. They've also been in an investment cycle that is temporarily depressing FCF. The market is short-term enough that this probably puts pressure on the stock too, but all these investments will pay off big over time (transition to all digital will free up lots of bandwidth, improve the product, the MVNO should help reduce churn, the new "insourced" support infrastructure should help take transactions out and improve margins, etc). Also, the whole sector has been moving together (CMCSA), so there's definitely some non-co specific forces at play (interest rates do matter, but they're still very low).

Thanks Alpha23!

I'd be buying CHTR, but position already big enough...

Pinker's argument is that we should return to the ideals of the enlightenment to increase the odds that progress keeps going, not that it is unavoidable and just happens by itself, afaik.

The earnings transcripts are still available and don’t disappear behind the paywall. That is the main thing that attracted me to the website in the place. They are putting the transcripts behind the paywall as well, just not all of them all at once.

I'm now getting a "this video has been removed by the user" when trying to go to the AGM video on Youtube ???

It's great for a lot of things, and the new dashboard has the potential to be good to keep an eye on a watchlist (I know it's new and they're still adding features).

Thank you very much for the thoughtful and detailed piece, I learned a lot about Smith, and I appreciate you taking the time to write it. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I haven't been only much the past few days as my wife gave birth to our second boy :) I will check out Lindsell Train, not familiar with him. Cheers!

I lost access to the old Google Finance this week too..

UK-based investor that I wasn't familiar with until @Bluegrasscap posted this video of their AGM on twitter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbe5Qo9Hcjg Looks like an interesting guy. I'm going to read his letters later, but I'm curious if those of you who are more familiar with him can share what you know (positive/negative) and any recommended readings or things to watch/listen to about him or from him. Letter: https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/docs/default-source/analysis---annual-letters/annual-letter-to-shareholders-2017.pdf Thanks

My guess is the new system will trigger more activities: user will type in tickers and search things. . More activities mean more data can be monetarized. They are probably not making money in the old version. They basically stopped developing the old version in 2009 or something like that. If they had kept at it, they could OWN this area of financial data and no doubt could monetize it better. But also, Google doesn't have to make money on everything in its ecosystem if it makes it stickier. For example, are they making money on Gmail? Probably not much, but it certainly helps you stick to the Google ecosystem. Same could be said for Google Finance.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.ca/Tribal-Leadership-Leveraging-Thriving-Organization/dp/0061251321/ Sounds interesting, thanks.

Book coming, by the journalist who did a lot of the heavy work of uncovering this:

It's ok. Not as fast or as clean as Google Reader was. That's why I'm experimenting with Evergreen.

It's not over:

I've used Feedly for a while, there's both an app for iOS and a website. Recently I've installed Evergreen, an alpha Mac app that is fast and lightweight and free: https://ranchero.com/evergreen/