Kraven

You do not need a mentor. Follow these 10 steps and you will ensure your place in the value investor hall of fame. 1. Be able to converse in Sanskrit. 2. Get an "I luv WEB" tattoo. 3. Develop a working knowledge of Shawshank Redemption. 4. Be a playa. 5. Be able to lip sync effectively to Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". 6. Post any thought you have on this board the second you have it. 7. Understand that one of "turnarounds never turn", "better to buy a wonderful business at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price" and "growth and value are joined at the hip" can be used as a reply 100% of the time in any investing conversation and with that you will give your opponent a KO and you can walk away (see #4 for how you should act in that situation). 8. Publicly* denounce the use of "LOL" and emoticons except in the case of an emergency. 9. Realize that concentrated positions are by far the best way to invest and share this point loudly and proudly. 10. Use the word "guru" to refer to any well known value investor. You are now ready to walk among the value gods. Hopefully this advice is not just useful for you, but for others as well. * In front of 50 or more persons.

The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

To the Board: Please post your buys and sells in a more timely manner. It would appear that not everything is being reported and what is being reported is only after some delay. We need to ensure that accuracy is maintained. Thank you for your cooperation in this very important matter.

I would have to disagree about Marks. I think his writing is incredibly sophisticated yet written in a clear, simple manner. It isn't "how to" stuff or "5 Stocks to Buy Now!", but it's about the thought process that goes into investing. Rather than explaining what I mean, I think everything can be summed up by this post on the always fantastic Oddball Stocks blog - http://www.oddballstocks.com/2014/05/the-language-of-investing.html

These articles are great. You have to love them. He really digs into the fundamentals but doesn't know the names of many of the companies or what they even do. On the other hand, sure, these articles are total fluff but he isn't hurting anyone (well, other than the people reading it who think if he can do it so can they). I am sure he's one of the most popular guys in the retirement home.

Just out of curiosity, was it that he was eating ice cream for breakfast or was it the banana split specifically? Would a bowl of Rocky Road have been better? At least it wasn't Cherry Garcia or Chunky Monkey or something. In fairness, maybe he was just coming down from the high of an all night poetry jam session with his beatnik buddies and needed to take the edge off.

Wasn't that Tootie from Facts of Life? Hmmm, maybe it was. Maybe Dee was "ooh, I'm gonna tell Mama". Well, "hey, hey, hey!"

You're not getting into value investing heaven now. I can hear Dee, the sarcastic sister from What's Happening, "Ooooo, you're in trouble!"

No, I like him. His books have some good points, but are written so poorly that I find they detract from the overall message. His books have so many issues I am not sure where to even begin. First, each book he writes essentially copies in huge blocks of text from previous books. He doesn't even bother updating the examples in many cases. The one I find amusing is that for "use of creative finance in a corporate takeover" his example is one that I'm sure many are very familiar with. None other than how Leasco Data Processing took over Reliance Insurance in 1968. Because of course there is no more recent example of creative financing. His acronyms and defined terms are truly annoying too. He uses them for everything, yet will continuously define them. He will sometimes use an acronym, then use the full term later in the same sentence and define it again. He rants against Graham & Dodd yet attributes to them things that I believe only are discussed in the 1962 edition of Security Analysis. However, at times he will reference other editions, so there seems to be some cherry picking. All complaints aside, there are some really good nuggets of information in his books, but you have to wade through the sewage to reach them.

I bring it up as KO has been a very poor investment for a large group of people, for a large period of time. KO didn't just spike up for a month or two. If you bought in 1996 to something like 2001, you have not really made that much of a return. Even Buffet made a mistake with KO, he refused to sell at or near the top. So I question your assertion that KO provides investors to make returns that will make them fabulously wealthy "forever until forever". All good points. I can't imagine how someone can tell what the future holds for KO. Soda consumption seems to have peaked, at least in more developed countries.

Is there a good compiled collection of articles about Schloss somewhere? This was the best that I found so far: http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/677842-john-huber/1765091-who-is-walter-schloss Please PM me.

Security Analysis The Intelligent Investor Various articles on Schloss I have read just about every investment book others have listed and while many others are very good and I enjoyed many of them and learned from them, these are the things that I still find influential.

What the heck is NTTAWWT? Not that there's anything wrong with that - Seinfeld.

Porn! Kraven, I don't think any of us here have any desire to see Ericopoly, Twcowfca, Indirectinvestor or Packer naked! You might want to know how BIG their net worth is, but the rest of us just aren't interested. What you do on your computer in the privacy of your own home is your business. Cheers! ;D I would like to see Packer and Sanj. naked, while singing a duet..... Guess, I'll have to wait until april 2015, patience young grasshopper, patience. NTTAWWT

These polls are essentially financial porn. For rich members they give them a sense of satisfaction and pride, perhaps something to feed the ego a bit. For more aspiring members it's like a look behind the curtain to see what goes on on the other side. It's the board equivalent of reading People magazine to see which Hollywood star has the best beach body for summer or seeing pictures of Brangelina and their troop of kids as they jet set around the world. There is nothing wrong with any of this, but it should be called what it is.

How many? These are mission critical polls around here. I mentioned in a post the other day that it was about time for a net worth poll, along with a how old are you poll and a YTD returns poll. Glad someone is listening.

Sure: http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/66cd6f19fabf8c16da3c2e5c2d4f034c/0x600.jpg http://www.8thingstodo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neuschwanstein-Castle-Germany.jpg http://mineralsciences.si.edu/_img/hope/hope.jpg Dude, you must be totally loaded! Looks like you have beaucoup bucks!

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Routines-Orgies-Philosopher-Philanthropist-Philanderer/dp/0773544720/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1401281927&sr=8-3&keywords=peter+cundill

Kraven, I think I won this contest. http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=feye&insttype=&freq=7&show=&time=3 any reward? I'll take your word for it. Your reward is you get to ask me that burning question you've always had about 80's pop culture and I will answer it. Now that's something. This is a good thread. I like to know what people are buying the second they buy it. Hey, isn't it about time for someone to post a YTD returns thread? After that, it's time for another round of polls on how rich people are and how old they are.

Thanks everyone! Really helpful! Can we change direction a little bit? I'd like to know what people are buying in the next 92 seconds.

Like a heart attack. I thought this was a good complementary thread to the what are you buying today thread. It's good to know what's going to go up really soon. I always subscribe to the Will Rogers view that if a stock isn't going to go up, don't buy it, but on the flip side if it is going to go up and soon, we should buy it.

If I want to make a lot of money by the end of the week, but preferably in the next couple of days, what should I buy? There seems to be a lot of good ideas floating around so I thought this thread could narrow it down.

This was the follow up article to "People With Terminal Illnesses Feel Less Healthy Than People Without Them".

That doesn't sound right - if I recall correctly, when he talked about the Korean basket - he was given a Korean manual by Citibank and spent a Sunday afternoon putting together a $100M basket of net/nets. Maybe I have it wrong - but I thought that was the case. Anybody else recall? You are correct. I don't recall whether it was a Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't significant time.

You are not allowed to ask these questions. In asking, you have proven yourself unworthy. In fact, I am fairly positive you are not allowed to even think them and that this activity is tracked and cataloged. How this is done or for what purposes I do not know.