ScottHall

Thanks. I live in the Washington DC area, which is pretty expensive, so it is difficult to save a substantial amount of money given that I only make mid-five figures on a pre-tax basis. Fortunately, I didn't go to school and have no debt to my name, so even despite that I still manage to save about half of my post-tax income. It would be more difficult still if I had dependents, which I do not. I would like to move back out to Northern California before too long. The rent for a three bedroom house is the same in the town I'm from as it is for a one bedroom apartment here in Alexandria.

You consider a chair, desk and bed as expensive things you don't need? Yes. A desk alone can run over a hundred dollars, and beds can run quite a bit more depending on which style you buy. The floor is included in my lease, at no extra charge.

Here's my desk, which consists of two pieces of styrofoam from cooking supplies I got from Amazon. I don't own a chair, so I use a pillow as a substitute. I don't own any other furniture, either - I just sleep on the floor of my apartment. Make sure not to be a putz and start buying expensive things that you don't need. I know some people have health issues which can justify it, but I am pretty young yet, so I have no reason to. I would recommend that you all consider doing the same.

I tried to pick up the game a few years ago, and this was the sort of thing that stopped me. I played online and my partners would get pissed at me for missing basic moves. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle and nagging, so I quit playing before too long.

Thanks Futile. I decided to skip going to the Library of Congress, knowing that Pro Quest does not have them. It's a bit more a trip to go to New York, so I had to plan that one a week or two ahead of time. I'll share the reports with the board, if I can.

Berkowitz has put me back in these against my will after I sold them because I entrusted him with some of my 401(k). Very funny.

Hi everyone, Considering I live in the D.C. area, I'm going to just head over to the Library of Congress this weekend to see if there's anything there. I can apparently use LoC's subscription to ProQuest while I'm there, so I'l let you know if anything turns up.

Hi everyone, I've been looking for copies of the old Blue Chip Stamps annual reports, but they are rare and I have not found any sources online. Does anyone on the board have access to them, and if so, willing to scan them so we can read them? Best wishes, Scott

I might head out that way pretty soon. Will you please include me on the list, in case I am in the area at the time?

Don't be a jerk, you know very well what he means. Scott, it's actually an interesting point worth considering. Outside of a few hotels that have been operating in Japan for close to 1000 years most businesses don't last more than 40 years. They eventually go out of business or are merged away into something else. Granted 40 years is a long holding period, but still worth consideration. I think Rranjan put my thoughts in the most succinct way possible, so to save some time I won't go in to more detail regarding that. I will add that getting acquired or undergoing a merger does not necessarily mean bad news for shareholder returns.

Don't be a jerk, you know very well what he means.

I don't know that I'd go that far considering I haven't studied them in depth, but I agree with CONeal. I have no interest.

Speculating on the stock market probably isn't worth anyone's time. I just buy cheap stuff, and if the market goes down, well, great. I'll have a wider selection to choose from. If you're not in a stage in your life where you're adding cash to your investments, maybe it's a different story, but I welcome a 50% drop because as long as I don't get fired I'll keep adding more cash to my portfolio every month.

Hi Plan, I'm afraid not, but if you ever have the misfortune of visiting the Washington D.C. metro area, let me know. Best wishes.

I hope that they stick with it. They're more reasonable than the day trader and if they dedicate themselves to this, they can become very good investors over time.

What about that kid who posted a bearish presentation on BRK in order to bring attention to himself and get a hedge fund job? He was wrong, of course, but Doug Kass has always come off like a loser to me.

Not necessarily. A top tier MBA like this could be a "catalyst" that helps the OP realize his intrinsic value so to speak. He can learn investing w/o going to HBS, but HBS will give him a good opportunity to land a desirable job. I don't see any harm in going to HBS. I have no disagreements with anything you just said, so long as he is a careerist.

I'll be contrarian and say you shouldn't go to either. Careerists are sickening people, generally, and you should focus on your true passion. Considering that investing can be learned without a formal education, you may as well save yourself the cash. The idea that a formal education is useful is true because people believe it is true. It is, in that way, a rational astrology. Do not give in to something that doesn't make sense when you look beyond the superficial - this world needs more drop outs. That said, if you want to be a careerist, you'll be fine at either one of those schools. Scott

Uh... I'm not going to say he's a liar, but if he isn't, he was doing some really stupid stuff.

I think you guys are probably giving her a bit too much credit. As far as I'm aware, there are no large studies on the performance of U.S. based day traders, but Brad Barber at U.C. Davis has found that day traders in Taiwan do absolutely terribly. Fewer than 1% of them consistently (over a period of years) do well. If anyone knows of U.S.-based research I'd be glad to read it. My best guess is that the girl in the video won't do very well over time if she keeps doing what she's done to date. I hope that I am wrong and she does fantastically, but I don't think that'd be the smart bet.

Newsflash, how many value investors at the top of the Forbes 500 list too? Some will claim Buffett, but I'd argue he got there by building a business not pure investing. I think this sort of video is infuriating to investors on this board because most put in so much work for returns far less then her. I don't get the technical stuff, but if it really is as easy to watch squiggles and make money for some people why learn any more? It's not like knowing depreciation schedules or pension accounting is helpful in getting a significant other. Can you imagine someone saying "Once I brought up LIFO at dinner she said I was the one…" I invest this way because it makes sense to me, not because it's the best. I think there are far better and quicker ways to make money, unfortunately that's not what comes natural to me. What she is doing is not investing, and I think it's a bit presumptuous to assume the board members here aren't earning adequate returns. Even if it did work, her style is inferior because of frictional costs from trading (short term capital gains and commissions) and day trading has a proven track record of being a loser over time. Value investing - at least some forms of it - has been proven to outperform the market over time. I would suggest that this girl will not have any substantial winners so long as she keeps this style - she wouldn't have held AAPL, GGP in bankruptcy, BAC recently, AIG, etc. long enough to benefit from the lion's share of their returns. In the case of GGP, I doubt she'd even be able to analyze it properly because of a lack of understanding of corporate bankruptcy law. That being the case, she wouldn't have been able to generate the multi-hundred or thousand percent returns that at least a few people here did. I also don't think most people here find her infuriating so much as amusing, or they may - as I do - feel bad for her and the inevitable sorrow that will come from her strategy. Your comment about significant others is odd. Can you explain what you mean by that to me, or the relevance of it to the discussion? Most people who are interested in such things would probably be better off if they weren't, though that seems irrelevant to the topic in general.

If she doesn't abandon her heretical ways, she will become an unfortunate example eventually. Best wishes to her and her family.

I don't know if there's a more useless topic to talk about than religion. It doesn't really add anything to most discussions and people are mostly irrational and become easily offended when discussing it. Those discussions are probably not something this board needs to have on it.

Also zero. I didn't even own one until a few months ago.

Hi Kyle, Sure, I'm happy to call. I'll take a deeper look at the company before then. Thanks for the clarification - particularly between the EBITDA numbers. What time zone are you in? I'm based out of Virginia, personally, so I am on eastern time.