Semper Augustus

[John Hjorth]

12 hours ago, dealraker said:

Don't worry about Chris as he's been buying the dollar stores for some time now in large amounts....beginning at prices double today's quotes.

 

Oops ... Ouch ... That does not exactly look like fun.

 

[Gamecock-YT]

He just needs to write 500 pages to explain why the market is wrong

[Munger_Disciple]

Just now, Gamecock-YT said:

He just needs to write 500 pages to explain why the market is wrong

 

It's weird but he only seems to write 500 page reports on BRK and not much else. 

Edited November 21 by Munger_Disciple

[John Hjorth]

2 hours ago, Gamecock-YT said:

He just needs to write 500 pages to explain why the market is wrong

 

2 hours ago, Munger_Disciple said:

 

It's weird but he only seems to write 500 page reports on BRK and not much else. 

 

He is quite silent on X by now and for a period ... burnout? ... - or perhaps already started writing intensely, so perhaps 500 pages in 2025!

[nsx5200]

I tried to read his 2023 letter to client:

 

- I find it really odd that the 2023 report spent 150 pages, but pretty much didn't explain their second biggest holding (DG) except for that it was (essentially) cheap that can be fit in less than one page.

 

I stopped digesting it around page 50, and just fed it into notebooklm.  No real insight came back from notebookLM either.  Not sure if informing his client of his investment holdings is the primary goal of the letter.

[Dynamic]

I wonder if Dollar General fits into the Win-Lose category rather than Win-Win as per Charlie Munger's filter described so well in Mohnish Pabrai's excellent University of Nebraska talk recently posted on this YouTube channel. I don't remember the source but I saw a video detailing numerous issues with single staffed stores and lack of corporate support for staff about a year ago.

 

I really appreciate Bloomstran's comprehensive knowledge of Berkshire and his interpretation of the GenRe rationale.

 

I think he has acknowledged that since he was persuaded to release the letters publicly, the Berkshire content has enhanced the name recognition of his fund. Berkshire is an major part with many constituent parts, so it does deserve more coverage than most positions, but I no longer read the whole letter slowly in detail as I did in earlier years.

[Munger_Disciple]

Bloomstran's letter is good for beginners and recent owners of BRK but I don't think his letter contains major gems or insights that are not already known to most close observers of BRK on this board or elsewhere. 

 

Even the portfolio "repositioning" effect of GenRe was well understood by many followers of BRK before Bloomstran included it in his letters.

Edited November 29 by Munger_Disciple

[Kuhndan]

I would never keep my money with an investment manager that wrote a 150 page annual letter. That’s valuable time that could be spent on investment research and shows a mind that has an inability to focus on what’s important. 

[dealraker]

Using the Berk deep dive is apparently still a successful specific subgroup asset gathering model, there have been many predecessors.  Not sure any of done particularly well using this as to performance though...but heck what does that matter says Tilson.  Fame has come and that's the goal.

 

Deep dive knowledge of fund runners and investment performance may be related but in my life I've seen little proof of it.  I've witnessed far more investment success using history, patience, persistence, and above all some degree of plain courage to look pretty stupid for a while.

 

Meanwhile today it seems to me that counting the TT, crypto, market valuations, and most revealing of all the fact that Buffett wannabe Ackman is a full believer in Brookfield's "way" (note: I do own BN and BAM)...

 

...well, let's just say what I always say:

 

"Life is great...

 

...if you can stand it!?"

 

 

 

 

[nsx5200]

On 11/29/2024 at 12:18 PM, Dynamic said:

I wonder if Dollar General fits into the Win-Lose category rather than Win-Win as per Charlie Munger's filter described so well in Mohnish Pabrai's excellent University of Nebraska talk recently posted on this YouTube channel.

Thanks for the link to the video.  I think win-win-win model is such a powerful moat because all the incentives are aligned.  I'll have to dig up a thread in the General Discussions to see if there were past efforts to identify such business.

 

But back to DG.  Looking at DG's comments in their reddit, it does seem like there are quite a bit of losers in their model.  In fact, I think their business model relies on some party losing in order for their business to do well, which in the long-run can bring about some regulatory actions to change their business model.

[Malmqky]

On 11/30/2024 at 7:53 AM, Kuhndan said:

I would never keep my money with an investment manager that wrote a 150 page annual letter. That’s valuable time that could be spent on investment research and shows a mind that has an inability to focus on what’s important. 

Writing is good for the mind and soul. Reflection, Communication, etc. Keeps you sharp too.

 

Maybe he wrote this letter in the time he would have been otherwise doing crosswords or meditating or golfing.

 

But yeah, if he took away 50 research hours to write this..not great.

[schin]

On 11/30/2024 at 8:53 AM, Kuhndan said:

I would never keep my money with an investment manager that wrote a 150 page annual letter. That’s valuable time that could be spent on investment research and shows a mind that has an inability to focus on what’s important. 

 

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” — Mark Twain

[CassiusKing1]

On 11/30/2024 at 8:53 AM, Kuhndan said:

I would never keep my money with an investment manager that wrote a 150 page annual letter. That’s valuable time that could be spent on investment research and shows a mind that has an inability to focus on what’s important.