Tag Archives: greenbackd

MBA from a Rapper; Don’t Lose; Greenbackd; Wolf of Wall Street

Eminen

An MBA from rapper, Eminen (Altucher)

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2014/01/how-to-get-an-mba-from-eminem/ An excellent psychological study of persuasion. See video.

I haven’t been posting any valuation case studies because of being so busy buying precious metals stocks (gold and silver miners). Hopefully, the time will come to just sit tight.  Let me know if there are any articles or blogs that help you become better investors so I can link to them.

Greenbackd.com (a favorite blog)

http://greenbackd.com/2013/12/04/negative-enterprise-value-portfolios-after-one-year/

http://greenbackd.com/2014/01/20/lose-as-little-money-as-possible/ See: Trying Too Hard

The Wolf of Wall Street

Has anyone seen this movie? Lessons? Easy money

Wolf of WS

Fast womenEasy women

FBI Take-downFBI takedown

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/19/the-wolf-of-wall-street-review

Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street

The video below of the real “Wolf” shows me an egotistical sociopath

http://youtu.be/G3K92uugO9o

There were many lessons in the movies: Boiler Room, Trading Places, and Margin Call. 

I haven’t seen The Wolf of Wall Street, so I wonder if there are any lessons to be gleaned from the movie or is it just a parody of debauchery?

Free Lectures on Austrian Economics; Do Value Investors Add Value? Investing Wisdom for the Young

Austrian Economics

Mises Academy at www.mises.org (click on academy tab) is offering a free lecture on microeconomics. Register and attend the free lecture by Peter Klein. You will get a flavor for the courses. I have taken several and have enjoyed the interaction. Go here: http://academy.mises.org/courses/microeconomics/

The book for the course is an excellent primer on Austrian (real world) economic thinking. I suggest you read this book, Foundations of the Market Price System by Milton Shapiro before you tackle Man, Economy and State by Rothbard or Human Action by Mises.

http://library.mises.org/books/Milton%20M%20Shapiro/Foundations%20of%20the%20Market%20Price%20System.pdf

Lecture on the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle by Dr. Roger Garrison : ttp://youtu.be/jFqtTj7TeO0

Visual Study of the Austrian Trade Cycle (“ABCT”). Read this before seeing the above lecture to gain more insights into booms and busts.Visual Explanation of the Austrian Trade Cycle By Garrison I would never invest in commodity cyclical businesses unless I understood ABCT.

The Case For Quantitative Value Investment

My favorite investing blog has a white paper on active vs. passive investing.

http://greenbackd.com/2012/06/13/simple-but-not-easy-the-case-for-quantitative-value-white-paper/

Investing Wisdom for the Ages

http://greenbackd.com/2012/06/11/how-to-best-prepare-for-a-lifetime-of-good-investing/

http://abnormalreturns.com/finance-blogger-wisdom-a-lifetime-of-good-investing/

The Secret to Losing Weight

American Prisoner Alan Gross after fours years in Castro’s Gulag

Casualties of War

Interesting Reading: Models; Valuation Metrics and more….

“To what extent can we believe the conclusions of a model that assumes away the fundamental features of reality as we understand it?”

Models:http://www.mises.org/daily/6018/Assuming-Away-Reality.

A good review of the principles of Austrian Economics and why it matters to rely on reality not models.

Excerpt: There are important advantages in being familiar with the Austrian theory. This theory helps one keep in mind fundamental principles such as the subjectivity of value and the incompleteness of information that form the basis for human action. This approach makes it easier to spot errors in one’s economic thinking. One of the common errors is treating economic models as normative standards for reality rather than loose metaphors and illustrations of the logical conclusions resulting from prior theoretical analysis. This error creates a temptation to “fix” the reality to fit the model. Often times the fix only makes things worse, because it was not the reality that needed fixing. It was, in fact, the economist’s model that did not capture the key features of reality.

Valuation Metrics:

Several excellent articles on what valuation metrics are useful. Good news for value investors–high EBITDA to Enterprise Value generates better returns than other metrics. Go here:www.greenbackd.com

Research papers on valuation metrics:TEV to EBITDA Research and enterprise-multiple-vs-tobins-q

A hedge fund discusses various investments (Berkshire, Iridium): http://www.tilsonfunds.com/T2pres-4-12.pdf. Note the bullish thesis for Iridium. I discussed MCX and Iridium here http://wp.me/p1PgpH-zt. When every satellite company has gone bankrupt or has been on government support, the burden of proof is on Mr. Tilson.

Valueprax

A reader provides a link to a good blog on learning how to invest: http://valueprax.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/notes-geoff-gannon-digest-1-a-compilation-of-ideas-on-investing-geoffgannon-ncav-netnet-valueinvesting/

Various links on investing:http://abnormalreturns.com/tuesday-links-radically-different-activities/

Should the U.S. be a Union? http://www.mises.org/daily/6029/Rethinking-the-American-Union

The establishment’s view (PBS) of what caused the financial crisis of 2008:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/money-power-wall-street/. Surprise! No mention of abnormally low interest rates or political intervention to force banks to make uneconomic loans in order to increase home ownership.

Inflation brewing: http://www.thedailybell.com/3846/The-Velocity-of-Money-Is-Coming-Along-With-Big-Price-Inflation

Does the U.S. Follow the Constitution? http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/tgif/lawless-government/

EXCERPT: Everyone pays lip service to the rule of law. Indeed I’ve never heard of anyone rejecting it as undesirable. (It has been called impossible under prevailing circumstances but that is a different point.) So why is the principle so flagrantly violated with almost no public outrage?

Take President Obama’s intervention in the Libyan civil war. Even if we grant that he could legally enter that conflict by his own unilateral decision – a big if, which we’ll explore below – the War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires him after 60 days to cease operations or ask Congress for authorization to continue. One week ago today the clock ran out on the Libyan intervention, yet Obama has neither ceased operations nor asked for authorization.

QUIZ. Good Learning Resources: Net Nets, Liquidations and Special Situations

Net/Nets, Liquidations and Special Situations

I have a large library on special situation investing and eventually all will be posted or in the value vault. However………

The near-term focus of this blog will be strategic logic and valuation, but I want  investors who are starting their journey to have access to resources for asset-based (non-franchise) investing.

You can learn how to invest just as if you were analyzing a company. Start with the balance sheet and work down from simple to complex.  Cash is a more solid asset than a tax asset, for example.

But as you read the following resources always be thinking as a business person. Ask what is the economic reality of this asset or liability.

QUIZ

Can YOU name a fixed asset on a balance sheet that really is economically the same as a current asset, almost as liquid as cash?  Conversely, can you name a situation where a current asset is less liquid than a typical fixed asset?   Hint: Marty Whitman of Third Avenue Value Fund has preached this lesson often. (see links below).

Please take no more than 20 seconds to answer the first question. Prize: A tip from Jim Cramer on CNBC. C’mon, you can’t expect to win much on such a simple quiz!

This document has several excerpts from Graham, Klarman and Whitman on liquidation values.  A good primer on liquidation analysis.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/74692616/Special-Situation-Net-Nets-and-Asset-Based-Investing-by-Ben-Graham-and-Others

If you are going to pursue asset-based investing then you need to study Marty Whitman. Read his first book (not a breezy read, though)

http://www.amazon.com/Aggressive-Conservative-Investor-Investment-Classics/dp/0471768057/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323016112&sr=1-1#reader_0471768057

And his shareholder letters: http://www.thirdavenuefunds.com/ta/shareholder-letters-mf.asp

If you are a shareholder or a student you can call his office and ask for his book of shareholder letters: 1990 to 2005.  Highly recommended.

Marty Whitman on value and corporate governance

You can learn from blogs that focus on this type of investing.

My favorites: www.greenbackd.com (excellent. If you read all his posts and analyze past investment ideas you will have a solid grounding in net/nets.)

For podcasts on investing and net/nets from a self-taught investor: www.gannononinvesting.com

Also: http://www.manualofideas.com/blog/

http://www.rationalwalk.com/?p=2472

http://can-turtles-fly.blogspot.com/

Another good overall resource:

http://www.burgundyasset.com/index.asp?Main=FAMinst&Section=Library&SubSection=View&View=normal

A reader kindly offered to share his resources here: http://motiwalacapital.com/blog/

And he suggested viewing these videos and materials: http://www.bengrahaminvesting.ca/resources/videos.htm

You are on your way………….

Lose Weight; Eat More Fat. Interesting Blogs…….

Seth Klarman, “An investor must balance arrogance and humility. When you pay 1/8th more than the market for a stock, you are arrogant in believing you know more than the market. At the same time you must have humility to admit you can always be wrong.”

Eat More Fat

If anyone can find scientific evidence against this, I am eager to learn. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-eat-more-fat/

Blogs of Interest

Interesting valuation discussion of a micro-cap from a deep value investor here: http://greenbackd.com/2011/11/30/guest-post-imation-corp-nyseimn-worth-more-sold-than-alone/

What you do not learn in college: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/11/10-things-i-didnt-learn-in-college/

A good short-seller and stock analyst http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/

Good learning resources: http://compoundingmachines.wordpress.com/ http://www.grahamanddoddsville.net/?page_id=52

http://pragcap.com/

http://www.gannononinvesting.com/

http://turnkeyanalyst.com/blog/

Let me know of others that you like…………