The basic tenets to value investing and margin of safety are the following: Every stock is a fractional share of an actual business. Every business or stock has an “intrinsic value.” The “intrinsic value” of a business generally changes at a much slower rate than the price of a publicly traded stock can change. Over...Read More

If one studies the history of financial markets, a consistent theme emerges. Short-term fads tend to dictate short-term performance, but long-term performance is determined by value and fundamentals. There are periods where prices flat out do not make sense, either for the market as a whole or for individual stocks and sectors. The current investment...Read More

Yesterday, Assured Guaranty reported very strong 1st quarter earnings and once again saw an increase in both operating and adjusted book value. Over the last year, the company has grown both metrics by roughly 15%, despite adding material reserves for its Puerto Rico exposures and paying a respectable 2% dividend. The stock still trades at...Read More

I spent my weekend catching up on some of the recently released annual reports of the big banks. The more I read, the less I could explain current share prices, which are down quite a bit on the year. Despite these companies growing in intrinsic value each year over the last 5 years, some of...Read More

It has been quite a bizarre 2016 thus far in the equity markets.  We’ve seen a dramatic selloff and global bear market.  Then we saw a reasonable recovery in March.  Some of the worst performing economies such as Brazil have had the best stock market returns, while many others are still deeply in the red. ...Read More

From the 1964 Buffett Partnership Limited Letter: “In looking at the table of investment company performance, the question might be asked.  ‘Yes, but aren’t those companies run more conservatively than the Partnership?”  If you asked that question of the investment company managements, they in absolute honesty, would say they were more conservative.  If you asked...Read More

In investing it is always essential to constantly reassess one’s investment thesis to ensure that the facts still remain the same as they were when the position was initiated.  At T&T Capital Management we regularly are updating our assumptions as earnings and markets developments dictate.  The major risks of the problems in Europe are primarily...Read More

Goldmans Sachs (GS) is staying aggressive by taking principal investments in the tech sector similar to a venture capital firm.  While the strategy has worked out quite nicely for Goldman lately I’m somewhat surprised to hear this due to the Basel III guidelines which reduce the attractiveness of principal investments for banks.  I would expect...Read More

This article provides interesting insight into the buoyant market for junk bonds.  Investors hungry for higher yielding investments have been willing to offer very favorable terms to companies in less than ideal financial condition.  This is actually a decent time to be investing in junk bonds as the economy is improving but has likely not...Read More

This is an interesting article as several clients are suing a couple of the custodians for not doing the proper research on fund managers in which they processed paperwork for.  While regulation is problematic more often than not it seems, stricter requirements on what is allowable for self directed IRA’s probably isn’t the worst idea....Read More