Many people ask me why we don’t just buy stocks when we find an undervalued business, as opposed to some combination of buying stock and selling cash-secured puts, among other strategies.  If a stock is more than 50% undervalued, we will usually primarily buy the stock outright.  If the discount isn’t as great, selling puts...Read More

This is a fabulous documentary on SAC Capital and the SEC’s pursuit of Stevie Cohen on insider trading.  Cohen’s returns based on what was often short-term trading are virtually impossible to understand, unless there was inside information involved.  It is a lot different looking at someone like Warren Buffett that holds on to businesses for...Read More

2013 was a banner year for equities and optimism seems to be quite pervasive following that.  I regularly speak with market participants that are expecting 10%+ annual returns over the next decade and I believe that the likelihood that they will achieve that is quite slim.  Warren Buffett has mentioned that the ratio of Total...Read More

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A) made an interesting move today, offering to exchange stock in Phillips 66 (PSX) for a pipeline-services business.  PSX stock has been a real winner since being spun-out of Conoco Phillips.  This deal for PSX is a way to unveil additional value in its various operations, which it doesn’t view as...Read More

Below is a really fascinating article about the path that both Todd Combs and Ted Weschler took to become the investment lieutenants to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.  Both men have done a stellar job thus far and seem to have the intangible characteristics to really fit into the Berkshire culture.  It is very much like...Read More

Below is a fantastic interview of the former head of Capital Cities Tom Murphy from the year 2000.  Murphy was a tremendous businessman that grew Capital Cities from an extremely small base to eventually buy ABC, with the help of his good friend Warren Buffett.  Eventually, Murphy sold Capital Cities to Disney, which has obviously...Read More

This is a bit older video, but still relevant due to the monetary policy concerns, which still leads speculators towards gold.  Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are extremely insightful in this regard in that purchasers of gold are completely reliant on someone being willing to pay a greater price, because the asset is completely...Read More

When you look at the great long-term investment track records, the vast majority are held by value investors such as Warren Buffett, Bruce Berkowitz, Seth Klarman etc.  There were two very prominent exceptions, George Soros and Stevie Cohen.  George Soros is a macroeconomic genius, who has taken aggressive positions across a variety of different asset...Read More

This was an interesting little interview with Jeff Matthews and Robert Miles discussing Buffett’s changing investment strategy, which has evolved to Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.A) increasing size.  For an investment to make an impact for such a large company it has to be of significant size, so for outside passive minority stock investments, Buffett really needs...Read More

Sears Holdings (SHLD) is undoubtedly one of the most hated stocks on Wall Street.  A major reason for the animosity is Wall Street’s focus on the primacy of the income statement and Sears is not a profitable retail operation.  Analysts’ that also cover profitable retailers such as Wal-Mart (WMT) or Target (TGT) are befuddled by...Read More