Jurgis

Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series

That's somewhat expected, but yeah.

Good article.

This. Also love/hate does not have to be rational. That's why such topics tend to lead to flame wars when people feel the need to oppose somebody else's love/hates. So far so good here. Fingers crossed. 8)

Overall, IMHO, if one wants to follow Peter Lynch, the best way is to find someone who is on the top of trends and knows what's hot, what's not, what's a fad and what's a long term trend. And then pay half of your 2-and-20 to that person. 8) There are people like that, though not common. Following the products you like yourself is usually not good idea, even more so if you're a contrarian outside crowd person already. Although clearly people who invested in Apple, Amazon, Starbucks, TJ Maxx/Ross, Home Depot, Disney, Whole Foods, Nike, Netflix based on Peter Lynch have done very well if they held.

My lesson from Chinese frauds was not to invest in Chinese companies pretty much at all. Put them into too hard, outside circle of competence pile. Of course I may lose opportunities this way, but I just don't see a way to do DD. Other people might draw different lessons. ;) Take care

Adding: Love: Fidelity (except branch experience) Hate: Airline cattle-class travel

LOL Yes, Peter Lynch anecdotal investing is rather broken approach. I read Peter Lynch books when I was just starting and they definitely made a bad influence on me at the time. (Bought Iomega, got out with profit, but we know how the story ends...). I never suggest Peter Lynch books for new investors... or anybody else actually. The thread itself is fun though. 8)

That didn't take long... :'( I'll repeat my suggestion:

I wonder if this will descend into flame war at some point. Perhaps the thread charter should be: no comments on the previous love/hates. 8) Love: Netflix(mostly), Amazon(mostly), Google (for self driving cars), Wegmans(mostly), TJ Maxx, Elon Musk(mostly, man crush :o ), DSW, Trader Joe's(when they don't discontinue products I love), Lindt chocolate, T Mobile (for international roaming, USA coverage is a bit crappy), iRobot Roomba. Hate: Apple (snobbish attitude, price gauging), Google (for ads and privacy invasion), meat industry, cigarette industry, sodas and soda companies (mostly), professional sports, unreliable Internet providers: Verizon DSL made me swear I'll never use Verizon again.

Yeah, I've had Chinese smallcaps during reverse merger listings in US (2009-2010 timeframe). Had a bunch of great gains for the ones I sold fast enough. Had big losses for some that I did not. Overall probably a wash. I agree with yadayada about divvie rule of thumb, though personally I probably would not invest even if there was a divvie. YMMV of course. Take care.

That's the problem with Chinese companies that may be engaged in fraud. You never know how bad it is.

http://news.investors.com/business-industry-snapshot/051515-752854-aerospace-climbs-into-a-supercycle.htm?p=full And what comes at the end of supercycle? ;)

The above might be a good reason not to invest in companies that are promoted as water plays: as soon as the water becomes scarce/expensive, they can be forced to give up some of their rights. PICO, BWEL should be running high on water shortages, but they are not. I still wonder if someone will try to pump-and-dump these using the water theme... Disclaimer: I've looked at PICO, BWEL in the past but have not done in depth DD recently.

NY, NJ, & MA are some of the bigger markets for resi. solar. snow typically is not a huge issue for solar production (they price this into your rate typically, and solar irradiation is much lower in winter anyway, so you'll still save money). Finally...typical solar leases come with warranty on roof penetrations. They won't install if your roof is too old/wrong material/poor condition. If you were doing rooftop solar in MA, would you do lease or purchase? Any good companies to consider and any bad ones to avoid? I'm still not convinced, but would like more info/ideas/feedback. :) Thanks

If I was in non-snowy state, I'd probably get rooftop solar. Losing 3 months during snow cover and potential panel/roof damage in New England winter scares me so far. I'll be late adopter and see if solar tiles/slates will become cheap enough soon: http://www.solarcentury.com/uk/c21e-tiles-and-slates/

http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/looking-for-some-input/

The people here have raised issues with renumeration in numerous boards, so clearly not everyone believes that this is "nonsense" and should be off topic. Also to repeat: I have not advocated anywhere for enforcing any salary limits via regulation or other approaches. I have advocated exercising your rights as shareholders to vote against excessive renumeration and I plan to continue to do so. I would also encourage CEOs and other highly paid individuals to exercise temperance in allocating monetary rewards. Peace I am totally fine if this is moved to General board.

Xi Jinping does not like your implications here.

Actually, as I explained above, the supply and demand model does not quite work, because there is a barrier: it is hard to replace one person with another one. If CEOs were fungible, their salaries would drop, since supply is likely higher than assumed.

Personally, I would not pay a cent to any "star athlete". Professional sports is entertainment based on barbaric past and has zero benefit for today's society. 8) Why don't we have cancer drug creation competitions instead of running on a field kicking a ball? 8) (this is OT though). But I know what you are trying to imply and I have answered it in the past: I don't believe CEOs are as much stars as the salary ratios for greedy CEOs imply. They sell you the snake oil that they are stars and BoDs buy that wholesale. Edit: BTW, it should be clear for everyone on this site that the market for coal miners is mostly efficient, since they are mostly fungible, while the market for CEOs is very inefficient because they are kinda unique and a bit difficult to replace even if the replacement might do the same quality work for less. So they have a moat haha and they are usually smart enough and greedy enough to abuse that moat. Maybe the BoDs should apply Moneyball to CEOs... 8) Of course, you and everyone else are free to have different opinion. Take care

Comrade Baboon, I will ignore your ad hominem attacks for now assuming they were meant as jokes. In the future, please either clarify via smileys or don't engage in such behavior. Actually, you are completely right. Except that for some reason you think that Maffei is the only one who deserves outlandish salary. Let's then talk about all the other employees of TCI who really built "the cable industry for peanuts" so that their boss could enjoy racehorses. Are you saying that Malone was the only one who worked on it? Are you saying that he should have gotten even more millions while everyone else in the company probably did not even earn 100K per year? If Malone is so sensitive, perhaps he should pay higher salaries for everyone in his companies, which of course will lower return for shareholders. I am fine with that. Are you? So I could throw you ad hominem adjectives back at you for saying that only the provider of capital and CEO need to get outrageous compensations. But I won't. :) And, no, I disagree that Malone, Maffei, Dimon, Mullaly, etc. are single handedly responsible for their companies doing great. And therefore the salary ratio between them and other employees should be much lower than it is even if the company is very successful. Take care

Yes, that's where I am too. I hold the shares and I vote against compensation. :) I am sure they will never invite me to BoD. ;) Good luck.

Thanks

Can you elaborate why GLRE and TPRE should have higher valuations? They are subpar (re)insurers with subpar investment results and 2/20%-headwind costs. Why should market value them higher?