UhuruPeak

Thanks Vinod. Looking at the threats on pp3-4, I don't see mention of the Aldi (Germany) or Leader Price (France) companies though. Aldi in particular is now present in the US, and its low-cost culture is second to none; I did shop in some of their stores in my youth, it is not pretty but their prices are rock bottom. Basically, I won't dream of going back unless I need to start my financial life from scratch again, but part of it is that I've been spoiled with the taste of (comparative) luxury available at Target or Costco ;D Did you lump them with the Dollar stores, or perhaps the grocery stores? I think they deserve their own category and could become players in the ultra low cost segment.

I'll second twacowfca, good stuff (& time consuming I'm sure). I hope you won't mind what I just did though: since the BV has increased so much over the time period, I changed the left axis to a log; it shows that FFH's BV is still significantly more volatile than either of the two others' (we all knew that), but BRK & L look more similar now - which was not obvious from the original chart. Thx again for sharing this work!

Come on Al, you know better than that - the market doesn't care what you cost is. I know I'm not teaching this old trick to ye old monkey! ;)

Scorpion, you are not married, are you? Sorry, couldn't resist ::)

I spoke w/ a broker at Scottrade yesterday, and was told it would convert sometime between today and Thursday.

I guess the proof's in the pudding - what results are you getting? I'm sure Uccmal has done very very well for himself; I follow pretty much the same 'strategy' as he, and my own results aren't too shabby either. While too lazy to calculate precisely, I have done well over 200% in less than 4 years in the one non-taxable account where I have neither added nor removed any funds over the period. Eyeballing the performance in the other accounts is too much work for me, thank you very much ;D Could I do better by working more? Sure, I'd hope so - eventually I hope to make this my job; for the time being however, my time is better spent earning a paycheck or being w/ my family. I do read a ton of stuff because I like to (just like Uccmal and most here I'm sure) but don't trade more than a few times a year max - if only because I'm at work during trading hours. I will never have Cardboard's, Wabuffo's or Ericopoly's returns but that's ok too. So, is there just one way to go at it? No; if there were, the big boys would have a monopoly on the returns. Many ways to skin the cats, many ways to lose it all... but thankfully a few ways to do just fine too. To each his own.

LOL! My first thought was "oh no, we got spam!"; then I saw the poster's name and HAD to check it out :)

I believe "BH" was for "Biglari Holdings"

It is not socialistic to bitch when you are being defrauded, but I take issue with the tone of the reporting: "bad lawyers, bad CEO, bad company". If a company goes bankrupt, the ownership changes - so why complain about the new owners, when the old ones already have been all but wiped out? by the way, the old owners were you and I and any one with money in some indexes or funds or pensions or what not; that would also include these same folks who are complaining about their own pension being slashed by the way. Hey, aren't you also taking issue w/ Greenspan saying "no-one could have known"? As they say in the CalculatedRisk blog, "whocoodanode" (i.e., "who could have known") - pleading ignorance shouldn't be a free pass to stupidity or inaction. Any time you have a large part of society being disconnected from the consequence of their actions, bad things happen. They don't think they have any stake in the well being of their company or the economy - the same point that has been made over and over in this thread. I am fine with differences of opinion and political sensibility, I don't like slanted journalism. Come to think of it, that's probably why I don't watch television at all and stopped reading the Opinion section of the newspapers I do read.

Fair enough - I agree that a 55 or 60yr old wouldn't be able to much about it; not so with the 40yr-old flight attendant they interviewed though. Ok, so I may be harsh. My own parents haven't saved a dime (besides a beautiful house) for their own retirement, and will be living on their pension/social security. As civil servants, they should be ok at least until inflation (aka 'stealth tax') eats away are their revenue - yet I have been telling them for at least 20 yrs that they should save for the rainy day. I guess I'm just wired that way: by age 5 or so, I already knew to defer gratification to buy that cool toy a year later with the money I'd save till then. Myth, you think you are cheap? I'll give you a run for your money ;) What I really think is that we are all a bunch of misfits & psychos on this board :P

Warning: rant coming below I just watched this since I had time today - this is so slanted it is not even funny. I'll pick on the section on United's bankruptcy for example. The journalists never allowed that seeing United go bankrupt would have means (1) no jobs, (2) no heath benefits, and (3) no pension. This was just shoddy reporting, very socialistic (the government must provide, the company is evil) and seemingly rejects all tenets of America's founding. Yeah, it bites to see your pension go down by 30% while having to work more for less money on which you now have to also save for retirement - but life is not fair either. If uncertainty kept me alive at night like this poor flight attendant says it does, I'd try to do something about it: get a better job, try to understand more about my future needs and see what I can do to improve it, anything. Also, all these people complaining that now they'll have to work till they drop - is everyone forgetting that up until a few decades ago, retirement didn't exist? How fast people forget, how fast people feel entitled. "I want, I need, I deserve". Argh! >:( Anyway - off my soap box... I don't mind pensions; indeed, I have one. The difference is that I don't count on it anymore than I count on SS; as far as I am concerned, they are just taxes that I 'may' see a return on. My retirement will be what I make of it.

http://www.paperage.com/foex/pulp.html $940.23 today

Two main things have been weighing on NRG's stock lately: Natural Gas is very low so margins are squeezed (in ERCOT particularly, the price of power is defined by the least efficient (gas) plant - so any one who ones base load (Nuclear or Coal) or efficient gas plants makes a killing). This low gas is also the reason why Energy Future Holding has been downgraded tons of times lately, and its bonds price in a near-certain bankruptcy; remember - WEB owns (owned?) ~$2B worth. The other things that has weighed significantly on NRG's stock price is the nuclear investment discussion with the city of San Antonio. They were supposed to do a JV but the new mayor, Castro, balked when he heard that the price was going to be significantly higher than original estimates. Things appear better now, San Antonio will likely retain some ownership (say 5%) while NRG and Mitsubishi are looking for another co-investor. I agree the company seems to be very well managed; they literally stole Reliant Energy (the 2nd largest electric retailer in ERCOT) last year, and already made more money off of its margins than the purchase price. I like the company, and think the stock is getting very cheap. Ultimately though, the stock won't go up unless one of three things happen: (1) Nat Gas goes back up to the $6-$8 range; (2) the nuclear investment gets more clarity; or (3) someone tries to buy the company like Exelon did last year. Disclosure: I have made good money off NRG and a couple of other players (TXU, CEG, RRI) in the past couple of years but am not holding any stock in the industry at the moment.

You will still need to spend >183 days/year in that other state...

Nice! ;D

In addition to the many good points raised here, I believe there is another important parameter for those of us who plan on dying "rich": If I am not mistaken, you don't have to withdraw a set amount from a Roth IRA after you turn 70, and can essentially transfer it all free of tax to your heirs. I view this as a nice optionality, and will probably end up swapping my wife's roth for this purpose (hers has a lot less capital gains than mine since I was more conservative with her account early on)

Quote of the month! :D

Yes, I believe it is that very same article. I printed it a few days ago (didn't someone link it on this board) but have yet to read...

LOL! "I always eat my chocolate ice cream before the vegetables" ;)

Yup - it reminds me of Quadra Mining (brought up on this board a few years ago) in many respects. QUA's story was that earnings were hidden by an old hedging program but then the stock literally shot up, 3x in about 12-18 months if I recall. Sino-Forest (also offered by one of our resident investing geniuses here) comes to mind as well...

That cracks me up. I wish I had thought of that when I was a kid! :P

I like Partner's answer already, but here are a couple of thoughts fwiw: 1. dilution... how about a 35% increase in BV? I'd have signed up eagerly a year ago at that prospect (I did actually, like many here) 2. shares languishing... make me more excited. Actually, I'd like the stock to be even more volatile than it already is: buy in late spring or summer, and sell in late fall or winter; rinse & repeatr 3. lots of liquidity, partly induced by GVT's actions... this too shall pass, though I agree it is annoying. We are also due for a tough hurricane season one of these years 4. fading new opportunities... well, the #1 reason why I like this stock is because of HW's investing prowess; I trust them to find opportunities where few of us do.

Nice timing, congratulations!

One word... "WOW!" :)

I could have done better with my stock decisions, but my absolute worse decision was to remain in cash in our 401(k)s. I'd be sitting a lot prettier today :'(