[Rickson9]

Cool.

 

[Rickson9]

Personally, I am fed up with all the hero-worship of this guy.

His investments in the recent dark days ( and also in the tech crash) were on better terms than available to anyone else - because he has big chunks of money to deploy - not because he was the only one willing to invest. The public response to most of those investments was envy. They WOULD have loved to have the same opportunity.

"People would love to have the same opportunity"? I call bullcrap. People don't know opportunity when it hits them in the face (which it does as a matter of fact)!

With regards to opportunity let's be brutally honest. If a person can't see opportunity when house prices dropped by 50% in the early 90s (finally reversing their downward spiral in 1996), the NASDAQ going from 4500 to 1400 in 2000-2002 and the DOW going from 14000 to 6000 in 2007-2009 they're definately not going to see any opportunity whatsoever!

The market has always given people opportunity. I've taken advantage of each of those 3 aforementioned opportunities. I'm sure there are thousands of lesser opportunities that I've completely missed. Opportunities are everywhere! People don't know anything about opportunity (I mean, in late 2008 and 2009 I hear people talking about stuffing their TFSAs with bonds, GICs and cash...I mean WTF?)

When he buys companies, he does not buy 100 shares, he buys controling interests. He gets a seat on the Board, while I cannot even get basic data from companies. His returns may well be attributable to that control, rather than portfolio management.

Then focus on his techniques when he didn't have enough money to buy controlling interests. Simple enough. Why study things that aren't applicable?

I read what he did when he was able to buy control. It's interesting. But I understand that it doesn't apply to me. So what? Is this a big deal?

I recently re-read the re-issue of Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" that he introduced. I was amazed at all the stuff in it that I DO NOT agree with. And I label myself as a value investor emphasizing fundamentals.

Some of the ideas and techiques I agree with and I use. Other's I don't agree with or they're not applicable so I don't. Some people worship him like "God". So what? Is this a big deal? Is that really all it takes to get you "fed up"?

 

[Rickson9]

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop...lication/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>

Lost money on Conoco Phillips and 90% of his investment in some Irish banks went down the tubes, but he still came out pretty well.

It's good to know that you can make some catastrophic mistakes (I've made a lot of doozies) and still come out very well in the long-term.