You deserve what you vote for. Crazy how NYC has suddenly become more radical than CA.
Even more crazy how America's 2 wealth centers are that most radical political environments. I do not understand how we got here.
SpaceX targeting retail at absurd valuation. OpenAI rushing to IPO. Famous, respected investors saying this time is different. No track record investors getting billions to invest in the hot new thing.
These are things you see at the top folks.
I sold all my shares in $IAC. By far my most painful investment that extended well beyond the financial loss. I was so very wrong.
I learned a ton of lessons from it.
Everyone on this Ackman spaces is asking the wrong Qs.
1) What do you think a reasonable discount to NAV this will trade at?
2) How are your incentives aligned with your other strategies
3) What conflicts are there w/ $PS, $PSUS, $HHH and your HF/FO that you will navigate
4) With so much going on, why should we think this is your primary focus
5) Established holco's like BRK, IAC, Prosus, Exor, trade at a material discount to NAV. Your vehicle also did. This will too. That feels like an unneccesary distraction.
6) The best holdcos have an engine: What is the engine here?
7) You talk about investing in 12 high quality businesses. But does this structure allow you to hedge/swaps, etc. That was your biggest winner in COVID.
8) How do you measure success? Returns in excess of SPY?
Yes, I'm late to the game, but Landman is so stinking good.
I actually think all the skin is distracting from just how good the show is. So far, better than Yellowstone.
Unsubscribed from about 10 substacks so far this week. All are paywalled, but they were mildly interesting from a free perspective. Now they are all garbage, promotional, and leave me with little desire to even open.
Currently have both Claude and ChatGPT working on data cleaning. It is taking forever and none have gotten it right yet. Still have a very long way to go.
Didn't take long for new $BRK CEO Greg Abel to completely reverse 60 years of history and start pumping the stock with immaterial purchases ($15m for a billionaire) and buybacks.
Still long, but jeez.
Like why wasn't this disclosed in the letter? Or the upcoming meeting?
Having followed Hurricane Helene and now Fern, I cannot believe how many meteorologists get it so wrong.
I have to think AI can do an exponentially better job. It is just data analysis and there is a massive amount of historical data to train it on.
Somehow I have found my way onto financial advisor Twitter. The advice is shockingly bad and the good advice barely moves the needle (i.e. fee justification).
Securing wealth is pretty easy. Live below your means & invest as much of the delta as possible in appreciating assets.
I think of myself as a classic value investor. I love low P/Es, I love SOTPs, I love non-consensus bets.
Yet, my best investments - by far - have been in quality assets.
And I'm embarrassed to say my biggest regrets are waiting for a quality asset to get 2-3x cheaper.
If you're looking to grow as an investor, then I would highly recommend my new book and spreadsheet of quality growth companies which features both quality, linearity and valuation metrics.
Links below ⏬