BeEarly.com - Fundamental

Many people rightly believe that when you buy a share of stock you are buying a proportional share in a business. As a consequence, to figure out how much the stock is worth, you should determine how much the business is worth. Investors generally do this by assessing the company's financials in terms of per-share values in order to calculate how much the proportional share of the business is worth. This is known as "fundamental" analysis by some, and most who use it view it as the only kind of rational stock analysis.

April 4, 2008: My thanks to Henry Groppe of Groppe, Long & Littell for his charts supporting his great presentation....
THE OUTLOOK FOR OIL & GAS at the Pengrowth Spring Investment Conference, San Diego

April 21, 2008: Compliments of Bloomberg and with thanks to Ken...Chart of write-downs by global banks

February 15, 2008: Notes from Buffett Meeting

February 10, 2008: Thanks to our friend Dr. Michael Berry for his excellent Cambridge Pheonix Discovery Workshop

February 9, 2008: Navigating The Bear: Discovery Investing by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D.

January 20, 2008: Thanks to our good friend Dr. Michael Berry for his Keynote Cambridge House Conference Presentation

December 19, 2007: Thanks to our good friend Dr. Michael Berry for his great Richmond Virginia Discovery Investing Symposium

November 2, 2007: Peak Oil Believe it or Not by Nate Hagens posted on theoildrum.com is a brilliant examination of the Peak Oil conundrum.

September 17, 2005

A finished version of Charlie Munger’s “The Psychology of Human Misjudgement,” plus additional good material by the same author, can be found in Poor Charlie's Almanack ... www.poorcharliesalmanack.com

September 21, 2007: A New World For Discovery Investing by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D

June 21, 2007:

Thanks to our good friend Dr. Michael Berry for his Workshop on Discovery Investing this past week in Vancouver

June 14, 2007

Winning the Investment Game with Consistent Compounding by Shelby M.C. Davis
Advisor and Founder of Davis Advisors

June 8, 2007: Fund Managers Who Take Big Bets: Skilled or Overconfident by Klaas P. Baks, Jeffrey A. Busse, and T. Clifton Green*

April 2, 2007: Thanks to our good friend Dr. Michael Berry for his excellent Workshop Presentation on Discovery Investing ;
at the Calgary Mining Conference on March 31, 2007

February, 2007: GAO Report... Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production

November 24, 2006

Is Molybdenum Another Way To Ride The Energy Bull by James Finch

November 13, 2006

Compliments of the Globe and Mail
Canada's waters threatened, report says
Warming to bring less flow in Great Lakes, Athabasca River and hurt hydro, tar sands by MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

November 10, 2006

Thanks to our alert friend Dr. Bob and compliments of Financial Sense Online...
Transcript of an interview with G. Edward Griffin author of The Creature from Jekyll Island
A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

November 7, 2006

Thanks to our friend Dr. Michael Berry ...

"In response to my Morning Notes yesterday many of you requested the Ten Point Discovery Grid. I developed this grid to help in the identification of Discovery Investments. I am sending a copy of my presentation on Discovery Investing to be given this day in Calgary. The list of companies is representative only and provides examples of potential Discovery investments. I currently own or consult to many of these companies. They are not ranked in any particular order.

April 10, 2006

Compliments to Michael Santoli and Barron's for this superb article...

Minting Money

The Goldman Sachs Way by Michael Santoli

Part 1 and Part 2

March 27, 2006

Compliments of Barron's

The World's Best CEOs by Andrew Bary

Part 1 and Part 2

March 17, 2006

Compliments of Dresdener Kleinwort Wasserstein

Global Equity Strategy
“The little note that beats the markets”

March 14, 2006

Seven Pillars of Folly by Edward Chancellor

March 13, 2006

Compliments of BMO Nesbitt Burns

The Avian Flu Crisis An Economic Update by Dr. Sherry Cooper

March 4, 2006

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 2005 Annual Report

Compliments of the Wall Street Journal.... Highlights From Buffett's Letter

February 25-26, 2006

Compliments of The Daily Reckoning - Weekend Edition

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM: Beyond all the politics involved in this deal with
Dubai Ports World, lies a bigger issue: the health of the U.S. economy.
Chris Mayer explains...

Getting to the Real Issue
by Chris Mayer

Frankly, the biggest risk in port security stems from where the containers
are loaded, not unloaded. America's ports receive containers from all over
the world. We inspect less than 5% of these. The one good thing that may
come out of this is for people to note the relatively lax security at
America's ports - regardless of who runs them.

There is so much involved in this issue, and most of it is political. It
smacks of political opportunism on the part of Congressional members and
governors posing for midterm elections. It's a chance to separate
themselves from a weak, unpopular president and to appear tough on terror
for their constituencies. It's political opportunism mixed with racist
overtones.

But beyond the politics of it all - which is not really my beat - is a
much larger issue. And it gets to the heart of our own economy's health.

The world is increasingly a global marketplace. The old divisions are
dissolving right before our eyes. It no longer makes sense to talk about
companies as if they carry a nation's flag.

Many companies you think of as American get the bulk of their sales and
profits from overseas. They may even employ more foreigners than
Americans. And companies you think of as Japanese, British or whatever get
the bulk of their profits from other markets as well. Money flows with
relative ease across national borders. And so do people. In fact, many
senior members of DP World's management team are American. The chief
operating officer is a guy named Ted Bilkey.

I know I've said this before. But I can't look at our own portfolio and
find a company unaffected by things happening in faraway places -- like
Asia.

Our economy is dependent on foreign investors. That is how we are able to
sustain those enormous trade deficits you read about in the headlines.
Quashing this deal puts a chill on investing in the United States.

The United Arab Emirates invested over $1 billion in the United States
last year. Middle Eastern countries collectively hold over $200 billion in
U.S. securities and dollar assets. And that's a small fraction of the
trillions -- that's trillions with a "t" – of dollars that are held by
foreigners in other parts of the world.

Months ago, it was a Chinese company buying an American oil company that
caused a big splash (CNOOC's bid for Unocal). Today, it's a Dubai-owned
company buying concessions to run terminals in America's ports. Tomorrow,
it will be some software company with high security clearance with the
Department of Defense. Where does it end? It won't end. There will be many
more deals like this as foreign investors put their dollars to work.

Making the United States a difficult, unfriendly and unreliable place to
do business hurts the U.S. economy and threatens our standard of living.
It's bad for the purchasing power of the dollar. It makes living here more
expensive. It will drive U.S. interest rates higher. It will erode our
standard of living. And the great irony is we are no safer for it.

The biggest threats to the U.S. economy are from within -- closing off
markets, political opportunism, corruption, a reckless fiscal and monetary
policy and mob rule.

[Editor’s Note: Chris Mayer is a veteran of the banking industry,
specifically in the area of corporate lending. A financial writer since
1998, Mr. Mayer's essays have appeared in a wide variety of publications,
from the Mises.org Daily Article series to here in The Daily Reckoning. He
is the editor of CrisisPoint Trader and Capital and Crisis - formerly the
Fleet Street Letter.

February 13, 2006

Compliments of Barron's...

Ibbotson: Small Caps Still Have Big Bang by John Kimelman

February 6, 2006

Remonetisation of gold: Start hoarding...
Cheuvreux Report on Metals & Mining

January 31, 2006

As always, thanks to Dr. Bob.. JB, here is a Power Point presentation that Grantham presented at their annual conference in November with some FANTASTIC charts. The man is a very good analyst of market history. I particularly like the charts of quality stocks versus low quality stocks held after market peaks as well as the number of years it takes to generate AVERAGE returns if buying at a peak. Very interesting.

On the Nature of Risk - GMO's Jeremy Grantham and Nick Nanda

November 22, 2005

Compliments of CIBC Wood Gundy

$100 Oil: Sooner rather Than Later by Jeff Rubin Chief Economist & Chief Strategist

November 11, 2005

A finished version of Charlie Munger’s “The Psychology of Human Misjudgement,” plus additional good material by the same author, can be found in Poor Charlie's Almanack ... www.poorcharliesalmanack.com

Unabridged Charlie Munger

October 24, 2005

As always, thanks to Dr. Bob...John here’s a very recent Q&A with Buffett and some college students:

Warren Buffet at Tuck Business School, Dartmouth College

Like this quote:

“I'll tell you what I think of hedge funds. Hedge funds are a huge fad. You can pick any ten hedge funds and I'll bet that on average they will underperform the S&P over the next ten years. You can't create more money out of American business than the business itself creates; so most of these hedge funds will not be able to justify their outlandish fees over the long-term and they will disappear. On Wall Street, there are innovators, imitators, and total incompetents. I'm afraid that the majority of hedge funds around the globe now are run by the latter two categories of people.”

September 30, 2005

A View From Burgundy... A must read

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

September 26, 2005

Some interesting thoughts. Read below. In Whitney Tilson’s email, he provides a brief overview of Fortune’s Formula.

Whitney Tilson's email

Kelly Criterion

Mark Hugh Sam
Director of Research
312-566-0126
mark.hughsam@sellerscapital.com

Sellers Capital
440 South LaSalle
Ste. 2201
Chicago, IL 60605

August 26, 2005

Thank you Paula for drawing our attention to Raymond James massive report released in July 2005...

The Oil Sands of Canada

August 18, 2005

With thanks to Paula...

Rumors and News:
Credit Derivatives Trigger Near System Meltdown
By Randall Dodd, Director - Financial Policy Forum

August 15, 2005

As always, thanks to Dr. Bob...John, funny how all the best investors carry common traits:

His 14 commandments are all about Buffett/Graham…..

Compliments of the Globe and Mail

Tom Almighty by Charles Davies

August 4, 2005

As always, thanks to Dr. Bob...John, I was able to get a hold of a transcript of that 1.5 hour Buffett talk to Florida students in 1998. Some great wisdom and common sense all in 24 pages!

Warren Buffett Lecture 1998

July 27, 2005

As always, thanks to Dr. Bob...John, I just thought I’d forward a link to a group of 3 lectures that Mr. Buffett gave to students back in 1991 which were edited by Whitney Tilson (just in case you may not have read them). I find his non-prepared remarks just as valuable as what he formally presents in his annual reports and articles.

Three Lectures By Warren Buffett

A snippet which I think is terrific (and which we didn’t really talk about last week):

“That’s why Graham is so important. Graham’s book [The Intelligent Investor] talks about the qualities of temperament you have to bring to the game, and that is the game. Now I can (garbled).
He may not know anything about a Coca Cola, or something of that sort, but that isn’t what makes you the money. What makes you the money is your attitude going in, your attitude toward stock market fluctuations. There’s two chapters in The Intelligent Investor, chapter 8 and chapter 20, they’re more important than everything that’s been written on investments, in my view, before or since. And there’s no specific technical knowledge in those things. It just tells you what frame of mind to be in when you come to the game. And people just don’t get it. But that is not because I’m particularly skillful. And bear in mind that I didn’t have that
(garbled). It’s not like I was Mozart and sat down at five or something. I mean I was churning things, I was computing odd lot statistics, I mean I loved all that stuff because I always liked numbers and playing around with them. It was like baseball averages or something. But what I needed was a philosophical bedrock position from which I could then go out and look at businesses, and probe through that filter, and decide whether that’s [a bargain or not]. And that’s Ben Graham’s contribution. And that’s the game.”

July 8, 2005

“Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world… Fiat money in extremes is accepted by nobody. Gold is always accepted.”

Alan Greenspan, speaking to the House Banking Committee, May 20, 1999

Why Gold? Why an allocation to gold may benefit investment portfolios

June 23, 2005

Thanks to Mark Hugh Sam of Sellers Capital in Chicago for this excellent piece...

Value Investor Insight

June 11, 2005

Compliments of Welling@Weeden

ADHD... Time Horizons & Underperformance By James Montier

May 12, 2005

Getting more fund for your money
The top 10 mistakes mutual fund investors make

April 26, 2005

Does Dividend Policy Foretell Earnings Growth

April 26, 2005

Jeremy Grantham's Great Quarterly Letter...
The Canary in the Coal Mine & Letters to the investment Committee III

April 25, 2005

A must read...

Searching for Rational Investors - In a Perfect Storm by Louis Lowenstein

April 25, 2005

Here’s a summary of a visit some students had with Mr. Buffett:
As always he purveyed good advice...

Warren Buffett Speaks to The Tuck School of Business Group

April 15, 2005

Compliments of our friend Mark Hugh Sam CFA; Consumer Goods Analyst at Morningstar ...
The following link will take you to a very well written report... Dividend Portfolio - April 2005

A great quote:
“We continue to adhere to a common-sense view of risk—how much we can lose and the probability of losing it. While this perspective may seem over simplistic or even hopelessly outdated, we believe it provides a vital clarity about the true risks in investing.”