Daniel Sundheim Long Netflix & Disney, Bearish on Canadian Pot Stocks: Sohn New York Conference

We're posting up notes from the Sohn New York Investment Conference.  Next up is Daniel Sundheim of D1 Capital Partners.  He talked about being bullish on Netflix (NFLX) and Walt Disney (DIS) and was bearish on Canadian pot stocks. 


Daniel Sundheim's Sohn New York Presentation

- Overall cautious saying valuations are a concern and especially so if inflation picks up and Fed expectations are impacted or China trade talks fall, there's not enough cushion.

- Bullish on Walt Disney (DIS) and Netflix (NFLX).  Both will be the leading direct-to-consumer video companies in the future.  Sees the latter breaching $1,000 in the next 4-5 years.

- Bearish on Canadian pot companies: "Growing marijuana is inherently not a good business." Says Canadian weed industry has enormous downside due to huge supply.  Business models are challenged and the valuations are 'absurd.'  Closest thing to a bubble since bitcoin.

- Unlike other hedge funds, has not shorted Tesla because Elon Musk is 'hard to bet against.'

- Advised not to sell out of positions where you have a ton of conviction.  Cited Mastercard which he bought at IPO and sold once it doubled, only for it to jump 10x its IPO price.  "Great businesses don't come around that often ... Time is your friend when you have a great business."  He emphasized compounding capital over years instead of months.


Be sure to check out the rest of the Sohn New York conference presentations.

What We're Reading ~ 3/20/19

T. Rowe Price: The Man, The Company & The Investment Philosophy [Cornelius Bond]

How to take the outside view [McKinsey]

Pitch on short Tesla [Dropbox]

What is Amazon [Zack Kanter]

Allen Zhang on the key product principles of WeChat [WeChat]

KKR is too cheap [Yet Another Value Blog]

Buying is easy, selling is hard [Bloomberg]

In 12 minutes, everything went wrong: LionAir crash [NYTimes]

The SaaS busines model & metrics [Matrix Partners]

How an app for gamers went mainstream [The Atlantic]

The risk of low growth stocks: Prestige Brands [Intrinsic Investing]

Franchise value: video game IP vs movie IP [Medium]

The 20 craziest investment facts ever [Irrelevant Investor]

Netflix is the most intoxicating portal [NYTimes]

Farmbelt bankruptcies are soaring [WSJ]

ESPN's ex-President wants to build the Netflix of sports [Bloomberg]

Inside HBO's plan to win the streaming wars [Vanity Fair]

Interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey [Rolling Stone]

What We're Reading ~ 6/13/18

Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments [Michael Batnick]

Assessing the debt picture [Fat Pitch]

Mary Meeker's 2018 internet trends report [KPCB]

Netflix: inside the binge factory [Vulture]

Proprietary product distribution is better than sliced bread [25iq]

The cult of Peloton: reinventing the fitness industry [Adweek]

How millennials became the world's most powerful consumers [FT]

What's driving the billion-dollar natural beauty movement? [Fast Company]

Gucci strikes gold in China, thanks to youth who spend it all [Bloomberg]

How the game Fortnite captured teens' hearts and minds [New Yorker]

Spotify vs Pandora: which is winning the ad-supported game? [Billboard]

A worrying turn ahead for auto loans [WSJ]

NASCAR tries to keep pace in today's ridesharing world [Washington Post]

On watches: an investment on your wrist [NYTimes]

A framework for analyzing factor returns [OSAM]

Notes From Capitalize For Kids Conference 2017: Einhorn, Dreyfus & More

The 2017 Capitalize For Kids Conference recently took place and featured hedge fund managers sharing investment ideas to benefit charity to help solve challenges in children's brain and mental health.  Below are notes from some of the speakers' presentations:


Capitalize For Kids Conference Notes 2017


David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital: Presentation

-  Approaches the market from a bottoms-up perspective and is still finding cheap stocks to buy, both on a relative and absolute basis. Greenlight is always net long and is currently operating within its average exposure.

-  Despite 8+ years of underperformance by “value” investors, believes over time value investing outperforms momentum and growth investing. Believes these trends are cyclical/seasonal but does not know when this will end.

-  Has kept the same “playbook” his whole career, does not believe he has the capability to change this. Will go through market periods where people view him a smarter than he is and then also have periods where is looked at dumber than he is.

-  Look for a margin of safety within individual investments, if the thesis is wrong, would like to “break-even or the stock is dead money”, but if a little bit right or mostly right, should be rewarded.

-  If he thinks he is wrong on a position, he will exit right away, however if he is still holding on (to a mark to market loss), he will keep on fighting. If large losses are realized, he fundamentally misunderstood what was going on in the business.

-  Two big losses: SunEdison (most recently) and New Century (in 2009-10) – almost lost 100% on each

-  One of the big advantages available in the market is time arbitrage (since institutional investors only care about 6-12 months) and there is a good amount of opportunities available where the main advantage is greater patience

-  On the short side, generally doesn’t short on valuation, usually needs deteriorating business model with large headwinds. He created the bubble basket in 2013 (to short ~40 stocks on valuation basis).

-  He approached this very simply. Looked at I/S and B/S and valued the business (without looking at the business model/etc. to remove the “story”). If the value estimate was 10% or less of current market value, he would short it). Has made money on most of the shorts (15-20 still remain active).

-  He is still short Tesla (TSLA), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), Athenahealth (ATHN). Still likes these shorts

-  Does not view himself as an activist. He might recommend things to management over time if they want advice or if they had a really good idea.

-  For General Motors (GM), he thought the dual class shares pitch was a really good idea, however, they were outplayed by General Motors management with their force of consultants, proxy advisors,lawyers, public relations etc. – wants to remain quiet now but still believes the idea makes sense.  General Motors is largest long position.

-  Active vs. Passive: In a momentum market, passive will work better as most indices are market cap weighted and index buys more of what’s doing well. Overtime, there is value to be had with active investors. From the GM proxy battle, he had to work with many index proxy managers and was very difficult (poor alignment of interests, index doesn’t care if stock goes up/down)

-  Doesn’t like cryptocurrency, too volatile to be store of value.  Doesn’t do much macro but likes natural gas and gold and is also short Germany/France sovereign debt (negative yields!).

If you missed it, you can also view David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Q3 letter here, as well as Einhorn's presentation at GIBI Dallas Conference as well.



Dan Dreyfus, 3G Capital: Long Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM)

-  Long Wheaton Precious Metals:  Shares are down 61% since peak in 2011; Believes without movement in commodity price

-  Three steps to get back to mid-$40 or so versus $20 current stock price:  Resolve near-term creating overhang $25, Realize value of hidden assets $35, Upside from normalizing of gold/silver ratio,  $45

-  Business model is very simple: help finance mines for E&Ps. Typically, E&Ps can finance a mine two ways: Equity (very expensive) or Debt (add covenants; and difficulties/risk of losing asset).  Streaming allows them to sell stake upfront and Wheaton can buy committee straight from the company at a reduced price. Upside for the streaming is that the upside is free (from production and commodity price)

-  Streaming companies have massively outperformed gold miners since 2010. Streaming companies do not face any of the risks miners face (geopolitical, regulatory, delays, cost inflation, etc.)

-  Step 1 - Two outstanding issues; $5 per share of value:  CRA Audit – thinks it’ll settle for a low amount sometime in the next 6-9 months. The company is being looked into as it setup a foreign subsidiary to accept foreign profits.  San Dimas Stream: Owner of the mine is about to go bankrupt, asset will survive (stream is at asset level, doesn’t matter who the owner is); despite current owner having difficulties

-  Step 2: Exceptional Growth (hidden assets) - $10 per share of value.  Wheaton has a lot of production currently and has hidden productions assets on their balance sheet (on the verge of being developed). No capex required to increase production (one of the pros of streaming companies).  Demand of precious metals is still important; copper for city development, electric vehicles; Rosemont/Salobo II mines development to Wheaton has the silver stream for Pascua-Lama, very important project for Barrick Gold.

-  Step 3: re-rate of Silver - $10 per share of value.  Gold:silver ratio at all-time high for gold, however thinks due to cyclical reasons silver demand should rebound driven by solar, industrial demand, etc.  All of these steps can happen very soon.



Jimmy Levin, Oz Management: Long Altaba (AABA)

-  The market is at all-time highs on a relative and absolute basis.  Oz Management looks for investments where they can make money on.

-  Long pitch: Altaba (AABA):  This is a holding company whose main asset is Alibaba (BABA) stock, along with some other assets (like Yahoo Japan).  It trades at a 33% discount to NAV.  Management is incentivized to close the discount between market value and NAV. How quick the discount is closed, as well as how much it closes by is important for compensation targets.  Management is also buying stock (cash source from selling assets) in order to help close the discount

-  Believes the best outcome is the vehicle trades at 1x NAV, which makes sense for an asset of this nature. On the other hand, hard to lose money especially if you are short Alibaba to hedge out systematic risk.

-  Risks include: Mark to Market losses, Both Altaba and its largest holdings are publicly traded, and hence the discount may fluctuate

-  Upside could be: Tax policy; lower corporate tax will help (excess money comes to shareholders), market rumors are that Alibaba will buy back units from Altaba (could help realize value very quickly.)



Brandon Osten, Venator Capital: Long EnerCom

-  Venator is about $200 million in assets; with two strategies (L/S and income)

-  Long Entercom (leader of old school radio, radio is #1 in terms of ROI for advertisers)

-  Earlier in 2017, Entercom agreed to reserve take-over CBS Radio (second largest radio operator in the U.S.), but it was underutilized/under-managed operation. Also, there is FTC deregulation which they could benefit from.o Once transaction closes, float should also increase notably.

-  Radio is #1 in terms of ROI for advertisers (cheap production and local content); listenership is stable and listening hours are also stable.

-  Strong management team with ability to increase margins and a track record of FCF generation and balance sheet deleveraging.

-  CBS assets are solid – strong stations in top markets, sports based; size and scale

-  This vehicle will be family controlled (Field Family) and they have purchased shares via open market since May 2017

-  Estimates 2% revenue growth through 2019, 1% thereafter, 34% EBITDA margin; 25% Tax rate with some buybacks. Believes the stock is worth $16.00 (compared to $11 stock price today).



Jeffrey Olin, Vision Capital: Long General Growth Properties (GGP)

-  Vision Capital, focused on real estate that are publicly traded (both long and short). Have achieved a return of 14% CAGR over the past 10 years (notably beating all relevant indices).  They try to buy real estate that is cheaper/(short more expensive) in the market vs. in private market.

-  GGP owns 100 of the top 500 regional malls in the U.S., Dividend yield of 4.13%

-  Largest shareholder is Brookfield Asset Management (BAM), which owns 34% of shares and has recently bought more.

-  Three reasons to buy the stock: Great Real Estate, Discount to NAV (30%), Various catalysts to close the gap

-  GGP owns a large amount of high quality real estate

-  From a valuation perspective, there is good precedent transactions which support the claim of 30%discount to NAV

-  Regarding catalysts, things such as: good financial performance, improvement of real estate, potential M&A or asset sales to support valuation comps.

-  Brookfield Asset Management could also buy them out given already high ownership.



Check back soon as we'll also be posting the actual slide decks .pdf's of other speakers from the Capitalize For Kids Conference as well.


For even more recent investment conference coverage, we've also posted up the following:

- Notes from Sohn San Francisco Conference (Okada, McGuire & more)

- Notes from GIBI Dallas Conference (Ackman, Einhorn, Russo)

What We're Reading ~ 9/27/17

Your tolerance for investment risk is probably not what you think [WSJ]

Is value investing dead? Depends on how you measure it [WSJ]

What do the best investors do that the rest don't? [Behavioral Value]

We're going to need more Lithium [Bloomberg]

Mastering three strategies of organic growth [McKinsey]

DaVita: Warren and Charlie's excellent insurance gambit [SIRF]

Old interview with Chuck Akre - never sell the gems [Value Research]

The history of Sears predicts nearly everything Amazon is doing [The Atlantic]

Don't believe the headlines, traditional retailers are thriving online [VentureBeat]

How Kirkland Signature became one of Costco's biggest successes [WSJ]

Altaba's endgame could reward investors nicely [Barrons]

Netflix's Sarandos aims to build the next great Hollywood studio [Bloomberg]

Our entire credit bureau system is broken [The Verge]

Snapchat's influencers are fleeing to Instagram for money [Bloomberg]

How successful people make decisions differently [Fast Company]

What We're Reading ~ 8/2/17

Profile of the founders of payments company Stripe [Bloomberg]

Staying competitive as the world changes [Collaborative Fund]

The unreformed stock picker: profile of Bill Miller [Forbes] 

Investment case for Gilead Sciences [WertArt Capital]

Netflix has $20 billion in debt - can it keep borrowing its way to success? [LA Times]

Palantir, the 'special ops' tech giant that wields as much power as Google [The Guardian]

Craft beer, brought to you by Big Beer [NPR]

On the threat of European grocery discounters [FBIC Group]

Priceline: the world's largest online travel company [Economist]

Electric vehicle outlook [Bloomberg]

Mental models: how to train your brain to think in new ways [James Clear]

The best path to long-term change is slow, simple and boring [NYTimes]

The 4 keys to learning anything [Zen Habits]
 

Mark Cuban Interview On Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship: Young Investors Society

Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban recently sat down for an interview with the Young Investors Society.  In it, they talked about a wide range of topics focused on business: entrepreneurship, investing, risk, and more.  Here's some highlights:


- "I avoid risk by trying to know more about what I'm trying to do than anybody."

- Talked about advocating the Peter Lynch method of investing by focusing on what you know.  He was always using tech hardware and knew which companies' products worked and which didn't.  Parlayed that into a hedge fund based on his research/picks and then sold that.  Noted there's less companies going public these days so "there's more money chasing fewer choices."

- On what he thinks is going to be different in 5-10 years: "Artificial intelligence is gonna eat the world."

- Owns a lot of Amazon.com (AMZN) stock.  Mainly because they're involved in a lot of the areas he was discussing (A.I. etc)

- Also a previous article said he owns a lot of Netflix (NFLX).  In the interview, Cuban talked about how their content aggregation and focus on data allowed them to be able to recommend content to users.  (And then they obviously took that a step further by seeing what was being watched the most and then created their own content based on those metrics.)

- Big time screw ups in investing: he liked the Uber idea but didn't like how they were pricing it.  "Sometimes you make it and sometimes you miss 'em."

- "There's a hundred apps that let you sell your time."  Thinks there's never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.

- On being an analyst:  "Everyone has the same information so it's hard to package it uniquely.  Find the companies where you may have an edge.  Using your unique perspective is what I did when I started investing in stocks."  He talked about how a high school kid's viewpoint on companies like Snapchat or Twitter would be vastly different than someone who's in their 40's or 50's.

- On advice for young investors:  "Understand the hierarchy of return on investment.  Investing in stocks is not the first place you should invest.  Number one is pay off your debt.  Two: save some money.  Life doesn't match up to your returns.  You might have the best investment in the world but find yourself having to sell it to pay for school or to fix your car.  Always have some savings first."

Embedded below is the video of Mark Cuban's interview with Young Investors Society:



h/t A Wealth of Common Sense for the find

What We're Reading ~ 2/22/17

Why we dig in with a long held belief instead of changing our minds [Reformed Broker]

Decision making amid uncertainty: improving your process [CFA Institute]

Inside the Snapchat roadshow [Business Insider]

On Quicken loans, the new mortgage machine [NYTimes]

China's artificial intelligence (A.I.) boom [The Atlantic]

Podcast with Ed Thorp [Meb Faber]

Prem Watsa drops long-held bearish stance on markets [BNN]

On Buffett's new stake in Monsanto (MON) [Bloomberg]

Warren Buffett's honor versus 3G [Lawrence Cunningham]

A look at Expedia (EXPE) [Value and Opportunity]

On owning a stock for five full years [Gannon on Investing]

Mark Cuban's two biggest stock holdings [Benzinga]

Apple: the greatest cash machine in history? [Aswath Damodaran]

Billions the TV show versus real life [The Ringer]

McLaren struck gold making supercars for regular drivers this year [Bloomberg]

Greenlight Capital's Q4 Letter: Dramatically Increased General Motors Position

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital finished 2016 up 8.4% and has returned 16.1% annualized since inception in 1996.

Their fourth quarter letter examines how their portfolio is positioned now that Donald Trump is president and will be trying to change policies. 

Greenlight is long various US value stocks that could benefit from corporate tax cuts (AMERCO, CC, Dillard's, DSW), they're long companies that can benefit from repatriation of foreign cash (Apple (AAPL)), and they're long companies that can benefit from demand for consumer durables (General Motors (GM), a position in which they've "dramatically increased their position."

They're also short 'bubble basket' stocks (Netflix), oil frackers, and Caterpillar (CAT).

Turning back to their thesis on GM, Greenlight writes that, "While the bears have been screaming 'peak auto' for the last couple of years, we think a strengthening job market will sustain the current upcycle and lead to better than expected credit performance at GM's finance subsidiary.  While the bears also cite long-term concerns over self-driving cars, we see a huge intermediate-term opportunity in assisted-driving cars."

During the quarter, David Einhorn's firm also exited its positions in AECOM (ACM), Michael Kors (KORS), and Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO).   They also covered short positions in FLSmidth (Denmark: FLS), Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), and Reynolds American (RAI).

At the end of 2016, their largest positions in alphabetical order were: AerCap, Apple, CONSOL Energy, General Motors, and gold.  Their average exposures were 106% long and 81% short.

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q4 letter:



We've posted up a bunch of letters today, so be sure to also check out Third Point's Q4 letter as well as Howard Marks' latest memo.

What We're Reading ~ 1/25/17

US investors favored passive funds over active by a record margin in 2016 [Morningstar]

The best investment writings of 2016 [Meb Faber]

On 3G Capital and the Kraft Heinz merger [Fortune]

A chat with Daniel Kahneman [Collaborative Fund]

Lunch with Bill Gates [FT]

What is your edge? [Base Hit Investing]

On expected risk [A Wealth of Common Sense]



Simon Property Group fights to reinvent the shopping mall [Fortune]

Facebook: Inside Instagram's reinvention [Recode]

Amazon expands into ocean freight [WSJ]

A pitch on Bolloré [Greenwood Investors]

Trump team compiles infrastructure priority list [McClatchy]

New FCC chief wants to destroy net neutrality [CNBC]

The great A.I. awakening [NYTimes]

Summary of some of the latest tech products featured at CES [Learning By Shipping]

Americans use debit cards twice as much as credit [Marketwatch]

China's biggest messaging app is on a collision course with Apple [TechInAsia]

How Social Cash made WeChat the app for everything [Fast Company]

When the Chinese come out to shop [OliverWyman]

How Netflix lost big to Amazon in India [Backchannel]

The best and worst airlines of 2016 [WSJ]

Carlos Slim's profit margins are right where Mexico wants them [Bloomberg]

Reasons to buy bonds in 2017 [Peter Lazaroff]

Bill Miller Thinks We're in a Secular Bull Market, Talks Stocks He Likes

Value investor Bill Miller of LMM Investments appeared on CNBC today and thinks we're in a secular bull market that began in March 2009.

"Bonds are unattractive in my view.  I believe we hit a double bottom in bonds in the summertime... 35 year bull market in bonds is over."

"As long as stocks yield more than bonds, stocks are attractive."

Miller is fully invested and says, "Cash earns zero, why do I want something that earns zero?"

He likes One Main Financial (OMF), bought in the spring, still thinks it's 'crazy cheap.'  Thinks smaller financials are attractive, mentioned MGIC (MTG) and Radian (RDN), mortgage insurers. 

Miller also likes big financials as well: Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan (JPM).  Value investor Rich Pzena also likes financials, as he mentioned in his interview last week.

Bill Miller has owned Amazon (AMZN) since the IPO and still owns it today.  He says that was one of the best decisions he's ever made, and one of the worst has been selling any shares of it.  It's his largest position and says people have misunderstood AMZN's valuation from the beginning.  "Amazon's total addressable market is just so much bigger than any other company on earth."

He also talked about Twitter (TWTR), saying he sold half of his call options when it was in the $20s, and thinks it's a unique asset as a 'network of interests.'  He thinks they need a fulltime CEO and suggested they could perhaps switch to a paid monthly platform.  "We own Twitter because of the optionality."  He think it has a floor of $15-16.

Miller also owns various homebuilders such as Lennar (LEN) and TriPointe (TPH).  Feels builders will grow double-digits for the next few years.

On airlines, Miller still owns them and says Delta (DAL) is trading at a 15% free cash flow yield and will generate $5 billion in free cash and return 75% of that to shareholders.  He likes United (UAL) with more upside as the margins are depressed and they've got new management there.

Miller also commented on former hedge fund hotel Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX):  "It's probably the most toxic stock in the overall market.  It's blown a hole in Ackman's portfolio, it cost Bob Goldfarb, one of the best investors in our generation his job.  Our cost is from $20-35, we just bought more last week." 

He says they have 2 issues: the legacy issue of transitioning new leadership and then the debt load.  He thinks it doubles in 3 years as the company has a lot of cashflow and will look to sell non-core assets.

He also talked about Netflix (NFLX), noting it's an incredible company and he's owned it twice before, but thinks it's expensive now.  Also thinks Tesla (TSLA) is expensive and most energy plays are as well, especially the integrated players.

For more from prominent investors, check out David Tepper's recent interview, as well as Keith Meister's thesis on YUM China. 

What We're Reading ~ 6/22/16

Ev Williams became a billionaire creating the open web, now he's betting against it [The Atlantic]

The perilous task of forecasting [WSJ]

On Uber's battle for China [FT]

Why LaCroix sparkling water is suddenly everywhere [Vox]

TV advertising's surprising strength and inevitable fall [Stratechery]

Can Netflix survive in the new world it created? [NYTimes]

The business of too much TV [Vulture]

It's 'terrifying' competing with Netflix and Amazon [CNBC]

Spending money to make money, a.k.a. stock based compensation [Chamath Palihapitiya]

All money is made at points of friction [Alex Danco]

An example of an investment checklist [Covenant Lite]

Ideas are not cheap [Daniel Tillett]

Valuation online class [NYU Stern]

Mary Meeker's 2016 internet trends report [Recode]

China Connect: key mobile market trends in China [Slideshare]

The state of digital media 2016 [Slideshare]

A look at the event ticket industry [The Ringer]

The future of agriculture [Economist]

Hot air millionaires: how Drybar became a $100 million business [BuzzFeed]

Simple financial advice for new grads [Morgan Housel]

What We're Reading ~ 3/2/16

Quality Investing: Owning the best companies for the long term [Lawrence Cunningham]

How to learn from market mistakes [WSJ]

In-depth interview with JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon [Bloomberg]

Key checklist items [Value Investing World]

The great investment advice hidden in Warren Buffett's annual letter [Fortune]

Hard truths for investors to wrap their heads around [Morgan Housel]

Software is the new oil [AVC]

A pitch on Broadridge Financial Solutions [Intrinsic Investing]

Thoughts on industrial gases [Dislocated Value] 

Why restaurants hate GrubHub Seamless [Tribeca Citizen]

Why the economy isn't about labor productivity anymore [Bloomberg]

What I learned from losing $200 million [Nautil.us]

Visa moves at the speed of money [Forbes]

How mobile payments reshape lifestyles [WSJ]

The robots are coming for Wall Street [NYTimes]

Why media titans would be wise not to overlook Netflix [NYTimes]

Expedia thinks it can help you find the dream vacation you didn't know you wanted [Bberg]

Top tips from China's richest man [CNN Money]

What We're Reading ~ 10/22/15

10 poor investment theses [Irrelevant Investor]

The case against short selling [Long Short Trader]

The five "why's" in problem solving [Wallbuilder]

The danger of 1-year performance numbers [A Wealth of Common Sense]

Latest post from the Valeant (VRX) bear camp [Bronte Capital]

How bad will it get for American Express? [Bloomberg]

China is not collapsing [Project Syndicate]

Kingmakers of China's internet: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent [WSJ]

A look at wireless tower stocks [Barrons]

Tribune Media shares at a 50% discount [Barrons]

Fossil Group (FOSL): a value stock with temporary problems? [Value & Opportunity]

Netflix is creating a cordless nightmare for traditional media [Institutional Investor]

Light beer gets in touch with serious side [WSJ]

Auto parts retailers' immunity to Amazon drives stock surge [Bloomberg]

Why investors don't fund dating [Andrew Chen]

Robots and us [MIT]

What We're Reading ~ 9/2/15

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX): a detailed look inside a dangerous story [AZ Value]

Thoughts on shorting [Fritz Investments]

When to deploy capital [Aleph Blog]

A look at Ed Borgato's process [Richard Chignell]

Analysis of Liberty Global's Latin American assets (LILA) [Clark Street Value]

The China growth story is now broken [Salient Partners]

The Fed is set to make a dangerous mistake [FT]

A roadmap for a world without drivers [Alex Rubalcava]

How Tesla will change the world [Wait But Why]

The FCC imposes Netflix's broadband policy [WSJ]

An internet mortgage provider reaps the rewards [NYTimes]

Lurking problems with exchange traded funds [Zero Hedge]

Market plunge provides harsh lessons for ETF investors [Barrons]

Mexico's economy was supposed to soar; it's starting to flop [Washington Post]

Hotels fight back against sites like Expedia and Priceline [NYTimes]

Is Silicon Valley in another bubble and what could burst it? [Vanity Fair]

What We're Reading ~ 7/15/15

The Devil's Financial Dictionary [Jason Zweig]

Discovery Communications and the uncertain future of pay TV [Punch Card]

Charlie Munger's favorite life hack [Business Insider]

Profile of Pat Dorsey [Barrons]

The single most important element to successful investing [The Felder Report]

Single sentence investing philosophies [Morgan Housel]

In defense of corn, the world's most important crop [Washington Post]

A pitch on Cimpress (CMPR) [ValueConferences]

Decoding China's swoon and its impacts [Going Long]

Little known French billionaire circles US cable market [WSJ]

Drahi's American cable dream faces harsh reality [WSJ]

Netflix and the conservation of attractive profits [Stratechery]

Aldi and Lidl are ready to invade the US, beware Walmart & Target [Forbes]

Leon Black's sell-everything call has been heard by his rivals [Bloomberg]

Carl Icahn Exits Netflix, Bearish on High Yield Bonds, Still Likes Apple

Today activist investor Carl Icahn tweeted that he has sold the rest of his stake in Netflix (NFLX).  This has been an extremely successful trade for him.  He later appeared on CNBC and noted that it was undervalued when he bought it, but now it has had a great run and their competitive moat isn't quite what it once was.


Additionally, Icahn noted his bearishness on the high yield bond market.  This is something he harped on in his Wall Street Week appearance as well.  In fact, he's concerned about the markets in general.

He tweeted: "I believe the market is extremely overheated - especially high yield bonds.  If more respected investors had warned about the market in '07, we might have avoided the crisis in '08."

The one shining light he continues to like is Apple (AAPL).  He still hasn't sold a share of his position.  He tweeted:

"Sold last of our $NFLX today.  Believe $AAPL currently represents same opportunity we stated NFLX offered several years ago."

What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 3/4/15

12 things learned about investing from Howard Marks [25iq]

Feeling certain and other mistakes that trip up investors [WSJ]

What mistakes investors make and what they learned from it [EndlessriseInvestor]

Why don't we make good investment decisions? [Irrelevant Investor]

Warren Buffett on his early mistakes [Business Insider]

A look at Constellation Software [Value Venture]

A pitch on Cable and Wireless Communications [Scribd]

When will the US have its next recession? [Wealth of Common Sense]

Yahoo's incredible shrinking profitability in its core business [Forbes]

Altice's savvy playbook fuels rapid growth [FT]

Netflix and Google's plan to break out of Equinix's gilded cages [Data Center Knowledge]

Viewers don't add up to profit for YouTube [WSJ]

Is innovation more about people or process? [HBR]

What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 2/25/15

An interview with The Outsiders author William Thorndike [Joe Magyer]

The extraordinary story of America's most successful industry [Morgan Housel]

Howard Marks: have an approach and hold it strongly [Reformed Broker]

Observations from a decade in the investment business [Wealth of Common Sense]

What is Yahoo worth after the Alibaba spinoff? [MicroFundy]

A look at CDK Global [Scuttlebutt Investor]

The problem with intuitive investing [Wealth of Common Sense]

Profile of SC Fundamental: old school investors [Barrons]

Calculating the odds of a Comcast / Time Warner Cable deal [NYTimes]

The high cost of falling prices [Economist]

Robert Shiller's CAPE ratio recently passed its 2007 high [Twitter]

Americans are borrowing more [WSJ]

Russia's Yandex takes on Google, Android [Barrons]

Millennials ditching their TV sets at a record rate [NYpost]

Capitalism's unlikely heroes: activist investors [Economist]

Profile of one of the most important people at Apple: Jonathan Ive [New Yorker]

Amazon bought this man's company, now he's coming for them [Bloomberg]

Netflix's long-term view [Netflix]

What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 2/4/15

Dead companies walking: How a hedge fund manager finds opportunity [Scott Fearon]

Seth Klarman on what he's learned from Warren Buffett [FT]

On mindfulness, meditation and investing [Abnormal Returns]

The future of iron ore [Joe Magyer]

FCC Chairman: this is how we will ensure net neutrality [Wired]

Monetary policy: the great illusion [CapX]

Inside the studio where ESPN is betting billions on the future of sports [The Verge]

On Disney's Bob Iger and Apple's Steve Jobs [Fortune]

Here's why Netflix stock is so volatile [MicroFundy]

How Berkshire can survive beyond Warren Buffett [Stanford]

Study says 'boring' stocks generate better returns [Marketwatch]

On Keynes the stock market investor [SSRN]

Chipotle: the definitive oral history [Bloomberg]

The Chipotle effect: why America is obsessed with fast casual [Washington Post]

Inside RadioShack's slow motion collapse [Bloomberg]

Google is developing its own Uber competitor [Bloomberg]

On declining lethality [NYTimes]