What We're Reading ~ 1/24/18

Thinking in Bets: Making smarter decisions when you don't have all the facts [Annie Duke]

The playing field: five levels of investor development [Graham Duncan]

Op-ed written by Warren Buffett [Time]

Breaking out of low growth 'new normal' is on horizon [Mohamed El-Erian]

The annual Barrons roundtable: outlook for economy & stocks [Barrons]

A look at Starbucks (SBUX) [Scuttlebutt Investor]

Inside the eccentric, relentless dealmaking of Softbank's Masa [Bloomberg]

How Charlie Munger became an 'expert generalist' [Quartz]

India has 600 million young people & they're set to change our world [The Guardian]

A slowdown is in store for the self-storage business [WSJ]

How automation will change work, purpose, meaning [HBR]

Beyond the Bitcoin bubble [NYTimes]

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 ~ 10/26/16

The $108 billion man who has beaten the market [WSJ]

Cash: the most hated asset class on the planet [Felder Report]

What you can learn from family business [HBR]


On the future of video [REDEF]

The intelligent industrial revolution [nVidia]

Five market insights from Peter Lynch [Ivanhoff]

Explaining what made the internet 'break' recently [Gizmodo]

U-Haul parent Amerco (UHAL): ready to move [Barrons]

Arbs stay on sidelines of AT&T, Timer Warner deal [WSJ]

Private equity is sitting a ton of cash [ai-cio]

Interview with CEO of new exchange IEX [Bloomberg]

Why negative churn is such a powerful growth mechanism [Tom Tunguz]

WeChat works to maintain startup culture as it matures [WSJ]

What We're Reading ~ 9/8/16

In-depth pitch on Liberty Global Latin America (LILA/K) [Find Me Value]

A second look at Amerco (UHAL) [Punch Card Research]

WD-40 (WDFC): a case study of the bubble in 'safe' stocks [Intrinsic Investing]

Analysis of Dell Technologies new VMWare tracking stock [Clark Street Value]

Morris Mark on four stocks he likes [Barrons]

Uber: from zero to seventy billion [Economist]

Google, Uber and the evolution of transportation [Stratechery]

Why electric cars will be here sooner than you think [WSJ]

How Apple's car could crack the automotive industry [Autocar]

Old article on capital allocator Henry Singleton [BrianLangis]

A look at the online travel industry [Phocuswright]

Why walking helps us think [New Yorker]

Inside Dyson's reinvention factory [Forbes]

Will Amazon kill FedEx and UPS? [Bloomberg]

On subscription retail [The Robin Report]

Theranos: how Elizabeth Holmes's house of cards fell [Vanity Fair]

Sohn Contest Winner & Finalist Presentations: Short Dexcom, Long Amerco, Long Exor

The Sohn Investment Contest recently concluded and it was announced that the winner was Mark Grow, a Columbia Business School student who pitched a short of Dexcom (DXCM).  We posted up full notes from the Sohn Conference here.

Some of the finalist presentations have also been released, which include Alexandra Esparza, an MBA candidate at the Yale School of Management who pitched a long of Amerco (UHAL) and then Steven Wood of Greenwood Investors who pitched a long of Exor.  All of these presentations are embedded below:


Short Dexcom (DXCM) Sohn Pitch



You can download a .pdf copy here.


Long Amerco (UHAL) Sohn Pitch



You can download a .pdf copy here.


Long Exor Sohn Pitch



You can download a .pdf copy here.

Be sure to check out the rest of the investment ideas shared at the Sohn Conference in New York.

NYU Stern Evaluation Investment Newsletter: Marc Lasry Interview

NYU Stern's student-run investment newsletter Evaluation is out with its second issue.  This time around, they focus on distressed investing with interviews with Avenue Capital's Marc Lasry, as well as bankruptcy expert Dr. Ed Altman, among others.

Also featured are investment pitches from the Stern Investment Idea contest.  Ideas include long Urban Outfitters (URBN), short Ulta Salon (ULTA), long Apple (AAPL), long Bonanza Creek Energy (BCEI), long Wisdom Tree (WETF), long Amerco (UHAL), and long FTI Consulting (FCN).

Embedded below is the second edition of NYU Stern's Evaluation investment newsletter:



If you missed it, we posted NYU Stern's inaugural issue here as well.