Investment Journal
Burgers, Fries and Shakes
Shake Shack (“Shak”) is a burger joint that is much more than a burger joint. It’s tough to describe if you haven’t eaten there. At the end of 2018, Shak will have about 123 domestic (U.S.) company-owned locations and about 85 Licensed Shacks (the majority of the...
VRSN Follow-Up
VRSN reported their quarterly results last night with a brief 30 minute conference call (you could also read the transcript in about half that time). The remarkable thing about VRSN is really how unremarkable it is. The business is highly focused on managing the .com...
Sears and Follow Up on Buffett’s Ability to Avoid Complexity
Sears finally filed for bankruptcy earlier this week. Over the weekend, I was rereading some of the notes I’ve taken over the years on Sears. It’s been an interesting situation to watch. I sometimes wonder if Lampert has ever estimated what has become a monumental...
Buffett’s Most Underrated Investment Trait
I am still doing some research on a number of companies in the residential housing space, and I’ll write more about my thoughts here as they develop. This post will have some brief general thoughts related to a post I wrote last week on the GSE’s: Investor Sentiment...
JD Update
Here is a note I sent to my investors just now, and I wanted to share it here with readers. Below is a copy of the note. Dear Investment Partner: I hope you had an enjoyable summer. I wanted to send a brief note with a few comments. One, I took a trip to China over...
Bad Blood and Schrödinger’s Cat
Bad Blood is a great book. It's a fast read, it's interesting and you should read it. I want to only discuss one aspect of investing with regards to my takeaways from this book. In November of 2006, Theranos raised money at a valuation of $165m. Approximately 8...