Review: Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012

Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012 by Carol J. Loomis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reading Warren Buffett's thoughts and speeches is always a breath of fresh air, no matter how financial and intricate the subject matter.

Many of these articles/essays are basically fanmail. But it's still quite interesting to see how writing about Buffett progressed over the years. The writings that are actually by Buffett tend to contain more substance.



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Review: A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing by Burton G. Malkiel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a re-read after grad school, and my main thought is that I wish I had read it every year since. It probably would've saved me from some pretty dumb investment decisions. Still, interesting to see how well it holds. 

Also interesting how little I retained for the few investments I made since school. Hopefully this time it will stick with me a little more. I took down notes for his investment recommendations (why are they for 55 year olds though?)

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Review: What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars

What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars by Jim Paul
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was actually much better than I thought it would be. To tell the truth, I knew nothing about it except the title. I can't remember why it was even in my wishlist. I thought it would deal with entrepreneurship/business, but it deals with investing. This suits me, since I'm starting to get more into that (recently bought The Intelligent Investor, which I should probably tackle soon).

It was also written in the early 90's, so it is interesting to compare with today (and see how timeless many of these lessons are).

The book starts with a general run-down of the author's life, which is quite interesting, although I was afraid that would be all, but right after that, it lists all the contradictory advice that great investors have given over the years. This section alone is probably worth the price of the book. The only one I remember off the top of my head is how Warren Buffett said Diversification is for idiots, while John Templeton said to always diversify.

The final section deals how, if there is no real way to make money, what all the great investors have in common is they don't lose money, and it discusses the details as to how to go about that.

Some of my notes:
Need to decide: Will I be an investor or speculator?
Will I invest in stocks, bonds, currencies, futures (crypto)? (must be compatible with time horizon)

Pick the loss side first (pick where (price), when (time), or why (new information) you will get out of the position).

Pick stop, entry, then price objective.

Gambling is usually over one event (one race, one fight, one spin at the wheel, etc.). What if they stopped a horse race mid-way and you could decide to bet more, take your money out, etc.? This happens continuously with stocks.

Most investments are trades that didn't work (started as a trade, lost money, suddenly the time horizon stretched out since no one likes to take money out at a loss).



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Review: University of Berkshire Hathaway: 30 Years of Lessons Learned from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger at the Annual Shareholders Meeting

University of Berkshire Hathaway: 30 Years of Lessons Learned from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger at the Annual Shareholders Meeting by Daniel Pecaut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. The authors do a great job of summarizing what Buffett and Munger say, not skipping the pithy and entertaining asides and remarks. 

Just a few of my notes:

A good investment is a company with a product that costs 10 cents, sells for a dollar, and is habit forming. 

People get into much more trouble with a sound premise than an unsound premise.

example:  If I offered you Alaska beachfront property, you could dismiss this out of hand as nonsense. If I recommended Florida beachfront property, you might have an interest since the premise is sound. Yet many people have lost their shirts buying Florida land. 

"If investors only had to study the past, the richest people would be librarians"

Just investing in whatever BH invests in wouldn't work. One example: BH bought General RE in a stock sale, meaning it lowered its stake in Coca-cola (and other companies) by 18%, with no leveraging and no capital gains tax. 

On the other hand, another year BH bought a lot of Coca-Cola stock, and 80% of Coke's sales were in currencies other than the dollar, so this allowed BH to basically short the dollar. 

"When asked how he would teach business students, Buffett said, “For the final exam, I would take an Internet company and say ‘How much is this worth?’ And anybody that gave me an answer, I would flunk.”"

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