about hiring the special investigator?

They put that on their website last weekend so no new news in the latest press release. Anyways, I dont feel they hire Lanny Davis if they have something to hid. They know he doesn't give a **** about nobilis vs his repuation as CEO crisis handler so you only hire someone like that if you actually have nothing to hide (or are delusional, which I dont think management is) imo

Don't really know where to ask this question but my friend is trying to beat the market with commodity trading, Im not sure his experience level but id lean towards beginner-ish but lets say maybe even moderately knowledgeable. What chance does he have making money with this? ( for the record I said about 0% but have no idea really)

Guys here will be an interesting story to follow. IMN - Imation is a dead/dying data storage company that an activist group took over in the spring. As i started looking into the company, i created an alternative hypothesis as to what the activists were after. This company has $1b of NOLs, $50 - 100m in real estate, and 90m in cash. My theory was that this activist group had zero interest in the operating businesses and was strictly after the NOLs and cash. Given today's news, seems pretty clear that Clinton Group is going to use IMN as their acquisition platform to utilize the company's NOLs. The biggest risks with these NOL shell strategies is obviously busted acquisitions but also excessive shareholder dilution but IMN has a ton of cash/real estate assets that will provide the funding for this platform that should result in little if any shareholder dilution. These stories don't always end well but its definitely interesting. To see an NOL story that has worked out very well for shareholders look at ALJJ. The market is still pricing IMN as a dying data storage company, pretty clear nobody is seeing the forest through the trees here as to how this company is being transformed.

0-2% seems fair

Does someone have any opinion on TSX-MTY (MTY Group) ?

Food franchisers in Canada. Great profit margin, not alot of liabilities and 1.4% Dividend yield.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...esentation.pdf

20x eps no organic growth

I'm seeing $290m NOLs, not $1b (page 75 of most recent 10K). Real estate is valued at $45m -- $184m original valuation, minus $139m in depreciation. True value of course depends on whether actual depreciation has happened faster or slower than accounting depreciation. The "land" portion of the property segment is only $1.2m.

That said, it's trading at 55% of tangible book value. Now that Clinton Group has installed their new CEO, could be a serious value play.

Anyone have thoughts on URI at this point?

Seems like oil tanking had a huge effect on this one.

Its kind of my first big loser since I started investing 3 years ago, and I'm trying to figure out how to think about it.

I know its good to cut your losers, but I'm also a long term investor. So I'm struggling with those two ideas.

How should I think about this?

I'm leaning towards holding because oil will come back eventually, and building should hold steady.

I don't know much about the stock , but I know it has been a favorite of you longs in the trading thread for a while. I will say this , your last paragraph is wrong. There is zero assurance that oil will come back. In fact if trading patterns tell me anything , it's that it will be down in the semi long term.

The phrase is "cut your losers quickly."

Given that you started 3 years ago, just suck it up and stop crying that you are up overall in a big way.

Page 76 of the 10-K. They've continued losing money in the two quarters since then.

"Federal net operating loss carryforwards totaling $348.5 million will begin expiring in 2026. We have state income tax loss carryforwards of $383.9 million, $2.3 million of which will expire between 2015 and 2017 and the remaining will expire at various dates up to 2034. We have U.S. and foreign tax credit carryforwards of $33.9 million, $7.6 million of which will expire between 2015 and 2017, $23.9 million of which will expire between 2018 and 2032 and $2.4 million may be carried forward indefinitely. Federal capital losses of $30.1 million will expire in 2019. Of the aggregate foreign net operating loss carryforwards totaling $35.3 million, $0.3 million will expire between 2015 and 2017, $2.4 million will expire at various dates up to 2024 and $32.6 million may be carried forward indefinitely."

closer to $800m i guess.

Anybody have any theories about what Carl Icahn sees in CHK? The company seems like a massively over-leveraged POS with very questionable corporate governance.

Who's crying?

And what strategy would one use if one stopped crying?

Thanks for this. This illustrates exactly why investing can be so hard to learn, because without experience, its hard to weed out the endless noise and develop confidence in your own thinking patterns.

One of my main mistakes was buying URI in the first place honestly, because i didn't really have a plan, and didn't do as much research as i would have liked to and will do moving forward.

Jamming head to wall

Cut losers quickly would be the strategy. If you do so, you don't get into situations like this where you are kind of stuck.

"Cutting losers quickly" isn't really a strategy. It's as valuable as saying "buy low, sell high". If you are buying and holding/selling individual stocks, you need to have a reason to sell besides price changes. You need to have some idea about why you are investing in a particular name. You trade based on that information relative to prices being offered, not price by itself.

If a stock doubles, but fundamentals tripled, you wouldn't sell. You might buy more. Similarly if a stock crashes by 50% but fundamentals are essentially unchanged, you might buy more.

I would guess most value investors experience many "losers" before their thesis is realized. You want to sell when your thesis is fully valued. That could be at a higher or lower price than you initiated the position.

Anyone know why Tweed and Canopy are being sold off today in Canada? Aren't the liberals great for their prospects of selling a ton of medicinal weed? I haven't looked closely at it, just curious what the red afternoon on a day like today.

I don't think it is too much for a value investor to recognize that momentum also matters.

I am under the impression most of them don't care about momentum at all or even think of it as a useful concept.

So, the guys giving advice in the Value and Long term investing thread aren't long term investors? And are debating each other on how such an investor thinks? :/

Yes, there's a lot of talk in this thread that isn't value-investing related.

"Should I invest in companies that have a low x/y ratio and take nothing else into account and take my lumps" surely belongs in a value investing thread.

Man the HOS slaughter is something. I'm getting really tempted as it gets close to $13.