CNBC "Fast Money"

Hey gang

In case you are interested, I will be on CNBC this Friday at 8 PM during the show "Fast Money". I will be part of a segment called "Grade the Trade" where students from various b-schools explain how they would respond to hypothetical situations. Check out the link for a clip of a previous episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D2xK694MN8

A Moment of Calm

I just finished taking the Level 1 CFA exam this weekend. I wasn't as prepared as I would like, but we'll see what 3 weeks of study can accomplish. I'm hoping to take the next week off and slowly decompress a bit from the continual run of activity from GMO in January, throughout this entire semester, and concluding with CFA prep. There are a lot of things on my to-do list, but mostly I want to just absorb new information, digest and do some independant thinking. I was restless the other night, thinking about some possible tweaks to financial theory dealing with asset leverage versus personal leverage. I hadn't done much synthesis or creation in a while, and the past year has been heavy on memorization and recall. Things I want to explore:

1. Finish "The Focus Investor"
2. "More Than You Know" as well as other writings by Mauboussin. I absolutely love his mind.
   
3. Finish "Of Permanent Value" as well as all of the original source Berkshire annual letters. I need to dissect and completely understand Buffett's thinking and motivations behind past acquisitions for the upcoming trip.
   
4. Catchup on Value Investor Insight reading. I think I'm behind on 4-5 issues already.
5. Finish Damodoran's valuation webcasts.

Sometime, it might also be helpful to figure out what I want to do after graduation in a year. I could try to aim for some large corporation, mentor for a smaller shop, or even go a more entrepreneurial route. I was talking to someone from my school's Career Management Center, and she told me I was one of the most promising people she had ever met. It was encouraging, but I need to remain vigilant that I live up to those expectations, as well as avoid any self-destructive hubris.

Another thing you have to do, of course, is to have a lot of assiduity.
I like that word because it means: sit down on your ass until you do it.
-- Charlie Munger

Buffett Trip

Every year Warren Buffett invites a dozen business schools to visit with him in Omaha. Students each get to ask him one question during the 3-4 hour Q&A session, followed by lunch at Gorat's steakhouse. In addition, the students get to pitch a company (public or private) for him to purchase. If they are successful, each student gets 2 Berkshire-B shares and the professor will get 1 Berkshire-A share. Only one class has been successful (University of TN - Knoxville and Clayton Mobile Homes) so far.

After over a year of "persistence" I called his secretary and Emory University's Goizueta Business School will be visiting with him during the '07-'08 school year. A tad bit of irony, considering Roberto Goizueta was one of the key drivers for Buffett's large purchase of Coke stock. We will have to make sure to bring Mr. Buffett a fresh case of Cherry Coke from Atlanta.

This experience will be highly valuable for all the students. How valuable, might you ask? If we look at public comps, we see a recent transaction of a $600K Lunch With Buffett paid for by a successful Chinese entrepreneur. If we consider that we will have between 40-100 students, the trip could be worth between $24 - 60 MM. Thats definitely a great value in my book.