banter and General Discussion, page-8305

First, I should say that I am not here suggesting MSB has good or bad future prospects. It has been a miserable run for most shareholders to date (I was in and out of this stock a few times in the early days), but the past is not necessarily indicative of the future and it appears that many here think this company is on the verge of something transformational.

I assume most people here have bought into MSB as an investment and therefore have done so in the hope of improving their own financial position. If not, then don't bother reading further.

What is noteworthy is that many people on this thread do not seem to have much spread in the stocks they post about and it is reasonable to infer that some of the posters on this thread may have had a fairly narrow investing experience through MSB.

My whole purpose in posting about Buffett's shareholder letters was that some people here may find reading them to be quite a learning experience. When he writes his letters, Buffett does not know what the future holds so you experience the unfolding story of his success along with him. He is very transparent about his decision making so you can assess the outcomes of his judgments as you read later letters. By being eminently rational and relatively conservative, he continuously compounded his gains over time. He was not shooting for the stars but was making what were reasonably safe bets in companies that he assessed to be significantly undervalued. Many of the companies were fairly boring in terms of what they did. He looked for businesses that had strong established cash flow generation with an economic moat that provided them with a degree of protection from the risks of competition or disruption.

If he hadn't given so much of his wealth to charity over the past 15 years, he would very likely still be the richest man on earth, all from adopting a long term patient strategy of investment that did not seek to shoot the lights out in one fell swoop.

Good luck to all here. I really hope you have a big pay day with MSB.