A dry January or sth like that

A month without twitter … But nice developments at insurance companies.

Food for Thought #60 // Links

Includes: fossil fuels, deleting Twitter, Japan, portfolio management/sizing bets, UnBrexit, Rob Vinall’s 2022 letter, Spotify.

Some experience with Sixt (SIX3 GR)

Many German investors perceive Sixt as a German high quality business. My experience does not disprove the narrative.

Re-insurance trends and capital cycles

Interesting industry data.

My review of 2022 (a year of change)

The year 2022 included many sad and noteworthy developments in the world and in financial markets …

More knowledge, biases, issues and open Q’s on MKL.

As within German politics, there are few double whammies, and much more talk than (thoughful) action. Turns out, the likelyhood for a true double or triple whammy in Markel is not that high probably, after reading the letters and giving it more thought …

Advertisement

Book-reviews on some non-investment books

Simply brilliant by O’Connell about success at work, ie project management, and the German book Achtsam Morden by Karsten Dusse.

Food for Thought #59 // Links

Includes: Facebook/META, Nvidia a 100 bagger, Fed put/call, Lloyd’s of London.

Some Arguments for Insurance Brokers

I recently learned some ‘insights’ about insurance brokers…

Personal experience: moving flats, on real estate & rents

Personal experience from a value guy: we live in a rather cheap (value!) nice flat in a rather popular district in Cologne (Sülz), Germany. After almost 10 years we are moving into a bigger flat, and we already kind of miss the great location of our current flat.

Potential for a double whammy – Markel (MKL)

Markel and Gayner are well known in our circles. Do not expect anything new here.

Book-review: The Dao of Capital, Spitznagel

Focusing on the long-term, roundabout strategies and patience, and probabaly much more which escaped me …

Free Cash Flow: It always was FCFF or FCFE

I hold a strong opinion for a long time: if it is about valuation visit Damodaran.

Fair P/E multiples as a function of Growth and ROIC

I always thought I was a bit more valuation focused than the average investor, and this likely results from my academic studies which was quite focused on methods. Sure, no science at all, but art and so forth, but some simple truths are important …

Book-review: The little book of value investing, Brown

A classic value investing book, that would have been a better read for me if I had not read so many good books before…

Cyclicality at PC Partner (1263 HK)

Sales, margins and returns on capital recently skyrocketed …

Book-review: The little book of common sense investing, Bogle

This is an absolute recommendation for the novice investor.

We enjoy interest rates once more

The ‘joy’ can appear a little small if we hold the wrong stocks, though …

Book-review: Capital Returns, Ed Chancellore

A great read about industry cycles driven by investment activity (supply) rather than demand and a corresponding investment framework.

Thoughts on SES going down (SESG LX)

Another stock that is surprisingly performing in lockstep with the market (that means deeply red). How come …

Issues at Greatview Aseptic (468 HK)

They used to generate ROEs in the 15% range, but that came down recently. So did the share price …

Hallmarks of P&C insurers

The book The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing from Dorsey (see my review here) mentiones the following characteristics as hallmarks of P&C insurers and I wanted to check in on ‘my’ three insurances …

Book-review: The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing, Dorsey

A good read on economic moats and introduction to various industries.

I bought 3% Haier (690D)

Business fundamentals look good. German issue trades at much lower price …

Quicky on Central Japan Railway (9022 JP)

A bet on tourisms returning to Japan. I definitely would want to …