I don't drink coffee. As such, I've never quite understood the draw Starbucks has on people. Until I read this book, that is. The founder of Starbucks tells the story of how Starbucks came to be in Pour Your Heart Into It, which I recently had the pleasure of reading.
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Paulin Buyout

By Saj Karsan, Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 6:27 AM | | 1 comments »

The oldest stock on this site's Stock Ideas page has finally made its mark. Three and a half years ago, I wrote about a little company called H. Paulin that traded at a massive discount to its net current assets. Yesterday, the company announced a buyout that saw investors generate more than a 400% return over this period!
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Moonwalking With Einstein

By Saj Karsan, Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 6:24 AM | , , | 1 comments »

Journalist Joshua Foer was writing an article about memory when he came upon a couple of people professing to be able to teach an improved memory. Until then, Foer had figured (as I had until having read his book) that people were born with good memories. In Moonwalking with Einstein, Foer proves to the world that a better memory can be taught; indeed, having employed some of the techniques of the book, my memory has already improved! So can yours!
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Looking For A Book That Interests You?

By Saj Karsan, Monday, December 17, 2012, 6:27 AM | 0 comments »

The book section of this site has been revamped to make it easier to find what you're looking for.
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Human Evolution

By Saj Karsan, Friday, December 14, 2012, 6:30 AM | , , | 0 comments »

I recently had the opportunity to read Roger Lewin's Human Evolution, which is an excellent introduction to the adaptations and possible behaviours of some of our immediate ancestors.
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Value Conference Without The Cost

By Saj Karsan, Thursday, December 13, 2012, 6:05 AM | 0 comments »

Value conferences are prohibitively expensive for the average investor. Not only do you have to pay a fee to cover the cost of the venue and its staff, you need to pony up to fly there, and deal with the financial and non-financial costs of disrupting family and work considerations. Therefore, to meet the needs of this market, Value Conferences is presenting its Best Ideas 2013 conference fully online!
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Surging to a Large Discount

By Saj Karsan, Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 6:11 AM | | 1 comments »

Shares of Surge Components (SPRS) are extremely cheap. The company is profitable, but still trades not much above its net cash level. I first came upon the company following this tweet from value investor Paul Sonkin:
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Meade Loses 1/3 of Market Cap Due To Mistake?

By Saj Karsan, Monday, December 10, 2012, 4:25 PM | , | 3 comments »

Meade (MEAD) shares fell by almost 30% today, seemingly on news that Hummingbird Management has cut its stake in the company from 7.63% to 3.24%. There may be reason to believe the filing is a mistake and that Hummingbird hasn't actually cut its stake, however.
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Value investors know that the most inefficient part of the market at any given time is likely in the smallest companies. But getting the info on these companies that you need in order to make an investment decision can be hard to come by. Over-the-counter stocks don't always publish their financials; sometimes, such info is only made available in hard copy format to current shareholders, which is undoubtedly a small group. One site seeks to change all that!

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The Innovator's Solution is one sequel that doesn't disappoint! Christensen follows up the popular The Innovator's Dilemma (previously summarized on this site here) with this new book that helps deepen the reader's understanding of technological disruption in business.
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Thanks for all your feedback regarding the conference call transcript site. To provide an update, I have added some more functionality to hopefully make it more useful.
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QLogic: Likely Undervalued

By Saj Karsan, Tuesday, December 4, 2012, 11:19 PM | | 0 comments »

Shares of QLogic (QLGC) have been thrashed over the last couple of years. But this is a well-capitalized company in a growing industry that is a market leader in many of its product segments.
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