Behind The Idea

Latest Episodes:

The Investing Edge Trailer: Talking Scorpio Tankers' Opportunity And Netflix's Big Challenge Sep 26, 2019

Show notes

This trailer previews our initial two shows on our newest podcast channel, The Investing Edge, from Value Investor's Edge Live hosted by J Mintzmyer, and The Razor's Edge, hosted by Daniel Shvartsman and Akram's Razor.

Our excerpt for Value Investor's Edge Live is from our first episode, where J Mintzmyer speaks with Robert Bugbee of Scorpio Tankers about the company's comfortable cash position and the pending catalyst of IMO 2020.

Our excerpt from The Razor's Edge is from the first episode, which covers Disney, Netlfix, and the streaming universe. Daniel Shvartsman asks Akram's Razor about whether Netflix can solve a budding challenge - too much content on the service.

The Investing Edge is a podcast channel on Seeking Alpha that features shows from different Seeking Alpha authors, with a focus on their unique investing style. Authors will speak with CEOs and industry experts, break down key market stories and topics, and share insights on how they research new investments.

The first two shows on The Investing Edge are:

Value Investor's Edge Live, hosted by J Mintzmyer of Value Investor's Edge. The show will feature J's conversations with publicly traded shipping company CEOs, sector experts, and fellow deep value investors about their companies and investing approaches.

The Razor's Edge, hosted by SA podcast host Daniel Shvartsman and Seeking Alpha author Akram's Razor of The Razor's Edge.

Behind The Idea #90: Bluegreen's Attractive Location Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

Safety in Value, a Seeking Alpha Marketplace author, joins us to discuss his Bluegreen Vacations thesis. He likes the stock as it trades below its previous deal price, and likes the underlying business as well. We discuss those elements, the risks to parent company BBX Capital's bid, and, because we couldn't resist, how this fits into Joel Greenblatt's investing philosophy.

Behind The Idea #89: You Can Be A Stock Market Genius, Pt. 4 Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

Through three episodes to this point on Joel Greenblatt's You Can Be A Stock Market Genius, Mike and I have discussed what we like about his famous special situation investing strategies, and what doesn't work. We've also shared our enthusiasm for the light touch he applies to his writing, and the way he doesn't appear to take himself too seriously.

Chapters 7 and 8 bring that feeling home. Chapter 7 because it shares how Greenblatt advises his readers to do the actual research, and one component is to borrow ideas from other investors. It's an obvious concept when you think about it, but it also suggests a touch of humility that plays out throughout the book. We look at Greenblatt's sources and favorite books to understand the rest of the book better.

Then, Chapter 8 is the shortest chapter, and it underlines Greenblatt's entire philosophy as I understand it. Basically, investing and growing your money can give you time and options later on. When active vs. passive remains a hotly contested topic, and when nobody is satisfied with even a 10+ year bull market, it's worth remembering that you should invest if you enjoy it, and the goal is to buy you time to do the things you want to do with the people you want to do them with, and nothing more or less.

We discuss the philosophy and the minutiae on our concluding episode about Greenblatt's book.

Topics Covered

3:40 minute mark - The highlights of Chapter 7
8:40 - Coattail riding in today's market
18:40 - Thoughts about sources listed in the book and their relevance 22 years later.
21:00 - Reviewing Greenblatt's favorite books
27:00 - The philosophy: money is time. Do we buy?
35:30 - Final dad jokes and notes from the book.

Behind The Idea # 88: Signing Up For The Gym Group With Jorge Robles (Bonus Episode) Sep 13, 2019

Show notes

Investors looking for value stock investing opportunities with catalysts ahead will be interested in Jorge Robles' perspective on UK low-cost gym operator Gym Group. The company has a reasonable competitive position, a misunderstood path to profitability, and an attractive free cash flow yield. Mike and Jorge explore the catalysts to realize the stock's value, competition within the industry, the impact of private equity ownership on companies, and the role Brexit might play in weightlifter behavior.

Behind The Idea #87: You Can Be A Stock Market Genius, Pt. 3 Sep 10, 2019

Show notes

Chapters 5 and 6 of You Can Be A Stock Market Genius find our hero and author, Joel Greenblatt, walking on the wild side, as he looks at bankruptcies, LEAPs, restructurings, and other 'odder' corners of the market. Bankruptcies and similar topics in these chapters share some of the classic special situation traits of spin-offs and the like, but they also extend to a messier area of the market. So what holds together? We discuss that as well as some of the lessons Greenblatt drops in these chapters.

Behind The Idea #86: You Can Be A Stock Market Genius, Pt. 2 Sep 03, 2019

Show notes

We continue our discussion of Joel Greenblatt's classic book, You Can Be A Stock Market Genius, with a focus on chapters 3 and 4.Chapters 3 and 4 of the book are the ones everyone remembers, especially re: spin-offs. The principles Greenblatt lays out - shareholder mismatch, the opportunity to find overlooked ideas, the chance to do close reading - all seem to be relevant today, and yet spin-offs don't seem to be as attractive a category. We break that down as well as risk arbitrage and merger securities.

Behind The Idea #85: You Can Be A Stock Market Genius, Part 1 Aug 27, 2019

Show notes

We are big fans of Joel Greenblatt and his book, You Can Be A Stock Market Genius. We decided to break it down to see how it applies to today’s market, what key lessons are, what the best quotes from the book are, and our favorite Joel Greenblatt dad jokes. We start with chapters 1 and two, which lay out Greenblatt's mindset for investing.

Topics Covered

3:30 minute mark - Breaking Down Chapter 1 - The Greenblatt Mantra
7:30 - The individual investor advantage
14:30 - The efficiency of the markets
17:45 - Chapter 2 and the persistence of Greenblatt's approach
24:30 - Different investing styles for the individual investor
28:30 - Whither the value factor?
35:30 - Key quotes and jokes

Behind The Idea #84: Bluegreen And The Busted Bid Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

Bluegreen Vacations (BXG) is a timeshare developer in a curious situation - its majority owner pulled a bid for the minority of the company due to a since resolved lawsuit, but the shares trade well below the previous offer. Timeshares draw their own questions, and the market has been more volatile since the bid was pulled. We discuss the idea and what that could mean for shareholders and special situations investors going forward.

Topics covered:

5:00 minute mark - Overview of the busted merger arbitrage story.
8:45 - The timeshare industry and the underlying ups and downs therein
16:30 - Working down the income statement
20:00 - Breaking the Bass Pro Shops lawsuit down
23:00 - Manhattan club, time shares in NYC
31:30 - How does sales operation of a time share work?
33:30 - Time share business model and why does BBX Capital need to pay a big premium?

Behind The Idea #83: Paradigm Shifts, Gold, And You Aug 13, 2019

Show notes

Two things we usually don't do on Behind the Idea are talk about big picture macro-economic ideas, and delve into asset classes outside of stocks. We've focused on individual investing ideas through the vast majority of our episodes over the last 18 months, and that's where we've made our bones.

But Mike Taylor rejoins the podcast this week after paternity leave (congrats Mike!) and he's jazzed up about Ray Dalio's recent argument that a paradigm shift is coming. So jazzed up that he invested in GLD, GDX, and GDXJ itself, based on Dalio's article.

Gold leads to a lot of psychological analysis and self-consideration, and to considering the philosophical basis for an investing strategy. Without spoiling it, I have the more skeptical, 'what is behind the results that gold has achieved it in the past' orientation, while Mike has the more instrumental, 'gold has proven to be a ballast to many a portfolio, so why not' approach.

Topics covered:

2:30 minute mark - Introduction to Ray Dalio and his recent article
5:45 - What stands out in the argument
11:30 - Whether these shifts can really explain the market's direction over the decades
16:30 - The trade-off between higher pricing and lower future returns
26:30 - Discussion of "gold bugs" and the historical reasons for owning gold.
31:30 - What makes gold the way it is?
37:30 - The difference between owning gold and indexing (or is there one?)
50:30 - Why will this time not be different?

Behind The Idea #82: Picking Through Pharma Pressures, With Ed Silverman Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

We speak with Ed Silverman, a longtime follower of the industry who has run the blog Pharmalot for over a decade. Now on StatNews, he joins us to share his insight on the industry and the pressures its facing, and to follow up on our discussion on Walgreens from two weeks ago to see how these pressures might affect the company.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Topics Covered

Topics Covered

Topics covered:

Topics covered:

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected