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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (9100)	12/2/1999 2:12:00 AM
From: Michael Burry	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78595

I'll take the devil I do know vs. the devil I don't Which one do you know again? Hey, with Deswell, Ron and I could talk with the CEO virtually at will. Didn't feel him to be a devil, but maybe that's beside the point. My point is that I don't see the US accounting system offering much more protection. And if something does look suspect, I certainly as an individual investor am in no position to ask the CEO about it much less expect an honest answer. I'll just leave it your words: "I don't trust the accounting system or the legal system or the integrity or capability of the managerial class." Except I'll apply that as readily to most US businesses. Mike

To: Paul Senior who wrote (9100)	12/2/1999 5:21:00 PM
From: Bob Rudd	Respond to of 78595

Paul: I'm very much with you on the need for diversification. No matter how carefully we analyze a co and talk to well-informed buds on the boards, there's lot's of room for error. Companies get blind-sided by events all the time and we're an order of magnitude further removed from company level understanding of the situation. You often tagline your comments with a line about having been wrong in the past. That applies to all of us and is something we should all remind ourselves of occasionally. An excessively large bet on any one position speaks of overconfidence that, if misplaced, would leave one unable to recover for quite awhile. That said, I would agree with Buffett that focusing on a limited number of companies and getting to know them well is a good approach. bob