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

To: jhg_in_kc who wrote (282)	9/18/1998 6:48:00 PM
From: James Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4691

You are right that Buffett has held a lot of cash at other times in the past. And most of those times, an investor would have been much happier if he had sold too. Just before the big bear market in the early 70s, he actually liquidated his fund and gave his investors their money back. Talk about integrity. If you send me a link to that HBR interview with Michael Dell, I'd love to read it. Maybe I'm missing something. I know Dell has a different business model. What I question, and this is what differentiates it from Buffett stocks, is why nobody can copy it. Sorry to get this started - this is probably not the place to debate Dell, unless somebody is willing to make a systematic Buffett case. JJC

To: jhg_in_kc who wrote (282)	9/18/1998 9:42:00 PM
From: cfimx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4691

Harvard gets around to interviewing executives at the peak of their powers. I remember an absolutely glowing hbr piece on Ed Mckraken of sgi. you could have shorted sgi that day and made a fortune.

To: jhg_in_kc who wrote (282)	9/21/1998 12:18:00 PM
From: Robert Douglas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4691

sir, you are wrong about dell. dell is a distribution stock not a computer stock. Dell is indeed a distribution stock and that is precisely the reason to avoid it. Dell's profit margins are too high for a company whose business is that of distribution. The net return-on-sales figure is approaching 8% and is at an unsustainable level. I think a more appropriate level would be around 5% and perhaps much lower. Competition will work its magic on Dell and these margins will not be maintained. I think saying that Dell has barriers to entry is whistling by the graveyard. Sorry to disagree. -Robert