Charlie Munger’s Daily Journal Meeting Live Stream

Updated on

Whitney Tilson’s email to investors discussing CNBC live streaming Charlie Munger’s Daily Journal meeting today; replay of the Bull vs. Bear Summit; Regulators Examine Short Sellers’ Tactics; Thank God for Canada!; VALUEx Caspian.

I’m sending out today’s email early (on the flight to LAX; gotta love JetBlue’s free, high-speed FlyFi!), as I’ll be busy the rest of the day at Munger’s meeting and then hosting a lunch afterward. Keep an eye on future emails for updates on what Munger has to say today – he never disappoints! (I wonder if he deliberately scheduled his meeting on Valentine’s Day to make sure only the hardest of hard-core junkies come? LOL!)

Get The Full Series in PDF

Get the entire 10-part series on Charlie Munger in PDF. Save it to your desktop, read it on your tablet, or email to your colleagues.

Q4 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc

I just learned that CNBC is livestreaming Charlie Munger's Daily Journal meeting on YouTube, starting in about 15 minutes. You can watch it below.

1) Last night’s Bull vs. Bear Summit was a huge hit. If you missed it, you can watch it here.

2) According to this article in Canada’s Globe and Mail, SEC, OSC examine short-sellers’ tactics, a bunch of scummy and/or fraudulent companies like Aphria are complaining to regulators about nefarious, market-manipulating short sellers unfairly targeting them. What a load of nonsense! Excerpt:

Securities watchdogs in North America are taking a closer look at the practices of short-sellers amid pressure from the business, legal and investment communities for a response to a series of high-profile attacks against public companies.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been meeting with companies that allege they have been victimized by abusive short-selling, say sources familiar with the meetings who spoke to The Globe and Mail. During those meetings with the asset management unit of the SEC’s enforcement division, legal sources said, company executives and their lawyers have argued that shares of their companies were pushed lower by campaigns in which false and damaging information was disseminated by people with a financial incentive to see their stocks fall.

Gee, where have we heard this old trope before? Let’s see: Enron, MBIA, Farmer Mac, Lehman Brothers, Lumber Liquidators, etc., etc., etc.

Emperors always try to silence those who point out that they’re not wearing any clothes.

Fortunately, regulators now tend to ignore this self-serving whining, so I’d be surprised if anything comes of these complaints. In fact, I suspect this story, which tellingly doesn’t cite a single example, was planted by Aphria and/or its lawyers.

3) Speaking of Canada, I love our northern neighbor and its people – it’s like a whole country full of Minnesotans! – so I appreciated this column by the NYT's Nick Kristof: Thank God for Canada! Excerpt:

Canada may be one of the world’s more boring countries, as yawn-inspiring as sensible shoes — wake up, reader, I know you’re snoozing!— but it’s also emerging as a moral leader of the free world.

There’s no one else. The United States under President Trump is on a nationalist tear. Britain’s leaders seem determined to drag their people over a Brexit precipice. France is distracted by protests. Germany is preparing for succession.

So Canada is stepping up.

PS--I’ve visited Canada many times, most recently Banff last August for my cousin’s wedding followed by two days of rock climbing – see my Facebook posts here and here. Here’s a picture of the extended Tilson clan right after the wedding:

4) My friend Isaac Schwartz, a portfolio manager at Robotti & Company, is hosting VALUEx Caspian at the Four Seasons in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on April 11-13. Click here for more information.


SEC, OSC examine short-sellers’ tactics

CHRISTINA PELLEGRINI – THE GLOBE AND MAIL

PUBLISHED JANUARY 29, 2019

Securities watchdogs in North America are taking a closer look at the practices of short-sellers amid pressure from the business, legal and investment communities for a response to a series of high-profile attacks against public companies.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been meeting with companies that allege they have been victimized by abusive short-selling, say sources familiar with the meetings who spoke to The Globe and Mail. During those meetings with the asset management unit of the SEC’s enforcement division, legal sources said, company executives and their lawyers have argued that shares of their companies were pushed lower by campaigns in which false and damaging information was disseminated by people with a financial incentive to see their stocks fall.

“I can tell you that the SEC is taking the issue more seriously,” said Joshua Mitts, a professor at Columbia Law School who is advising several companies that have met with the U.S. regulator about the issue. “It’s taken them a while to ramp up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more enforcement cases related to short-and-distort.”

SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment.

In Canada, the Ontario Securities Commission is engaged in dialogue with “several knowledgeable parties to discuss allegations of abusive short-selling,” spokeswoman Carolyn Shaw-Rimmington said. The Canadian Securities Administrators, the umbrella organization that represents the 13 provincial and territorial market regulators, is in the early stages of its own review into “the nature and extent of abusive short-selling in Canadian capital markets,” according to CSA spokeswoman Ilana Kelemen.

Read the full article here by Christina Pellegrini – The Globe And Mail

Leave a Comment