Biglari: The Young Buffett

Interesting read in the Wall Street Journal this morning on Sardar Biglari. For those that are not familiar with this young 31 year old CEO, let me bring you up to date. Biglari runs several investment partnerships or (hedge funds) out of San Antonio Texas. The most notable is The Lion Fund. Biglari is what's known in the investment community, as a shareholder activist. He buys a large stake in the company and often ends up as a director on the board, pushing for change or turn-around. In the case with Steak n Shake ($SNS) he became CEO. Biglari runs his partnerships much like Warren Buffett's early years when Warren ran Buffett Partnership between 1956-69. Biglari also runs the old Western Sizzlin Steakhouse ($WEST), and at some later date plans to roll them into one company. According to the most recent shareholder filings, Biglari added to his already large position in Steak n Shake purchasing an additional 107,500 shares. Biglari is a value investor who has studied the readings of Benjamin Graham "Security Analysis" (1934) and "The Intelligent Investor" (1949) as well as the legendary Warren Buffett.

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Missed Opportunity? and The Intelligent Investor

Stocks ended lower for the week with a global sell off. Once again the herd ran for the doors not wanting anything to do with stocks. Fear has set in and no telling when good times will return. But for the intelligent investor these are good times. This is when that simple saying comes into play "Buy Low and Sell High". Are we even at the low, who knows? Stocks have been routed across the board. Will we go lower??? Next week will show more of the puzzle.

The intelligent investor views this mess, crisis, or recession as an opportunity to by good companies at a good price. Where many investors are selling out, waiting for the storm to subside. I have got news for you, when the storm settles, chances are the market will be higher,then it will be to late.I hear plenty of people say I'll wait until we turn back up before jumping back end. That's when you miss the chance of making the big returns that Warren Buffet, Eddie Lampert, and Marty Whitman have made for themselves and their shareholders for years.

Your thoughts?


STOCKMANMARC

An Excerpt From The Intelligent Investor

• A stock is not just a ticker symbol or an electronic blip; it is an ownership interest in an actual business with an underlying value that does not depend on its share price.
  
• The market is a pendulum that forever swings between unsustainable optimism (which makes stocks to expensive) and unjustified pessimism (which makes them too cheap). The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.
  
• The future value of every investment is a functune of its present price. The higher the price you pay, the lower your return will be.
  
• No matter how careful you are, the one risk no investor can ever eliminate is the risk of being wrong. only by insisting on what Graham called the "margin of safty" -never overpaying, no matter how exciting an investment seems to be -can you minimize your odds of error.
  
• The secret to your financial success is inside yourself. If you become a critical thinker who takes no Wall Street "fact" on faith, and you invest with patient confidence, you can take steady advantage of even the worst bear markets. By developing your disipline and courage, you can refuse to let other people's mood swings govern your financial destiny. In the end, how your investments behave is much less than how you behave.