Year: 2020
Me, My Boy and Warren Buffett – Ep 53
Vitaliy has a confession to make. Someday, he wants his company to be called Katsenelson & Kids. That doesn't have to be the official name, but he does want to work with his kids, whom he wants to become value investors. He knows he is supposed to...
The Jet Lag Series: Inhaling Europe
I was inhaling Europe on a trip to Switzerland and Italy with my brother Alex and my son Jonah. This was Jonah’s first time in Europe, and I really wanted him to love it as much as I do.
Little Moments, or How to Give a Great Speech – Ep 52
Vitaliy was supposed to give a presentation at a conference in Omaha, a day before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. He was more nervous than usual. There were maybe two hundred attendees in the venue. A few minutes into his presentation, the...
Equinor: A Good Crisis is Never Wasted – Ep 51
When should you not buy commodity stocks? When you feel like you must own them. Vitaliy remembers when investors felt they must own oil stocks, when oil prices shot past $100 per barrel and everyone was convinced they were going to $200. Today oil...
Equinor: A Good Oil Crisis is Never Wasted
Should you buy commodity stocks? The long-term outlook for oil is not brightand the current decline in oil prices will not last forever. If oil prices decline, Equinor may have to cut its dividend but will still be strong. If oil prices stay at their current level, there is some upside to the stock's valuation, and if they go up, they will benefit Equinor.
Bollore: Streaming Music and Cash Flows – Ep 50
We think of Vincent Bollore as the John Malone of Europe – his strength is in identifying undervalued assets, taking control of them, and unlocking value. Bollore owns 25% of Vivendi, the prime asset of which is Universal Music Group (UMG), the...
Bollore: Streaming Music & Cash Flows
We purchased Bollore, a two-hundred-year-old French conglomerate run by Vincent Bollore, for its two operating divisions: ports in Western Africa and a battery manufacturing business. We were primarily interested in Bollore's 25% stake in Vivendi, which owns the Universal Music Group.
The 8% – Ep 49
In a change of pace, this podcast will not discuss this stock market or the economy. Instead, Vitaliy writes about some very random, but still relevant topics - from his upcoming trip to Europe, to his new philosophy about helping his kids grow to be...
Daily Journal
I started keeping a daily journal to see how journaling will impact what I write about. Writing down important conversations I have may allow me to explore them further on my own.
Cultural Calendar
I listened to Tim Ferris’s interview with Neil Degrasse Tyson. There are a few insights that I got from this interview. You need to expose your kids to the world, so I set a day each month where I look ahead a month or two and plan our “cultural calendar”.
2020: Party Like It’s 1999? – Ep 48
Party like it’s 1999: this is how the stock market feels to Vitaliy today. No, there are no dot-coms, though temporarily we had dot-cannabis and dot-fake-beef bubbles which got popped. Growth stocks are incredibly expensive. Value stocks have...
2020: Party Like It’s 1999?
The 2020 stock market is experiencing a light version of the 1999 dot-com bubble, with growth stocks being incredibly expensive and value stocks underperforming. What will the feature bring?
The Market Right Now Doesn’t Care How Fantastic Your Stocks Are – Ep 47
The Roman philosopher Seneca wasn’t talking about the stock market when he wrote that “Time discovers truth,” but he could have been. In the long run a stock price will reflect a company’s (true) intrinsic value. In the short run the pricing...
I Don’t Eat Desserts – Ep 46
When Vitaliy got into his mid-forties, he landed in his own version of a mid-life crisis. Instead of getting a 20-year-old girlfriend or a red convertible, he started paying attention to his health. He was surprised to discover it was somewhat...
