Expressing Some Gratitude-Thank You to ALL!!

Someone once said that feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

I am feeling very thankful today on a number of counts. Kathy Yakal in Barron's The Electronic Investor has been kind enough to mention Value Discipline in her column. In reviewing 24/7 Wall St, she mentions Value Discipline along with our highly regarded confrere Geoff Gannon and Stock Market Beat. The article appears on page 30 of this week's edition and is available online at the following link.

She describes the original content of 24/7 Wall St as being "often lengthy and analytical, always well-written and capably argued." We hope that Value Discipline's contributions to this terrific blog aggregator help to enhance its great image as a disseminator of news and opinion.

A number of other aggregators are mentioned in the article. Seeking Alpha, has been kind enough to carry many of my posts for quite sometime. Thank you David for including our contributions!

PhatInvestor and The Money Blogs have also been very kind in carrying Value Discipline as a contributor and received mention in the article.

A few others deserve mention and my kindest regards. Market Blogs by Ringsurf is the first aggregator that carried Value Discipline's content. I was flattered and surprised to be part of this after less than one month's existence (the blog...I have been around for more than half a century!)

Geoff Gannon, has one of the most complete catalog of links to value investing and investing sites available to you. Thank you for considering me as "a smart guy who thinks and writes clearly." You are a very tough benchmark Geoff!

StockBlogs also included us among his value investing blogs from a very early stage in Value Discipline's development.

Another aggregator that provides a highly organized and readable reviews of worthwhile posts is "The Market" from Nimble Ferret. As the Ferret describes his blog aggregator, part magazine, part newspaper-dedicated to the world of Wall Street. I am glad to be a small part of "The Market."

These are the large aggregators who have helped Value Discipline cross an important threshold, over 50,000 hits this year. I am very proud to have been able to have drawn this much interest from you, the readers.

Special thanks go out to all of you! In particular, some of you who operate your own blogs, you have been a source of inspiration and information. Particular kind thoughts go out to David Lau, a practising physician whose brilliant thinking and sharing of information has been exemplary. Kind thoughts as well today go out to Jay Walker, The Confused Capitalist, whose musings reflect disciplined thinking, but whose blog reveals a colorful and amusing appreciation for graphics design and comedy. Another reason to love Western Canada! Shai Dardashti, who no doubt labors even on Labor Day has an exemplary investment discipline which will serve him well as he develops his firm. Shai was the first blogger to link to Value Discipline and I am deeply grateful. Thank you and continued success! See you again in Omaha! Dan O'Neil of The Intrinsic Value...Thank you for your innovative use of Google webtools and thoughtful commentary! Dan has shown investment judgment well beyond his years.

I am grateful to The Wall Street Transcript, which has been kind enough to provide me with access to their excellent database of commentary and interviews. You are a terrific partner and a fabulous resource!

Realmoney.com, part of TheStreet.com features a daily view of the investment blog world that deserves your attention. Jim Altucher, the blogger has featured Value Discipline quite frequently. Thank you for including us, Jim! Jim is a hedge fund capitalist extraordinaire who has written extensively on Buffett, and on hedge funds and is a regular columnist with Realmoney and the Financial Times of London. He has authored two books.


Survival is a bittersweet measure of success. Many bloggers with highly worthwhile and innovative ideas fail. It is tough to get noticed, and commentary, if it develops, tends to be vacuous, spammer-produced, or incendiary! Value Discipline has managed to survive and thrive largely inspired by the kind comments of its readers and the co-operation and efforts of my business partners. I am driven by my passion for investing, particularly disciplined value investing and a love of writing and recording of my thoughts. As always, this is intended to not only entertain you, but to make you think a little bit differently about your investments. Hopefully, together we can find a few worthwhile ideas.

One of my former investment partners who had passed away four years ago had started a brokerage firm to focus on value investing. We used to laugh about how silly it was to develop a firm that was based on marketing unpopular ideas that nobody wanted to buy. It reminds me a lot of my mission in Value Discipline. Technical analysis (sorry Bill) and momentum ideas tend to rank much higher in popularity as concepts and as blogs.

So, I am very proud of the readers of Value Discipline. As Buffett says, you get the shareholders you deserve. Thank you for helping to mold this into a readership that makes me very proud! With occasional dry spells for vacations, client needs, laziness, or mental fatigue, I hope to continue to provide commentary on a regular basis as long as you find it worthwhile.

Happy Labor Day to all! Safe travels.