We continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 3, Edition 2, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present UPDATED: Whitney Tilson Vindicated (Sort Of). Everybody loves to mock Whitney Tilson. Or, at least, used to love mocking him prior to the demise of his hedge fund Kase Capital (fka T2 Partners). Witness, for example, the following snark-infested Tilson-related news items from recent years: Regarding the last Tilson snark item, bashing him for underperforming the S&P for the 2004-2011 period, it is interesting to take a refreshed look at Tilson's YE 2011 portfolio and partner letter after the passage of 7+ years. First, take the
After a bit of a hiatus, we continue our blog series: Market Musings, Volume 3, Edition 1, giving our (hopefully not too random) thoughts on recent goings-on in the markets. Today, we present "Dell, Tesla, Netflix and the Rule of 2X". Back in 1999, Dell Computer Company was the toast of the stock market, with shares exploding upwards during the Tech Bubble. Below we show the growth in Dell's stock price, adjusted for splits, from its 1989 IPO until it was taken private in 2013 (see source data here): The torrid 50X appreciation in the stock from the beginning of 1996 to the end of 1999, which resulted in a market cap at the height of the bubble of ~$120B, fascinates. Obviously in late 1999 i
