Dan Braem's  Instablog

I am running a mock portfolio @ http://danielbraem.blogspot.com/ - interestingly enough, it is very challenging in this market where everything goes up without a pullback.  As a value investor, every day the market goes up, there is subsequently less value! 

I am getting called out of a Doctor Pepper Snapple position today - I bought this thing at $17 and change and it has really moved.  It looks like somebody big is accumulating this stock.  I haven't wrote about this company on this website, but I did include it in my book "Building the Next Berkshire Hathaway".  This company is doing all the right things - most importantly, paying off debt.

Enjoy the weekend.

I am switching my blog to a mock portfolio site.  It seems many people write about a lot of ideas, but there is no accountability.

I would like to create this site so there is some accountability to any recommendations I make.  The blog is found at the following site:

http://danielbraem.blogspot.com/

A stock I have written about quite a bit, Loews, recently reported earnings.  The key to this stock was the upward valuation in some of its investments within the CNA portfolio.

Boardwalk should be in much better shape going forward - most of the problems with the pipes have been resolved. 

Diamond Offshore is rock solid.

I would be curious to see what the FMV is for the hotels.  Must be much more than the $350M reported on the financial statements.

Once CNA stabilizes, they can re-pay the $1.25 preferred they owe to Loews (parent).  That will give Loews about $4B in cash, with about $800 in LT debt as an offset.

That is a lot of cash for the size of Loews.  Will be interesting to see how they deploy. 

This company is my largest holding (full disclosure) - stay tuned!