Big Five Sporting Goods is no longer worthy of its name, its stock price having been harpooned more than 95% from its 2021 high. The sporting goods retailer of 425 stores trades for just $40 million, or about $94,000 per store. But the company's inventory averages $680,000 per store, so this is worth a closer look! The company's tangible book value is $225 million, for a price to book ratio of 18%. The reason for the massive discount is a drop in same-store sales resulting in a negative turn on the income statement, and cancelation of the dividend. The former darling has lost money for three ..read more

Karsan Value Funds (KVF) is a value-oriented fund, as described here. Due to securities regulations, the fund is not open to the public at this time. Should that change in the future, there will be an announcement on this site. For the second quarter ended June 30th, 2024, KVF gained $8.51 per share, increasing the value of each share to $77.01. This represents a 16% pre-tax return, comparing well with the S&P 500's 4% return, and the Russell 2000 and S&P/TSX's low single-digit negative returns. Currency gains helped returns by $0.40 per share in the quarter. Most of KVF's $1.7 milli ..read more

The people I grew up with and the people I know were generally from two-parent homes where the parents were generally the biological parents. So it was with a lot of fascination that I read Rob Henderson's book Troubled, which was a look inside the lives of his childhood network, where most kids were from single-families or foster care. It reminded me a lot of Hillbilly Elegy, JD Vance's book of a similar nature. Like Vance, Henderson managed to escape the destructive lifestyles around him to become a Yale graduate. The stories of self-destructive behaviour from those in Henderson's past are ..read more

I found a 2022 paper which is oddly extremely specific to my situation, titled "Statin therapy is not warranted for a person with high LDL-cholesterol on a low-carbohydrate diet". It's not only recent, but it's very comprehensive, discussing a range of topics with a ton of references that I'm still going through. The paper starts off by attacking the idea that saturated fat consumption raises blood cholesterol levels which in turn raises cardiovascular risk. This hypothesis does not have empirical support, they argue, but you can formulate your own opinion by going through the references the ..read more

At my request, my cardiologist sent me some information about why I should be scared about my high LDL levels. I covered one such item he sent me in a previous post, and in this one I'm going to cover another: an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine titled Proof That Lower Is Better--LDL Cholesterol and IMPROVE-IT I have to give the writers of this editorial credit for realizing that just because statins lower both heart attacks and LDL does not mean that lowering LDL would lower heart attack risk. They note that there may be other mechanisms at work "including amelioration of end ..read more

When Alloy Steel's majority owner decided to take the company private at $2.55 per share, I was not pleased and suspected a lot of wrongdoing. So, we sued them. Three years later, we've come to a settlement that was approved by the court. AYSI's buyers have kicked in another $9.5 million, which represents about an additional $2 per share, to make us go away. I worked specifically with attorneys Donald Enright and Jordan Cafritz, and I'm grateful to the whole team at Levi & Korsinsky for doing great work to get this result. I highly recommend you give them a call if you find yourself in a ..read more

Karsan Value Funds (KVF) is a value-oriented fund, as described here. Due to securities regulations, the fund is not open to the public at this time. Should that change in the future, there will be an announcement on this site. For the first quarter ended March 31st, 2024, KVF gained $5.65 per share, increasing the value of each share to $68.50. This represents an 11% pre-tax return, comparing well with the S&P 500's 10% return, the Russell 2000's 5% return, and S&P/TSX's 6% return. Currency gains helped returns by $0.66 per share in the quarter. Multi-baggers Beazer (BZH) and M/I Ho ..read more

I feel great, I work out almost every day, and my biomarkers are all in terrific shape, except for one: the amount of LDL in my bloodstream. My doctor is so concerned that he wanted to put me on statins (a class of drug) and refer me to a cardiologist right away. I wanted to do some research before going on any pharmaceuticals, but I did proceed to meet with the cardiologist who did further testing (ECG, physical checks for cholesterol near elbows and achilles, blood pressure check) but nevertheless echoed my family doctor that I should go on statins right away. So I've been digging into the r ..read more

Hearing statistics of what happened during a genocide doesn't tug on our emotional heartstrings quite like an individual's story does. Maus is one Holocaust survivor's extraordinary tale. I first read this book a couple of decades ago and it touched me a lot. So as I teach my son about this horrifying period in history, it made sense to me to read it again, this time with him. It's written in comic book form, making it very easy for children to follow along. Kids tend to lack perspective, and understandably so: their only experience of life is their own and the few people they know around th ..read more

I've read and agreed with a lot of stuff from Morgan Housel over the years, so I already knew I'd agree with most of what he says in The Psychology of Money. The book discusses a number of factors that individuals should consider as they think about how they save and grow their savings. I skimmed most of it because I was already familiar with most of the concepts. But for beginners to the world of saving, I think this is a terrific book. A number of important concepts are discussed with helpful examples. The reason I don't read more Housel is because I find him wordy. The late great Charlie ..read more