Sum of Parts

Here is the story of an interesting trade that I closed at the end of last month. I was running my screens the first weekend of March and encountered this stock. Here are the vitals:-
Price to Book - 1.2
Price to Earnings - 2.0
This meant that you could get more than 40% return on this stock just from earnings. It seemed too good to be true!!! I dug further on this stock - Thermodynetics(TDYT) and found that they had reorganised after the end of the last fiscal and now owned only one subsidiary. The subsidiary - Turbotec - is listed in the London AIM market and has been trading at GBP 0.70. TDYT owns 56.32% of Turbotec. On a per share valuation basis, this puts the value of the investment in subsidiary at USD 2.44. There were no other major liabilities on the balance sheet. The stock was trading at around USD 1.65. I didn't know much about the industry segment TDYT was in - heating, cooling and refrigeration applications.
I immediately placed an order and ended up with shares averaging 1.68 in the next two weeks. As is my practice for such trades, I immediately placed a sell order - good till cancelled
- at my target price of USD 2.40. The order executed at the end of the month. A good return of 36.6% in less than a month's time!!!

Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger

I was interested to know more about Charlie Munger after reading the almanac. The opportunity presented itself in the form of this book. I had read Janet Lowe's Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Investor some years ago as well.

A few things about Charlie comes out:-
* Love of books - biographies and other non-fiction
* Great thinking ability
* Charlie's personality hidden behind the curmudgeonly shell
* Social Responsibility through support of various causes like abortion rights and health care

Even an accomplished author like Janet Lowe is unable to do justice and unravel the life, thoughts and business history of the complicated personality of Charles Thomas Munger. The book is divided into various chapters, not so much in a chronological fashion. There are some of his speeches reproduced in the appendix as well.