Geoff Gannon September 23, 2010

Greenbackd: One of My Favorite Blogs – 1 Hour 15 Minute Interview With Toby Carlisle

Toby Carlisle writes about stocks Benjamin Graham would buy. He focuses on catalysts more than Benjamin Graham did. Toby’s approach shares some things with Warren Buffett’s and Michael Burry’s partnership days. One of those things is an appetite for illiquid stocks.

Another thing Toby shares with Warren Buffett is an interest in activism. Buffett’s partnership did a lot of coat tail riding. Warren Buffett didn’t just stick to buying a huge basket of Benjamin Graham bargains. Instead Buffett sometimes followed activists into Benjamin Graham bargains. Other times: Buffett went activist himself.

You’ll read a lot of that early Buffett thinking at Greenbackd. One thing you won’t read about is focus. Benjamin Graham spread his bets around. Warren Buffett didn’t. Toby definitely prefers the Benjamin Graham approach. Toby doesn’t just minimize risk when he picks each stock. He also minimizes risk by picking lots of stocks. Every stock Toby buys is super cheap.

A good recent example – one I don’t own but am terribly interested in – is Seahawk Drilling (HAWK). Seahawk owns rigs worth more than its market cap. The company did a presentation where they said an outside appraisal valued the fleet at 75% of book. The stock trades for less than 25% of book. Seahawk first appeared on Greenbackd as a guest post. Toby gets phenomenal guest posts. Since then Toby’s been writing about the stock himself.

HAWK is just one example of the great Benjamin Graham bargains you’ll find at Greenbackd.

Listen to the Interview

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