On December 19th, 2011 we began purchasing shares of Corning Inc. for investor accounts – these purchases were made at an average price of $12.73 per share.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to write an article explaining all of the reasons why we felt Corning represented a good value for investors, we did however mention the purchases in our February 1st, 2012 article The Prime Ministers "One Dollar" bets  when we published  our correspondence saying:

 

“haven’t always been able to publish all ideas (but always execute for friends and family) – for e.g. haven’t had time to write an article on it yet, but have also been buying GLW (mostly below 13).”

This article is a follow up on our February 12th, 2011 article: “How we lost investor’s money on Cisco”, a title which probably seems even more prescient about now. The article put forth the very unpopular idea that Cisco shares represent both a good value and safe investment, and that an emotional reaction likely played a key role in the recent volatile movements in the share price.

Our opinion hasn't changed. It is not our goal to purchase "at the bottom" nor sell "at the top", for we are not aware of any reliable way to go about doing this (although we are open to suggestions - preferably those that do not involve astrology). Instead, our interests lie in owning good companies, with long-term earning power, that can be purchased at a deep discount.

 

 

Virtually all marketing promises more than a product can deliver.  This is particularly true in retail consumer marketing.    If Marketers didn’t seek this outcome, we would not be living in such an acute consumer driven society.  On some level, almost all products have the latent and subtle promise of somehow making our life easier, and better.  There is nothing new about this.  It is a promise that always goes unfulfilled in the long run, which is why we have to keep consuming.