Behind The Idea

Our Amazon miniseries rolls on to part three, as Professor Aswath Damodaran joins Behind the Idea to explain why he went short Amazon in September, and what he's learned from covering the company. He approaches Amazon with the utmost of respect, but notes that all growth stories hit a limit at some point. We hit on the accounting, the ulcers that result from shorting Amazon, and how to find the best way to value a company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whitney Tilson is the founder of Kase Learning and was the founder and portfolio manager of Kase Capital. What led him to leave the asset management game to go into teaching others? That's where we start our special interview with him, but it goes far beyond that as we discuss the fate of long/short value investing, the problems with having too much success too early, and why shortselling is worth studying even if it might not be the best strategy for most investors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're continuing to look at Amazon with Part 2 of our miniseries on the company. We bring on Marc Pentacoff, a Seeking Alpha editor and financial analysis wizard, to dissect Amazon's financial statements. How does their world-beating success translate to their numbers? How do we know it's still day 1 at Amazon? How should value investors look at these? We break it down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We kick off our miniseries on Amazon with a discussion with Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store, the book about Amazon. Stone gives us his perspective on the pending HQ2 decision, Amazon's continual growth, and what makes it all work (hint: it rhymes with Leff Tezos). It helps us get at two of our key questions about the company: is their key man risk for Amazon, and is the company at risk of being too big to fail? We discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It takes creativity to invest in pot stocks at this stage. Valuation isn't there, so you have to imagine the growth ahead, think about how to identify a winner that not everyone else has, and prepare for the ups and downs that are sure to come. We talk with Darren McCammon, who has already been investing in the industry for several years - including in ebbu, Canopy Growth Corporation's latest purchase - about Canopy and the marijuana industry as a whole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit GM to further dig into Blue Pacific's bearish view on the company and the industry. We also speak with Phoebe Wall Howard of the Detroit Free Press to see what people inside the industry are saying. It doesn't paint the rosiest picture in the world for investors, but it certainly makes for interesting study. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our first podcast on National Beverage Corp - owner of Lacroix sparkling water, FIZZ - left us unquenched. So we brought on Vince Martin, Seeking Alpha author, to go into the ups and downs of the bull case and this one of a kind story. Then we invited Rachel Arthur of Beverage Daily to give us more perspective on what's going on in the industry at large. It leaves a question of how much luck National Beverage Corp had in riding the sparkling water, and whether or not shareholders should care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's easy to take for granted how unconventional Jeff Bezos is, but his approach to Amazon's business is worth a closer look. We do a close read of the 2017 shareholder letter he published this April to see if we can better understand the company as a business and as an investment. This also is a prequel for our miniseries on Amazon to come this November. As might be expected, there's a lot to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Set aside the recent price action on pot stocks, and a fact still remains - the marijuana industry looks more and more legitimate. But is that the same as it being worth investing in? And what sort of industry is marijuana going to be? We take a couple articles on Canopy Growth Corporation and see if we can part the smoke to find out what might be in the company's future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does a relatively overvalued company mean its peers are cheap? Do peak cycle share buybacks create or destroy value? Is General Motors really all that cheap? Seeking Alpha author Blue Pacific raises concerns about the legacy auto giant, and we dissect them to see what's left for shareholders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National Beverage is the maker of Lacroix and both one of the most enduring growth stories on the current market and one of the quirkiest. What to make about the short seller accusations, the CEO's bold statements, and the fact that we're investing in flavored water? We discuss a few recent bullish arguments and see how much Lacroix's story fizzes. Topics covered: 2:40 - Breaking down National Beverage's business 8:45 - The bullish beats - a takeover? consistent growth? ignore tariffs-depressed gross margin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Questions have been asked about Alibaba long before news broke that Jack Ma might be leaving soon. We got in on the question-asking game, as we quizzed Alibaba bear Anne Stevenson-Yang about what the short case around the company really is, and Alibaba bull Julian Lin about the reasons to stay long. There was more overlap in the two discussions than we expected. Topics covered: Interview with Anne Stevenson-Yang from 2:15-33:15 3:00 minute mark - Why do Alibaba’s different businesses go together? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Insurance companies can be hard to understand. Brighthouse Financial, a newly spun off company, has attracted both bulls and bears in its short public career. Ranjit Thomas recently wrote a Seeking Alpha article expressing skepticism about famed value investor David Einhorn's position in the company wouldn't work, leading Einhorn to respond with a few comments. What is the story here and is there a way to grasp BHF's business model? We take a shot at it. Topics covered: 2:30 - Starting off - what does BHF d Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's Behind the Idea goes back to the football pitch to discuss Manchester United. The Ringer's Katie Baker joins us to talk about the changing nature of fandom, the growth and cycle of soccer in the US, and the distortions that might exist in pricing a sports company. Then Seeking Alpha's Alex Kivali explains his case in the company, the growth MANU can see abroad, and the difference between US and UK fandom. Topics covered: W/Katie Baker 4:00 – Women’s world cup as high water mark in US interes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ralph Lauren has been getting a lot of credit for its turnaround from the market, but what if that's premature? We dive into the topic with Berna Barshay of Viola Capital Management, to hear why she's short RL, what her research process and edge is like, and what she thinks about sharing her first public idea experience. Topics covered: 1:45 - How does Ralph Lauren's Q1 fit into the short thesis, and the focus on US wholesale and comparable numbers? 7:15 - What is the way out of Ralph Lauren's chicken/egg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Disney's story is one of the more interesting long-running sagas on today's market. We discuss the company's fate and pending transformation with Seeking Alpha author Brian Langis (the 2-minute mark) and with The Atlantic's Derek Thompson (the 50-minute mark) to figure out whether Disney might be able to cross into streaming. Topics Covered: 2:00 - Reviewing Brian's thesis and the new hope for Disney 7:45 - What are you watching for in the transition to streaming? When does the tipping point come? 16:00 - H Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quoth the Raven joins Mike Taylor of Behind the Idea to talk about his thesis on gold, a topic that can often leave cash flow focused investors scratching their heads. While Mike and Quoth don't agree on everything, they do discuss two key points - the importance of an independent and skeptical perspective in investing, and the risk of becoming too proud of your thinking. The podcast also covers QTR's background as an investor and how he developed his unique perspective, as well as how he maintains to this Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeking Alpha author Julian Lin made the bull case for Alibaba, arguing it's growing and unbeatable in its markets (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4185148-china-fallen-alibaba-conviction-buy). Alibaba is China's champion, and it like many China companies has drawn questions about the true numbers of its business. So we dive in to see whether there's more to Alibaba than meets the eye, or whether the growth story has legs. Topics covered 2:30 – Reviewing the article thesis – easy on the hot takes, but Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit Shopify from all angles to see what the investment case is both for longs and shorts. We had From Growth To Value (Long) and Ramy Taraboulsi, CFA and Jan Barta (each Short) talk up their views on the stock and their case. While the narratives don't always intersect, we hope the different perspectives helps investors better consider Shopify and other battleground stocks. Topics covered: Introduction – 1:25 3:45-46:00 – From Growth To Value 4:00 – How does the Growth investing mindset fit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The World Cup is over, but the Premier League is around the corner. And Manchester United trades on the market every day. Just because the club often wins doesn't mean it's a winning investment. We review a recent article by Alex Kivali - https://seekingalpha.com/article/4185750-runway-quite-manchester-united - to see what upside there is in the club and whether good times loom for investors. Topics covered: 4:00 minute mark – A recap of Manchester United's story so far 8:00 – MANU’s international op Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices