Research Update: Waste Management and Cintas
I’m excited to share a small milestone for the site: I have begun contributing deep dive stock analysis to Seeking Alpha. While Arbalist Money will remain the primary home for my more unconventional ideas and personal portfolio thoughts, publishing on a larger platform allows me to put my quality compounder framework in front of a […]
Why I’m Hoarding Cash While Markets Are Strong
This past Christmas, my wife gave me a copy of The Tao of Warren Buffett. The book is a collection of Warren Buffet’s aphorisms organized by themes, and one section in particular resonated with me. It describes how Buffett behaves when markets are strong and high-quality businesses trade at significant premiums. Rather than lowering his […]
Inside a Quality Compounder: How 4 Businesses Create Long-Term Value
In the Quality Compounder Hub, I lay out the characteristics I look for when evaluating long-term investments. Things like durable moats, high returns on invested capital, pricing power, and disciplined capital allocation form the foundation. But criteria are just theory until you see them applied. One of the most common questions I get is a […]
2025 Year in Review: Investing Lessons Reinforced
The end of the year offers a rare opportunity to reflect and audit our own thinking. My goal on Arbalist Money is to share objective analysis on stock market investing as well as the evolution of my thinking. For me, writing is thinking. Looking back at my writing—the articles, calls and caution published over the […]
What Poor Charlie’s Almanack Reveals About Charlie Munger — and Why Buffett Listened
I have always wondered why Warren Buffett chose to listen to Charlie Munger as closely as he did, for as long as he did. Was it simply their shared roots in Omaha, or was there something more? We see the two of them together on stage at Berkshire Hathaway meetings, but beyond that, much of […]
Is There Value in Chipotle (CMG) and P&G (PG)?
The hardest part of investing is not necessarily finding good businesses, but knowing when the market is wrong about them. While headlines are dominated by AI and tech momentum, a different story is playing out in the consumer sector. Several high-quality compounders are being penalized for short-term concerns. This creates a setup for two names […]
Is Marriott Stock a Buy? Understanding Its Loyalty Moat and Valuation
Is Marriott stock a buy at these levels? Our deep dive suggests caution. Glance at the ticker MAR, and you likely think of a hotel business. Visit Marriott’s website and it asks you to book a room. You have probably stayed in one of its properties. But if you analyze Marriott as a real estate […]
Weekly Compounder Update: Broadcom, Costco & The Price of Perfection
Welcome to the Weekly Compounder Update. Each week, I look past the headlines to stress-test the investment thesis of the companies on the Arbalist Watchlist. My goal is to separate the noise from what matters to determine if our long-term edge is widening or eroding. Theme of the Week: Good Is No Longer Good Enough […]
Weekly Compounder Update: Netflix Complexity Creep
Welcome to the Weekly Compounder Update. Each week, I look past the headlines to test the investment thesis of the companies on the Watchlist. My goal is to separate the noise from what matters. This week introduces a more concise format. I am shifting my focus from “reporting the news” to a sharper thesis-audit format […]
Weekly Compounder Update | Jobs Surprise, AI Volatility, Mixed Earnings for HD, NVDA, MDT
Welcome back to the Weekly Compounder Update. Each week we track the headlines that matter for long-term investors who care about moats, margins, and durability. Not just price action. This week’s news pulled in two directions. We finally received a delayed jobs report that showed an economy that is still growing but increasingly strained. At […]