Dramatis Personae

For those confused by the sniping in some recent comment threads, this post may offer a partial explanation.

Dramatis Personae

- Dr. Paul Price aka Stockdoxc99: A retired dentist and stockbroker and prolific poster at GuruFocus and Seeking Alpha. Paul tends to invest in a broad portfolio of stocks he determines to be values based largely on historic earnings data and forward estimates from Value Line and other sources. He also constructs options strategies around various positions.

- William Spetrino, Jr., aka Billytickets: Former prolific poster on GuruFocus, blogger, and author of the book "Consume, Consume, Consume Some More: Spend More, Work Less". He tends to invest in a concentrated portfolio of large cap, blue chip consumer names (e.g., MO, KFT) and Berkshire Hathaway.

- Daniel Wahl aka DanielW: American ex-pat living in Vietnam, blogger and investor. Tends to invest in a fairly concentrated portfolio selected after in-depth fundamental research, and is willing to invest in companies before they are profitable based on an analysis of their assets and profit potential. A former poster on GuruFocus and Seeking Alpha.

Sources of Animosity

Between Daniel Wahl and Paul/Stockdoxc: Daniel Wahl once criticized Paul's understanding of risk, by pointing out that a stock's current price in relation to its previous highs and lows indicates nothing about the stock's prospects going forward. Paul then countered with criticisms of Daniel's understanding of risk. At the time, the investments Daniel had mentioned on GuruFocus, e.g., LEAPs on Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, were on a tear. Last year, when some of those investments began to decline (e.g., the zinc miner Strategic Resources) Paul became more zealous in his criticisms. Their dispute then got personal.

Between BillyTickets and Paul/Stockdoxc: I don't remember the origins of this one. Maybe one of the principals can explain.

Between Daniel Wahl and BillyTickets: There is no animosity that I am aware of between these two.