I don't believe anymore in people being able to assess stocks. What I remember from the last years in this forum were very strong and regularly repeated recommendations for Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Carmax, Hershey and Google. I pity everyone who followed any of those recommendations as apart from Google all others went down dramatically since those recommendations.

I'll admit: I was on who invested in all of these stocks, and as you stated, the only one I didn't lost money on was Google.

I currently sit at at a -40% loss on Carmax (unfortunately, also my largest position), -18% on DG, and -1% on HSY, and that's after doing multiple tranches as price declines continued. That's my return after around 2-3 years while the market has skyrocketed.

That said, I place zero blame on Jim for this, and in fact I am still incredibly grateful that he posted his thoughts on these, despite the results. I place no fault on anyone but myself for decisions that I ultimately chose to make.

I'd love to hear from Jim more details on how he navigated these trades successfully and produced a profit. It could be a good learning experience.

But in any case, I sincerely hope Jim will continue to post his thoughts/opinions on stocks like these that he perceives to be deals as well as Berkshire's valuation, because even if they ultimately end up being incorrect prognostications, I still greatly appreciate the extra data and insight he and others choose to share.

The lesson I came away with is similar to yours, that my faith in my own abilities (and others') to assess and pick individual stocks has declined significantly, but in spite of that, I'm still grateful for people taking time out of their day to post and write their thoughts for the sake of others.

It's one of the best things about this board, and I hope that it continues.