You know me, i love to read and learn from the Masters.

Roger Little was one of the world's richest investors. As all intelligent people do, he wrote a book in reverse, meaning: instead of saying how wonderful his life was, he turned it upside down and explains in this wonderful book how can you lose 100M and other valuable advice.

Below are some of my notes on this. Enjoy.

How to lose 100M and other valuable advice by Roger Little. Get it here

Never buy share in a company you are working if it is earning over 100% ROE
In our free enterprise system, that rate won´t last.
Capital will pour into that industry from other sources and ultimately the Required Return even for the best of industries will decline to 15-20%.
You will almost certainly take a loss on the investment you made when the rate of return was too high.

After the 1929 crash i started to study all the statistics from the leading companies listed on the NYSE.
In 1931 as a result of making dozens of charts showing past earnings records, prices, net worth, networking capital, and cash position for man companies i decided it was time to buy.
Since i didn't have enough money i showed my charts to a friend who was an insurance broker. He was impressed with the analysis of each situation and made a deal with me
I would make a life insurance and he would guarantee a $100.000 bank loan for me to purchase the diversified list of stocks.

I took out $500k worth of life insurance and borrowed $100k with his guarantee. But when England went off the gold standard in September 1931, i lost my courage and sold everything off, and took a substantial bath - but not as bad as if i had hung on.

Advice: In an extreme Bear Market such as after the 1929 collapse, it is almost impossible to pick the bottom.

Advice: Do n0t borrow heavily against unlisted securities with limited marketability. If you have to sell during a bear market to pay off debts, you'll take an awful bath.

Advice: If you donate worthless securities that might have some comeback potential, to a family trus, be sure to file a gift tax return.
Then at least, you'll have the protection of the statue of limitations.

Advice: Whenever an investment opportunity from Texas gets all the way up to N. England after having been offered to the smart money in Texas, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia and N.Y., beware.
If the project had been any good, the N. England investor would never have had the opportunity even to see it.

Advice: All investment bankers now realize that the risks are too great in underwriting an issue where common stockholders have a preemptive right.
It it therefore imperative that any company wishing to raise capital, get the shareholders to give up preemptive rights.
Otherwise the company will find it impossible to sell stock.

Advice: Have a Tax Lawyer prepare a legal document that will stand as a true guarantee, so that in a similar situation, a tax deduction can be taken against ordinary income instead of having to be taken as an unusable capital loss.

Have a strong tax lawyer with you that knows all the technicalities of the IRS. It will save you billions.

advice: don't ever think that your stop-loss is a guarantee against loss.
My stop-loss at $60 was executed at $40.

Advice: Don't put prominent local people in the board of an acquisition that needs drastic reorganization.
Their loyalty will be to the community and not the stockholders.

advice: when you buy a company loaded with cash that need to be completely reorganized and expanded,
don't count on that cash lasting very long.
Whenever you make a long-term forecast of sales ad earnings, you have to project estimated b/s positions for at least every quarter of the period involved.

advice: invest in what you know. putting money in something you know nothing about and plan on being an absentee owner, will drain time and money from you.
and you won't get the results.

advice: before you build a facility for the entertainment of people in a small community, through some type of survey, that they can afford such a luxury.

advice: never buy land on an isolated island, expecting somebody in the future to bail you out at a handsome profit.

advice: don't answer your own phone when your secretary is on vacation.
ADVICE: don't start a service business in an industry where the customers themselves can provide the service you perform, unless you have patent protection.

As you can see from this program i was always a perpetual optimist.
It took my many  years but i stopped doing predictions based on annual reports.
Things never happen the way you would expect them to, specially in the textile business.

advice: if you have just learned to fly, don't make any cross-country trips without adequate instruction and proper equipment.
never risk a trip in a bad weather - it could be your last.

This is also Ken Fisher's favorite book.

You can get it here

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