I went ahead and bought a position in Corinthian College (COCO) for an average purchase price of $2.09 per share. I sold out half my Medtronic (MDT) position at $34.95 per share, an $0.80 per share loss in order to take advantage of the COCO opportunity. I'll be buying more, as the stock drops and hold where I am, if it continues to climb.

A Picture of Phil Fisher

I spoke to Mr. Fisher twice on the phone in the 1999 at age 91, as he neared his last day on earth in 2004. He was the author of "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits." Mr. Buffett says that he is "15% Fisher" and "85% Benjamin Graham."

An Interesting Development

One of the worst investments I ever made was in Harley Davidson (HOG), back around the 2008 crash. The thing I learned was that when Net Profit Margins are projected to narrow, you had better pay attention to getting out of one of these Holy Grail approaches I take, until the stock reaches a 70% discount to Working Capital, or Net Quick Assets, which ever calculation is available. I made a killing on General Electric (GE) later on with this new educational insight.

Corinthian Colleges (CDCO) is in one of may favorite industries, Education. It is trading at $1.87 per share with a Working Capital per share of $2.35. If it gets to a 70% discount to Working Capital, I'll buy a bunch of it; if not, I'll skip it.

Cliffs Natural Resources

I just checked out the September "Value Line" presentation for Cliffs Natural Resources, and it is booming right along, even while the stock price dropped to around $50 a share. The Net Profit Margin is projected to widen and earnings expectations are moving upward from the previous presentation. This may be one of those rare deals where we want to hold it beyond the 100% pop, as it appears to have an economic engine without visible end.