Monday @Mentions November 4, 2013

Thread of the Week:

Here's a pretty cool twist: @"M. Blank" wrote a comment to the post Is PE the best job in the world? (by @"goldman in da house") which would go on to become a thread all its own titled, "Thoughts from a Former Navy SEAL", and it took WSO by storm last week. His comment on the original thread earned him 9 Silver Bananas, but the standalone post that it became pulled an outstanding 30 Silver Bananas and 30 Facebook Likes. Fantastic job, and thank you for your service!

Comment of the Week:

@"Simple As..." kept bringing the heat this week in the same thread he was called out for last week. His answer to a question from @naivekid in the On the Job with Simple As... thread about how to determine the appropriate cost of capital was as follows:

Well, theoretically, you determine the appropriate required return using the weighted average cost of capital. You would find the cost of equity, specifically, using the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) or the fama-french 3-factor model (FF3). At least, that's how you'd be taught in school or what you'd be forced to learn for the CFA exam series. I personally do not use any of those, but will refrain from bashing them because I'm sure there are investors out there who are much more accomplished than me who use them.

That being said, the market is always implying a required rate of return for an asset. For instance, let's assume there is an asset trading at 4x. The market would be implying a required return (cost of capital) of 25%. Now, where you earn your keep is in risk-adjusting that implied required return. As an example, should you have the opportunity to buy this asset at a price of 4x from a mutual fund that needs to sell because of a lot of cash outflows or a pension fund that needs to sell to re-balance there's a good chance you're get a good deal because they are likely forced sellers. This is where your industry/company/macro knowledge and experience will come in to play. Just as a clarification, I'm not saying that I use this method all the time or even at all.

Hopefully this gives you an idea of what the discount rate is and what you're looking to do with it.

Honorable mention this week goes to @DBCooper for his potentially caption contest winning caption:

Strange. This is where Mr. Corzine said we could pick up the funds from our futures account...

in the WSO Caption Contest - Oct 30th... Win a Beautiful Free WSO T-shirt. thread.

The Professor:

@Nefarious- had a great follow-up piece to Coffee Is for Closers with last week's The Ebb and Flow That Is Life. TL;DR version? Work to live, don't live to work. Leave it all on the field, and the scoreboard will take care of itself. The post earned 6 Silver Bananas and 3 Facebook Likes.

Guidance Counselor:

There is networking help, and then there is networking help. @CRE really brought the goods last week with his post One Fell Swoop: Multi-Purpose Networking. This step-by-step guide to networking technique brought in 13 Silver Bananas and a Facebook Like.

Most Active Monkeys:

@"Discounted Cash Bro" was burning up the boards over the past week, racking up 176 banana points. @"Simple As..." was on his heels with 158. That's solid work, fellas.

Where's Waldo?

Here's a couple monkeys we haven't heard from in awhile. Where y'at, primates? @"Virginia Tech 4ever" @bankerella @TheKing

Did I miss anyone or any post or comments?