Cosmopolitan Toastmasters

                     Cosmopolitan Investment Club Meeting Minutes, January 2020

Open:  Club President George Heim dropped the gavel and began the meeting at 6:30 p.m. sharp.  We had 13 of 18 members present and 5 guests:  Sanjay Mishra showed up early for his 2nd visit, Lloyd Mielke appeared to pick up an attractive lady in the bar, who claimed her name is Sally Austin.  Lloyd asked her for an investment club meeting date. She agreed.  Past President Lt. Col. Al Traynham also showed up to see how the ole club was doing.  Two other guys, Yemane Mulusew and Alejandro Esquiv showed up and challenged us to pronounce their names.   

Roll call:  A quorum (over 80% ownership) were represented, so we were able to conduct business.

Special Orders:  A motion was made to suspend the rules (agenda) for the purpose of adopting a new agenda and to elect our 2020 club officers.  That passed.  President George Heim passed out an new agenda for us to review.  Although it appears we have a very hard time adjourning at 8:30, the motion passed.  The election went like this:  people were volunteering like crazy for every office.  Like President Trump,  President Heim was accused of being a Russian Asset (Spy).  The other offices had many wanna-be's so there were several nominations, followed by insults, accusations, and name-calling.  After smoke settled,  the results were as followed.

President:   George Heim

Education Partner: John Drewitz

Treasurer:  Jerry Doffing

Secretary:  Sagacious Sam Charchian   

Meeting Minutes:  Since too few read the minutes here, Sam kindly read the minutes for those who struggle with: finding our web-page on the internet or suffer from poor reading skills or have memory-loss  combined with extremely short-term comprehension.  note: We could save some time here, by everyone reading these minutes online on meeting day.  Also, Sagacious Sam is slowly trying to abbreviate the minutes.

Treasurer's Report:  Jerry Doffing, as usual, read the comprehensive monthly treasurer's report:

note: Jerry offered an overall summary before he delved into details as followed:  "Our current value is $112,164.63, less contributions made in 2020 of $2,500.00 leaves an adjusted balance for contributions and withdrawals of $109,664.63. Comparing this to the year-end valuation number of $107,421.92, we show a gain (realized and unrealized) of $2,242.71 or 2.088%. Given that the S&P 500 is up 3.06%, Dow is up 2.84%, and the NASDAQ is up 4.64% - we find we are slightly behind of all of the indexes!"

Membership:  We are currently at 18 members with room for 2 more.

Current Holdings:  Jerry, as usual, provided an analysis of our current holdings.  We are very appreciative that Jerry took the time to evaluate each of our holdings followed with a buy, sell or hold recommendation.  He also suggested that we act on our current holdings, before we introduce new stocks under New Business.

Watch List:  What watch list?  There ain't no stinkin' watch list.  Where is it?

Stock Presentations Outline:  Education V.P, John Drewitz asked that when stocks are presented for consideration, the presentation should contain 3 elements:  1) some basic fundamentals, 2) discuss the chart looking for standard and/or unique patterns, and finally 3) offer the story (no numbers or charts) just talk about this company, sector and/or industry. 

Stock Analysis:  Absentee Education Partner, John Drewitz was pleased to present Lloyd Mielke who delivered a stock analysis on Dollar General (DG), which is forming a cup.  He then really got excited about Southwest Airlines (LUV).  Given the stock being in the low end of a channel, Lloyd suggested we purchase a $42.50 LEAP at market (approximately $14).  As a frustrated entomologist, Lloyd got all excited about insects, bugs, worms and especially butterfly's.  He suggested we use option butterfly's to sell 2 short term PUT's and buy 1 or 2 PUT's  After many attempts to explain what the heck was going on, even with Jerry's help Lloyd couldn't penetrate the concrete Trumpian wall surrounding the brains of the membership.   

Education Report:  There was no education report in January.

New Business:  Following the break, the following motions were made:

Jerry moved to sell the rest of our AMZN at market.  That passed.

He then moved to place a SELL stop/limit on our CMG at $772.69/$770,69.  After much debate and explanations about stop/limit orders, the limit part was voted down, leaving us with just a SELL STOP at $772.69 on a $878 stock.  That passed.

A motion to sell all of our shinny gold (KL) at market easily passed.

David Mitchell moved we prohibit all Sell Stop motions.  That really failed.

Lloyd then moved to do his option butterfly thing on LUV.  The option insect part failed, leaving us with a motion to buy the $42.50, 2021 LEAP (this is a long term Call option which always expires on the 3rd week of January).  That passed.  Jerry then moved that if this (approximately $14) option hits $20 (profit) or if it hits $7 (loss), we sell out.  That passed but not unanimously. 

Marin moved a motion to buy 32 shares of APPL at Market. That failed.  Sam then moved to buy 25 shares of AAPL with a lower-priced  limit-order at $295.69 on a pull-back.  That passed.

Jerry moved to buy 20 shares of LULU at market.  That easily passed sans discussion.

Jerry then moved to buy 2 $300 2021 Call LEAP's on COST and sell 2 $350 Call LEAP's to help pay for it.  That passed.

Having given a previous comprehensive presentation of LUV,  Lloyd also previously gave a fairly weak presentation on DG.  So when he moved to buy 25 shares of Dollar General, he couldn't even get a 2nd. Sad.

It was late (about 8:37), people were starting to leave.  Jerry quickly moved to purchase 200 shares of pharma AZN.  The stock was never presented.  We didn't even know who AstraZeneca is.  Nobody in their right mind invests like that.  Nevertheless, the assembled throng voted to buy whatever it is.  Sad.          

The Finale':  Once again it is always good to see long haired Doug Kallevig operating the laptop and  projector.  He is becoming the heart of our presentation time.  President Heim asked for comments from our guests. They mostly confessed they were confused much of the time, especially when options came up. Although not formally heard, several mumbled quietly that they were really impressed by the sagacious club secretary. Have a good month investing.  See you on the 3rd week of February which is the 17th. 

Closing:  It was 8:45, George Heim dropped the gavel.

WiFi:  Choose "DT-Meeting" under wifi on your phone.  Enter password "HERO2019"...accept terms and conditions.  

                                                      -2018 Liar's Poker Highlights-  

We have lost several Liar's Poker Players, so here are some old highlights, until we admit some daring souls who would like to play.           Here's last October highlights:

We had 7 players for Liars' Poker with the inclusion of Dr. Dave and Tom Nyberg.  We missed Tim Deegan, but were fortunate to have a good group playing.  It started out with Dr. Dave determined to take the King of the Hill away from the pompous self-award bearing Norm Grant.  After several failed costly attempts, Dave backed off.  Art was his usual self, bidding conservatively sometimes, and then going forward like a madman with outrageous bids.  Norm and Jerry were somewhat subdued all evening until late, when a miracle and a misstep by Tom Nyberg enabled the normally subdued Jerry to go for the Grand Slam.  We were all shocked when he took the throne from Norm.  Bill Kalina actually was a bit more aggressive, which caused him to overstep losing a few rounds. Sam, played brilliantly and left with a few bucks ahead.  Art had a rough night...financially.  As usual, Jerry made a few "love dates" during the game, as his mind seldom roams from "chicks" and "strippers", except when he was watching the Packers game on his phone.  Winning K-of-the-H was a miracle.  See photos below.                        

Section 2 article d.- Dumb-Ass-Loser Rule:  If a slam bid is made (the bubble has none) and the total count is also zero, then the dumb-ass bidder (who went for the grand slam) is obligated to: rise, apologize, and pay out $2 to each player.  Optional: He should apologize profusely to the King and offer him a drink.

                       Click on:   Liars Poker Rules  to play properly.

Important Links:      Letters-to-the-Editor ;   Club Photos;   Official Partnership Agreement