Cosmopolitan Toastmasters

     -The Official minutes of Cosmopolitan Investors 2019-

Important Notice:  The Cosmopolitan Investment Club meets at the DoubleTree Hotel, 7800 Normandale Blvd., Bloomington, MN.  It is located at the Northwest Corner of Highways 100 and 494.  We meet in the "nine-mile grill", located just to the right and behind the front desk.         Note:  From years ago, some will remember the hotel as the Raddison South Hotel.

            Cosmopolitan Investment Club Meeting Minutes, May 2019

Beloved Club President George Heim dropped the gavel and began the meeting at 6:32 p.m.  Eleven of 18 current members showed up.  We also had three guests: Ken Farber and Curt Lensert along with his wife, Dana. 

Roll call:  A quorum (50% ownership) was present, so we were able to conduct business.

Meeting Minutes:  Sam kindly read the minutes for those who struggle with the English alphabet, memory-loss, pronunciation and comprehension.  We could save some time here, by everyone reading these minutes online.

Treasurer's Report:  Jerry Doffing read the monthly (highlights below) report:

Please note the balances from TD Ameritrade and ICLUB are off by the food fund balance of $2,680.00.

Our current value is $94,788.21, less contributions made in 2019 of -$10,465.81 leaves an adjusted balance for contributions and withdrawals of $105,254.02. Comparing this to the yearend valuation number of $108,050.82, we show a loss (realized and unrealized) of $2,796.8 or 2.59%. Given that the S&P 500 is up 14.07%, Dow is up 10.44%, and the NASD is up 17.80% - we remain noticeably and significantly behind of all of the indexes!

Please check your contributions since 1/1/19. If you have not made the required minimum contribution of $500.00 annually, consider making that at the next meeting.

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

Stock Analysis:  Jerry provided an analysis of our current holdings and his recommendations which was mostly to sell BA.

Buy/Hold:  hold current stocks except BA. 

Sell/Hold:  BA

Watch List:  There were no additions to our "watch list" which still consists of the following:  CHDN, ATVI, SNE, LMT, ALXN, AMTD, and IAC.  note: Concerning Broadcom (AVGO)  David Mitchell has been hired as a full-time consultant.  We now have an inside man (a spy) who refuses to help us with insider trading.  We bought more shares in April and May.

·       Education:  In the absence of Tom Nyberg, Education Partner, John Drewitz allowed Doug Kallevig to do the May presentation.  Doug covered an esoteric chart assessment system called Heikin-Ashi which can help determine action to be taken overnight. Most of us were confused about its relation to our club.  John Drewitz set off the timer.  Thanks to Doug for volunteering to fill-in for Tom Nyberg.   

Stock Presentations:

A lot of stocks were thrown out there for consideration:  Sam threw COST out for consideration.  David Mitchell announced COST and CAT would be wise investments.  Jerry offered DPZ (Domino's Pizza) and Lloyd took up the rear with NEM (a Nevada Gold Mining Co.)  We used FINVIZ to look at technical and fundamentals.   Ed. note:  Education Partner, John Drewitz, urged more members to come in with some stock buy or sell recommendations.  Along with a little on-line research, its easy can find a suggestion or two, to help spread ideas around the partnership better. Even once a year would be appreciated.  Also, Doug is getting pretty slick in operating the laptop and keeping up with requests. 

Investment Business:  Jerry moved to buy 40 shares of COST at market.  John Drewitz moved to amend the motion to include a 10% trailing STOP.  The amendment and main motion passed.

Jerry then moved to purchase 37 shares of AVGO at market since it dropped precipitously that day.  Sam moved to amend the motion that we should just stick our little toe in with 10 shares.  Jerry moved to set the buy with a Limit Order at AVGO's 200-day moving average which is even lower.  That failed.  Jerry needing consoling, then moved to set the ubiquitous 10% trailing STOP with the purchase.  That passed, as did the amend to 10 shares instead of 37.  The main motion also passed, so we bought 10 shares of AVGO at market with a 10% trailing stop.  Only two main motions may be a club record for doing so little. 

·       The Finale':  We had three guests who were impressed by the skills of our President George and the sagacity of our beloved secretary.  Hopefully they will return.  Have a good month investing.  See you on the 3rd week of June which is the 17th. 

Closing:  It was 8:41, George Heim dropped the gavel.  

                                     -Liar's Poker Highlights-  

Liars Poker was cancelled.  We really need a few more players to keep the post meeting Liar's Poker alive.   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