About the stock bloggers: Sheldon D. Liber, AIA

Best Investment Ever: No. 1: My wife. The value of a good partner has exponential value! No. 2: My House. Having a roof over our heads, the tax breaks, and equity build-up on Southern California real estate has given us some basic stable security. No. 3: Intuitive Surgical (ISRG): I bought Computer Motion (RBOT) for all the right reasons plus it was local and if I was investing in a very small cap stock I wanted something local so I could go to the meetings and visit the company. RBOT & ISRG were in litigation over patents. They solved their differences by merging. I bought in at the very bottom $7.70 per share and it has reached as high as $359.59 in the past few months.

My Worst Investments: Enron (but they cheated) and IndyMac Bank.

My Favorite Stock: Not hard to figure it's ISRG...and I will not be selling in the foreseeable future. This one still has room to run and has barely reached mid-cap status. My next favorite is Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) which is the one to hold if you only have one.

My 5 Largest Stock Holdings (Sep '09): Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), E ZCorp (EZW), Diageo (DEO), General Electric (GE), and a tie between the Southern Co. (SO), and Anadarko Petroleum (APC).

Investment Philosophy: As a student of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett I believe strictly in value investing. While I do invest in individual stocks I hold an equal amount in three Vanguard Mutual Funds. That said, 80% of my assets are in real estate which has greater tax beneifits, more leverage, steady appreciation, and gives me more control of my own destiny. You often hear people chattering about growth verses value investing. On a stock by stock basis there might be something to talk about but in a more global sense there is only value investing. If you see no value on the buy then you should not buy. Sometimes I think there is no such thing as a growth stock. In real estate there is an expression that "you make your money on the buy". No amount of hoping and praying will increase your return on invested capital. My stock screens focus on 1) Cash Flow with high Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), 2) Price to sales P/S (not P/E), 3) Dividends and 4) Price to Book Value. Good honest management should not have to be said but is an imperative. While Berkshire Hathaway does not pay a dividend it is important to note that almost everything Warren Buffett chooses to invest in does! Investment data over the last 70 years supports this approach further revealing that a basket of dividend paying stocks has appreciated more than non-dividend paying stocks.