Thanks Brian!

Tier 1 Enterprises will always form the foundation of the Tier 1 portfolio, and I will not stray from devoting the majority of my time to finding new T1 businesses as well as price points at which to add to our existing holdings. But I went in a different direction with my latest pick, hot off the presses:

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/09/28/why-im-shor...

Shorting stocks is not the best strategy for all investors, and I want everyone who has been following Tier 1 to understand that it isn’t necessary to follow along with my short recommendations if you’re uncomfortable doing so. Tier 1’s short positions will likely be extremely volatile, and may produce sizable short term losses. Also, I will be sizing the short positions conservatively, and so they likely will not have a substantial impact on the overall return of the portfolio.

So why am I adding shorts to the portfolio? Well, as I wrote in the RSH short rec:

I much more enjoy building long-term ownership positions in the world's most elite businesses and profiting alongside them as they help to lead the world forward. But as portfolio manager of Tier 1 investments, I appreciate the hedging advantages that a few well-placed short positions can offer. When the market declines, these shorts can serve to offset some of the losses on our long positions and serve as a ready source of cash that we can then use to buy Tier 1 enterprises at depressed prices. I believe that's a winning formula for long-term investment success.

But again, I believe that anyone who decides to follow a long-only investment strategy will do just fine over the long term, especially if they have a core group of Tier 1 businesses serving as the foundation of their portfolio :)

Joe T