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It’s probably the cheapest leverage they have and from my framing that’s what the TRS are cheap (variable) leverage. Buy now pay later for share buybacks. The side benefit is that when the shares trade down, they reduce earnings and BVPS which allows the NCIB to pick up shares cheaper all else equal.

The P/L - less financing fees - is settled either monthly or quarterly (I can't recall which). All of the profits they've made have already been booked and taxes paid except the most recent 1- or 3-month period. Typically, either party could end the contract at any given settlement date. Fairfax has the option to discontinue the swaps basically at any time. Depends on what your objective is - minimize taxes or maximize exposure to your own shares. The TRS allow exposure to the Fairfax shares with only 10-20% of the required notional paid. The other 80-90% can buy more shares....but yes, you'll pay more taxes.

"If you've wondered how committed Washington is to making crypto succeed in the US, that tells you something." I thought the bitcoin maxis were libertarians who espoused a monetary medium free from big government involvement. I guess their new mantra is that "we are all chartalists now!" lolz. Bill

More sobbing and crying from the WSJ crowd who do nothing but predict "Storm clouds on the horizon for the USA" ---- 18 months of this bullshit by the "experts" predicting the end of the world for the USA under Trump. Common thread: they all look silly, stupid and envious. Serious question: What happened to that negative GDP print all these morons have been predicting?

Tvk

Tax changes for American business like accelerated depreciation to rebuild American industry/manufacturing. Tariffs to rebuild American business/manufacturing. Tax cuts for the middle class. Actual targeting of fraud schemes cutting billions of dollars of theft intended for social programs. Expanding fossil fuel production for energy dominance. There is no comparison from Biden's ridiculous and wasteful policies. Everything being done is to grow the economy and obviously the market is a believer.

Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] Easy-peasy to run and stimulate a growth oriented economic and fiscal policy, kicking the can [turd] down the road to descendants [in policy [in office], in the population]. Who is picking up the tap in the end? - - - o 0 o - - - What really happened with the infrastructure reform POTUS had on his agenda in his 45th period? - - - o 0 o - - - Some data :

The Ukrainian comedian means serious business against the adversary and agressor : Meanwhile, Putin spends gradually less and less time in Kremlin, scared sh*tless for getting something nasty dumped on his head, and all his advicers and generals don't dare explain him the reality, the real situation. Everybody near him is scared to be shot as the messenger. Now compare that to the management style of the comedian, getting the very best out of the people around him, based on mutual trust. - - - o 0 o - - - This morning at 4:00 AM I heard the noise from The Economist getting trown in the mailbox, frontpage af it : When has that happened since Aleksej Navalnyjs euthanization [<- I had to get help from the Lady of the House [educated translator] to find that word! ] , perhaps blended with various throws from windows, none of them certainly from ground floor?

It’s like saying I should sell my FFH now because if I wait 5 years I’ll have to pay more taxes. That’s a good thing. I think it’s the same here. To me the point of the TRS is to let FFH maintain its leverage (via buybacks) even if the stock gets expensive.

added to netflix and fairfax

Yep. Anyone who feels the need to maintain 25-50% cash probably lacks confidence in their investment abilities. My advice would be to follow Jack Bogle's advice and remain nearly fully invested & DCA into broad based equity index funds, less any cash that you need for day to day expenses and a sufficient cushion. Hedging rarely works because you're typically over-hedged or under-hedged for any actual event.

Within the last days - since last post here by me in this topic on 2nd July -, I have been adding to : BALD B.STO - Fastighets AB Balder, CAST.STO - Castellum Aktiebolag [publ], DJUR.CPH - Djurslands Bank A/S, FYNBK.CPH - Fynske Bank A/S, FABG.STO - Fabege AB, & BRK.B - Berkshire Hathaway, class B.

UBS Wealth Report 2026 <Edit begin> For those CofB&F members who have joined CofB&F since the topic was started by @Luke on 4th October 2024, I'll just here mention that there early and upstream in this topic are comments from several CofB&F members containing qualifications about this report for prior years, comments that I personally am of the opinion are well thought ouit, well grounded and valid. </Edit end> - - - o 0 o - - - Attached also, for those CofB&F members, who will protect their privacy to a degree, so that download of the report is not possible. global-wealth-report-en-2026 - 20260711.pdf

Do you mean if the defender touches the ball? The Egyptian player did not touch the ball. I agree though that many penalties are given that are fabricated by the attacker, including Mbappe's yesterday. He could have jumped over the defender's legs, but he happily hooked his foot in and fell.

His trade policy was a disaster. No significant change in U.S. imbalances...tariffs had to be repaid...slowed global growth...no perceptible effect on China...forced allies to form more trade partnerships outside of the U.S., including China...U.S. growth would have been even better if Trump was muzzled! DOGE was somewhat of a bust! From 2T in savings, down to $215B in reported savings. What a shitshow it was! And they included the inflated value of unpaid years of future contracts. So really, they might have saved $50B. Which is still great, except that DOGE probably cost taxpayers $20B. In terms of Iran and WWIII...give him time! Someday he's going to get the response he doesn't want from some equally retarded leader, and he won't have any choice but to go to war. And do you still believe he's winning in Iran after this massive fuckup that's dragged on and on? He didn't finish the job, then keeps making empty threats, and the Regime just keeps toying with him until they get significant net gains from all of this. And still no guarantee that they won't have nuclear material available to them...if anything, he's agreed to enough enriched uranium so that they can pursue "nuclear energy" production. Cheers!

If the puts usually expire worthless and you’re putting in 3%, that’s basically a 10% return on 30% cash. Where the cash itself earns about 3.5% right now. I doubt you come out ahead with this approach over the long run, unless you’re just marketing timing. if you are living on portfolio draws at 4%, how many years worth of cash do you really need? Especially if your stocks pay some dividends? Maybe 10-15% tops to avoid selling during a protracted down market.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a remarkably important speech on June 23 at the Economic Club of New York. Yet neither Wall Street nor most of the economic profession seems to have paid it enough attention. https://archive.ph/oKBdw#selection-4137.0-4141.145

I always held high cash percentage, 25-50+%. It helped in sideways and down markets. Over long run, returns suffered. If hedging with 1-2% allows me to be fully invested, I am guessing it will pay for itself.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91571834/housing-market-warren-buffett-heir-just-made-another-big-bet-why

Pardon me if this is a basic question, but I’m trying to understand the mechanics of converting Fairfax’s TRS position into share buybacks. My understanding is that the TRS has appreciated substantially since it was established—perhaps on the order of 4X and thus 75–80% of its value is capital gains. If that’s correct, then when the position is eventually settled, Fairfax would likely realize a significant taxable capital gain. If that’s the case, am I correct in thinking that they can’t simply “cancel” the shares represented by the TRS? Instead, wouldn’t they first have to settle the TRS, pay any applicable corporate tax on the realized gain, and then repurchase shares in the market (or through a negotiated block purchase) in order to actually reduce shares outstanding? If my understanding is correct, it seems there could be an advantage to unwinding the TRS when Fairfax’s share price is lower rather than higher. A lower share price would mean: A smaller gain realized on the TRS, resulting in less tax being paid. The same amount of after-tax capital could then retire more shares through buybacks. The tax paid is real cash leaving the company, whereas the benefit of any future appreciation in the repurchased shares accrues to continuing shareholders without an immediate corporate tax cost. For example, all else being equal, it would seem more attractive to unwind the TRS and buy back shares at around $1,600 per share than at $1,900. Am I thinking about this correctly, or am I missing an important aspect of how the TRS settlement and buyback process actually works?

And reduces BVPS (when bought above book value). That boosts ROE all else being equal.

What is exactly the difference? Bessent does a lot of talking but in the end, both have almost equally high deficits. Bessent for example scolded Yellen for issuing short term treasuries but he does exactly the same thing.

Also the big beautiful bill and deregulation. The financial sector like Goldman Sachs et al. (check how shares have done). Use love a trump be sure everything gets approved. Just make sure that some dough flows in his direction

I actually didn’t even look at social media and it’s not just the game against Egypt, as this has been going on for quite some time. The way it looks to me is that Messi team get awarded pretty much every borderline penalty kick due to tackles while other team don’t. Maybe it’s the tactics too but a legit tackle for the ball if the attacker touches the ball should not result in a penalty kick. If we start to play soccer like this then each game will be decided by scores of penalty kicks. Ronaldo is another on who dives for penalty kicks but I think he’s got too slow to do this any more himself.