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+1! Yup, seen it so many times. I don't think the public would believe the stuff I've seen. The first time Fairfax was attacked in 2003, because I was sticking my nose into the people who were involved, I was warned by a well-known money manager to be careful..."these guys are dangerous and connected!" I remember when JoAnn was followed from the office and there were accusations being thrown around that Prem was ripping off his church. These guys weren't just market participants assisting the efficiency of markets. These were scum buckets manipulating stocks, reporting, analysis reports, journalists...working in coordination to drive the price down of many stocks. And when you had FTD's extending out almost a year, it was easy to use artificial shares to create a death spiral. Cheers!

I'm surprised that CIBC, in their note on the MW report, didn't mention that MW chose only FFH's closely-held investments where fair value exceeds carrying value. What about those that trade publicly whose fair value exceed carrying value... like FIH? Taking my estimate for YE BVPS and adding to it the difference between fair value and carrying value for ALL closely-held investments and incorporating an appropriate haircut for taxes on the difference, FFH's FMBVPS ($987) is more like 8% higher than reported BVPS ($914). The IFRS change argument is ridiculous as all insurers are faced with the same set of accounting rules. It may work better for long tail liabilities than short in a rising interest rate period, but FFH didn't make up the rule to suit its balance sheet and it will suffer relatively if rates decline. What kind of market responds positively to this standard of analysis? How is Brett Horn still employed? So many questions.

Just not a fan of the smash and grab... and seems clear that this is probably one of those, no? Need regulation around minimum holding periods for short sellers who choose to go public.

Yea I totally respect someone like Steve Eisman and the way he goes about it, but these bullshit artists who basically do nothing but take positions and then rant and rave on social media and TV....total scumbags.

Take this as: God loves you and want you to be rich

Fairfax response to this report. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/02/08/2826151/0/en/Fairfax-Responds-to-Short-Seller-Report.html

The reason many of these short sellers play the "accounting" angle is because most folks arent well versed in complex accounting and when they hear someone is an "expert", often just take what the "expert" says in good faith. Which gives some smash and grabber a whole lotta leeway to manufacture rhetoric.

I haven’t crunched the numbers in this so it might be worth digging a little deeper for yourself: ”The S&P 500 has a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 15.5x excluding the Magnificent Seven, while the Magnificent Seven has a P/E of about 35x, according to data compiled by FactSet as of January 2, 2024.” https://www.capitalgroup.com/institutional/insights/articles/magnificent-seven-chart-diversify.html#:~:text=The S%26P 500 has a,as of January 2%2C 2024. It’s not hard to find sectors at single digit or low double digit PE’s if you go looking. AI type stocks are a bit speculative however I’m not see a broad market bubble.