Leaderboard

Well, days like Friday just don't come along often (if ever) and I have to admit that I am still somewhat in shock. I am just a little guy who doesn't profess to really know much stocks and essentially I just buy a few and rarely sell. My portfolio has just 19 stocks and Fairfax represents slightly over 50% of my holdings so a jump of 9% yesterday certainly made for a very good day. But my third largest holding after Fairfax and Royal Bank is Aecon Construction (ARE). Yesterday Aecon jumped 18.7%. Further contributing to a great day, were five of my other stocks that each gained in excess of 2% on a day when when the Toronto Stock Exchange was up less than half of one percent. So with a lot of good luck and much help from this board through the years, (Thank you all!!), I am up 46.25% so far in 2024. Fairfax is still looking pretty good and I have yet to sell a share since I made my initial purchase in 2007 at around $215. (Yes capital gains is going to kill me.) But what I don't understand is seeing board members share their portfolios here and notice some where Fairfax is not listed among their holdings. I mean not only does the name "Fairfax' appear in the very title of the board, but COBF must contain the most detailed and thorough examination of any company listed on the TSX. PS. In 2006 I had never bought a stock. But in looking for an investment, I stumbled on one of the predecessors of this board set up by Sanjeev. Followed it daily for about a year and by late 2007 jumped into Fairfax with both feet, so I owe a big, big Thank You to Sanjeev and fellow members here.

Typically REITs just cap NOI, here we see industrial NOI growing, hence higher asset values. But don’t take managements word for NAV cause it is fungible using different inputs.

I’m not a REIT expert. Occasionally things go up in value despite higher rates, but it is rare. I didn’t check your math, but it might be worth checking if management has incentive plans and what the targets are. It’s possible to boost the values a little bit here, a little there and a little over yonder and pretty soon the portfolio is worth a lot and maybe Wall Street will agree, the stock goes up and top management gets their payout. After all, who is to say a building is worth exactly “x” vs “x” plus or minus 10%? Especially over a 6-24 month period. There is also incentive misalignment with the appraisers. If they want to get hired for the next job, it is in their best interest to get close to management’s expectations lest they shop for a different appraiser. The same thing happened at the rating agencies during the GFC.