alertmeipp

Thanks for the article. Looks like the Brick has done lots of damage to itself in the previous few quarters because of liquidity issue. Sure looks like some panic decisions has been made (firing too many people)... But looks like they are turning the ship.

Nothing unexpected. They are not doing well. I have been buying convertible in last few days. May need to reconsider my position. The strong loonies won't help. But couple positives should be coming in next 2 quarters. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2009/31/c2046.html

Very good news I think.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/breakingnews/Former-Forzani-group-head-Bill-Gregson-named-as-The-Brick_s-new-CEO-50495462.html EDMONTON - Former Forzani Group CEO Bill Gregson was appointed Friday as president and chief executive officer of Brick Group Income Fund (TSX:BRK.UN), replacing Kim Yost as head of one of Canada's largest furniture retailers. The appointment of Gregson, a chartered accountant who most recently has been a consultant for Reebok United States after 10 years with Calgary-based Forzani (TSX:FGL), is effective immediately. A Brick statement described Gregson as a "seasoned executive with extensive operational experience in the retail industry." "He has an outstanding track record of both protecting and creating value and ... the ideal person to address the challenges" facing The Brick, said board chairman Ron Barbaro. No reason was given for the departure of Yost. However, he has been at the helm while the Brick first reduced, then eliminated completely, regular distributions to its unitholders. The fund reported had a $29.3-million loss in the January-March quarter, which included a $25-million writedown of intangible assets. The Brick also announced Friday that Paul Rivett, chief legal officer for Fairfax Financial Holdings, a major unitholder of The Brick, has joined The Brick's board. The Brick Group is one of Canada's largest volume retailers of household furniture, appliances and home electronics. It operates 230 stores in Canada under four banners: The Brick, United Furniture Warehouse, The Brick Superstore and The Brick Mattress Store. Through its corporate sales division, the Brick Group also services the subdivision, condominium and high-rise builder market.

I am starting to build a position on it. The theory is the economy will turn "soon" and the housing market in major markets seems to be stabilized.. thoughts?

Okay.. I will probably regret it. I actually sold some FFH today to add to some other holdings (COP is the major one).

how come there is no negative #? :) FFH is going down no matter what the market does.

I know we can hedge the currency. But disregarding that and just look at the share price YTD, it's a sad story. http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=FFH.TO#chart2:symbol=ffh.to;range=ytd;indicator=ema(50,25,10)+volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

price is no longer dropping like a rock... http://www.paperage.com/foex/pulp.html

the wildcards are loonies, Quebec gov and ABH's contact negotiation. SFK CEO forecasts the pulp market will rebound by year end. I agree at 25 cents, I will keep mine.

I will be happy to if Fairfax get a short attack; Fairfax is sitting on lots of resources to fight this time. They will probably welcome the short and enjoy the buy back in a lower price. Book value will yet increase because of it.

I think the convert will have some value in case of bankruptcy which isn't impossible. Commodities and loonies are both rising; if the demand for pulp doesn't pick up, it will be ugly. Replacement value trap. I have some common and convert and are thinking about whether I should sell the common. Again, if pulp market comes back, common will have huge upside from here.

Nice post, Card. I too missed some opportunities by too focus on 52 week low and my purchase price, etc...

I didn't hedge. If I have to hedge, i will probably buy AUD instead of CDN. Canada is too much tied to US economy. I don't see Canada do well until US recovers. AUD gives better yield as well.

I think it has overshot. It will bring down a few sectors with surging loonies and so-so economy.

Think this way. You are lucky enough to have the ability. Some people don't and all they can do is to steal credit of others. The more you do the more you learn. Think about what you have learned in your work.

sorry, I meant commission. Some brokers/banks don't call it comission, but there is a large gap between the buy and sell price. In IB, you can exchange funds at a much more favorable rate.

USB is the only bigger bank that is currently trading below the most recent secondary.. how sad.

I like IB in this aspect. You can just trade Forex on the same account and they just charge 2.5 bucks for $25000+ transmission. (some broker charge 1% for the transmission - which is crazy.)

volume is tiny... so does not worry me yet..

they should have just restart the share buyback. they will earn 20% guarantee!

>The business models of the banks (option-ARMs, MBS, no documentation lending, securitization) have been completely destroyed Yes, we are going back to the traditional simple model - grab deposit and loan out carefully to earn spread, cross sales some insurance and services to earn fee - which banks like WFC and USB are good at. The other side of the coin you didn't mention is the elimination of competition and the future pricing power because of that.

Let's me state the obvious. WFC is quite a bit bigger bank, and it made one significant acquisition - WB and took a huge writedown. If they had know the Fed is going to do the stress test they probably won't do the write-down that early which hurt their ratio... USB made only smaller acquisitions from time to time - so it's more predictable. I actually like USB better here because they can pay off the TARP if they wanted to sooner.

The driving force behind WFC and USB going to single digit is now mostly gone. 1st quarter result proves some of these banks have the earning power to build reserve and take charge off. But everything is possible. ;) If WFC and USB go back to 11, that will be because some other driving force, at that time, u may not have the courage to buy. :)

My take is Fairfax is doing so much better in the investment side than in the underwriting side. So, funds which wanted to find a insurance co. to invest in; they will look at companies' normalized earning.. which Fairfax isn't that strong on. Sounds kind of silly... but I think the market is valuing Fairfax as the on-par insurance co ONLY.