Tommm50

I hate to point this out but the notion of a "hard market" in insurance and reinsurance is a vestige of history. The statistics indicate the industry has made an underwriting profit maybe 5 times in the last 35 years. The hard market/soft market cycle was true up until Bermuda arrived and the movement of capital became easy. It used to be hard to get capital into the insurance business, individually state licensed, etc. Once Bermuda captives showed up (and then grew to the point of buying their U.S. adversaries) the dynamic changed. Billions of dollars of capital come in to the business overnight. The idea of rates moving for more than a few months is an institutional memory. What makes Fairfax a potential juggernaut (I believe they've significantly reduced their property cat exposure) is their focus on casualty business in the U.S. and their significant growth potential in India and Southeast Asia.

Is that a missprint on Yahoo Finance, or did 90,000 shares trade today?

Loss ratios reported are "incurred losses" vs earned premiums. Incurred losses are a combination of paid claims and loss reserves. Loss reserves come in two flavors. Case reserves which are established case by case by the claim department are an estimate of the ultimate value of an individual claim. IBNR (incurred but not reported) reserves are established by the actuarial department on a book of business basis. They reflect the company's experience that at any point in time for a group of polices there are claims that have occurred but have not yet been reported to the insurance company (when the are the claims department establishes case reserves and IBNR reserves diminish). Reserve deficiencies or redundancies occur over time, as a given policy year matures, the company finds out if all these estimates they've had to make are too low or too high.

Kinda surprised by the lack of this board's comments on the quarter results. I guess it's steady as she goes.

"Although its exposure to high risk assets is at 70% of total adjusted capital," Are they looking at the same company I am?

Yup, been adding to my position the last several days and keeping more in reserve if a market meltdown forces FFH down further.

Mark S. and Beer Baron, I've been getting Fairfax dividends for years into my IRA (I live in the U.S.) and never had any withholding.

I use a Blackberry (used to be a Z10, just got the "classic" for the keyboard) and I feel the same way about it. The hub collects my different mails, texts, and phone calls. It's very convenient and I wouldn't want to change. I understand it's more secure as well.

Still have a long way to go to catch them, never mind pass them. Wouldn't it be wonderful. (I hear music....)

This has been an excellent year for all long term Fairfax shareholders. Congratulations and Happy Holidays and here's to a bright future!

Yes but don't you have to start with the same currencies? http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=frfhf&type=2button&fr=uh3_finance_web_gs_ctrl2&uhb=uhb2

It seems like a lot of people are missing the international piece. It's relatively small now but always been extremely profitable. They've positioned themselves well in markets with exponential growth potential. What happens in 5 to 7 years when international is bigger than U.S.? What's Markel got in that arena? That's how AIG was so profitable for so long. It wasn't their U.S. business it was their international business. My money is literally on Fairfax.

I agree with Petec, they are not using their own money but are immediately giving a big vote of confidence to the incoming administration. That can't hurt when they are dealing with regulators for the existing businesses in India.

Liked the pictures but the only person I knew was Prem. Is there any way to tag the people in the pictures to place a name with a face? Thanks.

There are a lot of sophisticated models out there on catastrophe risk. Their fatal flaw is they're based on past experience. Global climate change is a reality. Wouldn't it be just desserts if they stepped into the punch over the next few years?

The hedge fund money is going into one of the most lucrative parts of the reinsurance business, property cat protection (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc.). They don't have the overhead traditional reinsurers have and they can write this business at a significantly lower rate. This puts tremendous pressure on any reinsurer who's major business is property cat. It puts some pressure on more diversified reinsurers (including Odyssey Re) as they have to make more money on the other parts of their portfolio, notably U.S. Casualty business and standard property business.

Looks like trouble ahead when world financial market have to kick the habit of the crack the Fed has been distributing. Market_Analysis.pdf

It doesn't seem like much of a victory. All the companies SAC trashed (Fairfax barely survived) and all the tens of billions Cohen pocketed. He's not in jail and still gets to enjoy his ill gotten gains.

I'm much more focussed on the underwriting results than I am on mark to market investments. There I am very pleased to see the nine month combined ratio down a full 7 points from last year, lead by Crum and Forster (where we most need the improvement). Over the middle and long term I'm confident their investment returns will be excellent. It's the UW side where they have to demonstrate consistent good results.

Just came in and looked at the day's result for Fairfax. Up 14 points in the last half hour of trading. Any idea what's going on there?

Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

What a nice fantasy, Fairfax gets $6 Billion out of SAC Capital and makes a special dividend of half of it to loyal shareholders. Unfortunately, they're still a long way from nailing his hide. Then they need to nail all the co-conspirators. And while we're talking rooked dealings does anyone else think it was too convenient that the analyst for Morgan Keegan that wrote the report saying Fairfax was billions underreserved wound up dead?

It seems the drumbeat gets louder over the various FBI and SEC investigations into SAC Capital. Insider trading settlements and talk of criminal charges keep mounting. It sure makes you wonder how the New Jersey judge could so easily dismiss Mr. Cohen from Fairfax's lawsuit. Particularly since his deposition has since been shown to display a very cavalier attitude toward insider trading or internal controls. Scent of corruption.

Thank you Lakeside. If that's the best loss ratio in the business you have to ask yourself why are we in it?

Tommm50, could you please elaborate a bit more on this one? I believe that insurance, reinsurance, and even investing require the same skill set. --Steven Markel, 2008 Thank you, giofranchi Insurance underwriters underwrite individual risks, their managers organize and quality control that process. Reinsurance underwriters underwrite the insurance companies they reinsure. That's a much different perspective. The best reinsurance underwriters are those that have insurance underwriting experience (optimally in the business they're reinsuring) but you'd be surprised at how uncommon that is. Most reinsurance underwriters I've known grew up on the reinsurance side. Their underwriting knowledge is based more on what they're told vs actually done themselves. I agree underwriting insurance or reinsurance or investing should all use a careful analytical approach. The process in general is similar. When you get down to the detail level though the questions you're asking to underwrite Long Haul Truckers, Legal Professional, Environmental Liability, or D&O are much different, requiring specific expertise and experience. I'm sure Andy is a very good manager and at his level that's the most important quality. My point was more attuned to the first paragraph.