mranski

I concur on RCH and SJ. Really well run companies in simple to understand niche businesses. With SJ, the lack of moat always bothered me, but they seem to produce excellent results. Not sure cnr is more expensive most of the time. I'd throw out RBA and MTY as canadian equities of similar quality. I posted a brief comment on MTY on the Investment Ideas board. Not much response. RBA has a good writeup in Sequoia Funds I think, recent annual report. I'd call these way overpriced and slightly overpriced.

Don't know if it was intentional, but if i had to guess, i would say it was. Tanner Glass, a very intelligent guy if you hear him or read his blog said the NHL guys know where the turnbuckle is. Pacioretty i thought made a courageous comment to go against the league dogma, and suggesting Chara admit it was a mistake instead of denying it. NHL commissioners office is a joke. Like the luge olympian, better engineering should be done before not after. The best they can come up with is Colin Campbell doesn't adjudicate his son's games! Wow, great ethics, but what about the guys getting maimed on the ice.

I agree with Lemieux, it is courageous of him to take an unpopular stand. The Penguins are guilty also, but , they need the Cooke's and Goddards to survive in the NHL. The NHL surreptiously condones violence and the on ice head assaults are too numerous to mention. League enforcement is a joke.

last interview http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/peter-cundills-last-interview/article1885071/

hard to explain, but too much weirdness, spoiled by being a sci-fi horror at times. surprised it gets such high reviews. but movies are so personal.

Black Swan, ugg!

brk.b mty more cash weighting

Ran into an old friend this week, who that day was trying to liquidate silver bars, (which the first bank wouldn't) and he said he had held them for decades, since the Hunt bubble i think, and was selling at a loss. That is one nasty ROI on silver. Coincidentally, he told me he had received shares in a canadian blue chip around the same time as part of selling his business, and had he just held thru the decades and the splits, it would have been the biggest part of his wealth. Tough to do in hindsight, but a bit of cautionary tale, I think, although i wouldn't bet against Sprott.

The Investment Zoo, I thought was excellent.

roundball, not sure about the non rrsp, the only one I have is nestle and it draws the 20%plus tax and so did Sanofi when i had it, but in the rsp have found that the British PLC companies don't incur the withholding tax i.e. Glaxo, Unilever Plc (UL). Unilever Dutch (UN) draws tax though. In the rsp Ingersoll Rand gets taxed unlike other us dividends, due to foreign registration i think. The only suggestion is if you have a choice, like shell oil or unilever, buy the plc.

td waterhouse charges 1 to 2 %. But they will let you wash to money market in us$ to avoid the hit Dividends are forced conversion RBC discount brokerage now offers us$ rsp and tfsa.

5% started around 2%, so now it's a huge concentrated weighting with no additional purchases

Interesting that they are able to do this, but US$ RRSPs and TFSAs still a long way off.

uccmal, is there a reason you hold POW in rsp accounts as opposed to non rsp, due do the fairly high dividend? just curious, as i have in non rsp for the div tax credit.

Market real estate value doesn't factor into replacement value for insurance, it is reconstruction. Reconstruction costs, like the market are always tracking up long term. Reconstruction is more expensive for a number of reasons

Favourite is Rollerblading (inline skating) the Stanley Park Seawall in Vancouver, BC. This is the best place I have found so far, it is 12km circular route on the ocean, great surface, no obstacles, no cars, no pedestrians. Just did the Strand in L.A. approximately 22 miles almost continuous, fantastic also.

" Banks and oil companies look cheap to me. " I presume you mean the usa, they seem fully valued in canada to me.

Have you considered a Life annuity. I don't know alot about them, but there is some appeal in that they can be indexed, creditor proof, payments for life etc. like a defined benefit pension plan. I know the fees drag but so do market mistakes. I'd be curious what other board members think of this as an investment option?

nice article. 3 to 4 companies, 10 overall, that is a concentrated investment universe.

I find myself gravitating toward insurance and financials, BRK, MKL, FFH, EFL, MFC, POW, CDN banks to the point that I am concentrated alot. I look at cdn resource companies, and find it hard to pull the trigger due to pricing and unknows. WRB is another great one, but how many can you have. Add WFC and AXP and I might as well put the whole portfolio in financials?

you can't really single out acker, in my opinion, any more than umpteen other regulars, or the hosts who ask the most ridiculous powerpuff questions. Why do i watch, i dont' know, maybe the mad money entertainment factor, plus the odd bit of useful information. If you follow guests recommendations, alot of them were recommending strong buy at the aboslute market peak, and after the apocalypse, were recommending sell? How can a company be worth 1/2 what it was recommended at, and now be a sell? Another thing that bugs me is bnn adds dividends into guests calculation of return on recommendations.

Audi in the 80s was a totally different animal. I never saw one without a hook on it. I like and own a toyota, but the criticism of toyota not reacting quickly to the problem I think has some justification. There was a problem with camrys in the 90s (not life threatening) that imho was recall but was never acknowledged. Don't like auto manufacturers almost at any price, so not looking at the price. But it might be a good trade.

When you look at Cadbury's net profit, it is pretty tiny compared to the global growth and profit powerhouse that their press releases are portraying it to be. Really it is Hershey or worse. To me it was fully priced before the kraft bid. I think it would be a good buy for kraft at disciplined pricing, because there has to be alot of rationalization of costs that could be done and some sales synergies with kraft infrastructure.

Lessthaniv, good analysis. Curious, how do you adjust or account for depreciation in this business in your analysis.

It is good knowledgeable management in a medicore business. What does buffett say, the business prevails. I think mgmt implied a superior business model, that hasn't proven out. Probably a decent return from $10 stock, not from $35 ever.