netnet

Sorry, already sold. :-\

I have an extra ticket for sale.

I won't be able to attend the meeting, so I have a dinner reservation/ticket for sale. Nick

Uh, not true, once you have changed employers or retired, you can rollover your 401K Roth funds into a Roth IRA. (There may be some loophole that allows you to roll it over while still with your original employer, but I have not looked into that, so, as they say check with you tax professional first.

Here are Mauboussin's last two articles: (formerly he was Chief Investment Strategist at Legg Mason and I believe is now the US Chief Investment Strategist at Credit Suisse) Managing the Man Overboard Moment: Making an Informed Decision After a Large Price Drop https://doc.research-and-analytics.csfb.com/docView?language=ENG&source=ulg&format=PDF&document_id=1043195371&serialid=EG%2B%2B1j2BkWEvUN9KViYq5aPtZr%2BXVuTuiyw8mq3JLts%3D Min(d)ing the Opportunity: Excess Returns Require the Chance to Apply Skill https://doc.research-and-analytics.csfb.com/docView?language=ENG&format=PDF&source_id=em&document_id=1045671401&serialid=Q3DXhbP6T%2F%2FYYHq2LFa4TMP2beB62lVHBa2nSM3YzhA%3D

I get a different number at 20% gross return, subtract out the hurdle 20 -5 = 15% take out the incentive fee 15% - (.2 * 15) = 12% take out the management fee -1.5 = 10.5% add back the 5% hurdle = 15.5 Also it seems to be trading just about NAV anyway, with the C$ at 1.27 to 1. I don't know what the exact proceeds are.

I don't know how deeply y'all want to go into this ;) but, here is a start: There are a variety of styles of BBQ and sauce. Many (not all) of the best suggest having the meat flavored, i.e. brined or rubbed, which is then cooked and either finished with the sauce, say last 10-15 with sauce on or just at the table. Many variation here, but this, I believe is a slight majority of the best. (This is somewhat arbitrary, but bear with me here.) Personally I find some of the sauces way too sweet for me but that is a personal preference. If you want to make your own sauce you can use any of the sugar alcohol type of sweeteners that mimic regular sugar. (Generally, they have little to none of the insulin/glycemic problems that sugar has, and if you are eating BBQ you, I suspect this is not a caloric issue.) Mostly I use Xylitol when I need a sugar substitute it my sauces, but does not work for yeast bread, but is good for the teeth. Parsad brings up the balance of flavors, the sugar does counter the tartness, and most vinegars have some sugars in them anyway, but the Maillard reaction, i.e. browning happens to the meat from the existing proteins in the meat anyway, but some brines and rubs have sugar in them, which adds to the browning. Note that in Stone19's recipe, he uses Worcestershire sauce. This and similar types of additions, soy and anchovy add a umami flavor, if you will to the sauce. Now my mom's recipe was a combo of lemon and a bit of anchovy--not enough to taste the fish essence. She would put the whole lemon slices in the sauce, but remove them before company came lest her recipe be found out. These two ingredients she added either to the standard tomato backed sauce or the vinegar style. My riff on this is to use fish sauce, just a bit, and Ponzu juice, if I do not have any fresh Meyer lemons around. If you want more adventure, chop a handful of cilantro and parley and add that as well. Side note, with all the fat and protein of the meat, glycemic load is probably not a problem. And 4 stars, **** for the Salt Lick! Best, Netnet

My summary tweet: Great talk on life and investing by Pabrai and Spier. Advice: marry up, be a giver, cut out the noise and use checklists! @Nick_Henderson

Nice talk. Guy spoke first for about 20 minutes, Mohnish did not. Then they opened up for questions from students. They were mostly giving worldly advice as opposed to specifics of stock selection or selection methodology, etc. They clearly are good friends and banter back and forth. From Guy, "If had learned the lessons that Monish had already ten years earlier, I would be managing a billion" with a head nod in Mohnish's direction. It would not surprise me if they wound up in some kind of alliance, like Munger and Buffett, but that is idle speculation.

Parsad, Thanks for the notice. I'm going.

Article in Value Walk on Klarman's 2014 letter: http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/03/seth-klarman-not-bearish/

Really liked it when I read it years ago. I will reread it this spring! Thanks

I didn't mean to be argumentative. But certainly as it applies to my immediate surroundings (and it's a formerly well paid Wall Street fixed income crowd), I feel we were all so jaded with the financing process that we have plenty of "fearful when others are greedy", no where near enough of "greedy when others are fearful". Way too many errors of omission, with the artificial self imposed goal of zero error of commission. There is no one strategy that fits everybody's circumstance, but I felt there need to be some balance to the discussion rather than a one sided "don't borrow to buy stocks". Of course borrowing with mark to market triggers need to be done with extra caution. But people shouldn't just sit back and admire how Valeant became a 10 bagger in 5 years while failing to acknowledge the role leverage played in the whole wealth creation process. Deciding how to borrow, when to borrow and what terms to borrow on to acquire an asset is every bit as important as analyzing and understanding fundamental operating drivers of that asset. Even in the personal finance context, you can chose to be leveraged in a deep in the money call, for example. The public common equity world is almost too efficient to squeeze out any meaningful outperformance over time. Okay, it's a post and nuances get lost or rather I did not include them. My ultimate point was only to be prudent: for some people that means no leverage, for some it means non-recourse, and for others who are willing to go out on a limb then full recourse debt prudently done. Now, as Munger has said when you are rich there is no reason to gamble what you have and need for what you want, (see current annual report). Remember his colleague and friend Peter Guerin was flattened. Although, Guerin is now quite well off, thank you very much, but way, way poorer than Munger as a result of his leverage and setback . Of course you can lever up, just as you can light a campfire without setting yourself on fire. But somethings you do not do, like running through a dynamite factory with a lit match. By the way HJ, I was curious about your comment about wealth creation and leverage. is this a reference to PE?

He really does. On one hand I appreciate it and I know we are value investors and all, but of all the people who can afford these books...Even the hungriest among us are not starving artists!

Sounded good, I very much disagree. Leverage is integral to too much newly created wealth over the past 20 years for this statement to be true. Real estate, private equity, media/telecom, gaming, ... Even Buffet is leveraged in the form of insurance float. Although I agree that business positioning and operator acumen is as important a piece of the equation, but leverage shouldn't be so easily dismissed as something you don't need if you know what you are doing. It's a necessary, but insufficient condition for success. HJ you are right in the sense that LC's comment really only (should) apply to on demand, recourse leverage. Undervalued's comment re: float is spot on. Leverage never make a bad idea good, so float invested in rabbit turds doesn't turn them into raisins, to paraphrase Munger, who by the way developed real estate using leverage, in his earlier years. And to go back to the original meaning, as Archimedes said, with leverage you can move the Earth. So leverage your talents, your situation and and your friends, but your money, stick to non demand, non recourse!

Isn't it normally out at 12:01 eastern?

So this brings two questions, What then is the intrinsic value. And isn't buying geographic diversity, 85 combined ratio and 2.5 billion in float basically worth it? I'm not saying it is; I am just posing the question: Buffett has said that the float is worth more than equity. Thus the deal is a good one and had to be financed and financed quickly without damaging the credit rating.

Great topic, very thoughtful responses as well. I've been thinking about the topic generally (called the Dunning Krugger effect, the unknown unknown, great article here http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/the-anosognosics-dilemma-1/?_r=0 (Wherein the more experienced admit to their ignorance and the less, well I won't spoil the punch line.) So true. As is this: and you get the power of compounding! I would add temperament. And as Munger says, you have to be a learning machine.

This might be off topic in this thread, but compounders are also boring to tears. Especially for active investors such as people frequenting this forum. There is no action - you just buy and hold. And hold. And hold. That's why very few people ever held BRK or FFH (or for that matter MSFT, GOOGL, WMT, JNJ, IBM ) for 20+ years. And most of the people who did that are not "investors", but rather employees or in case of BRK old ladies from Omaha. ;) Even most self admitted Berkheads or Fairheads on this forum have traded in/out of BRK/FFH more times than they casually admit. Or at least kept a non-trivial amount of their portfolio in companies that were sold much more often than compounding would call for. ;) Unfortunately action is a drug. A very difficult drug to kick for active investor. Indeed, to quote Munger, quoting Pascal:" All of humanity's (or, in this case, an investor's!) problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."

To make CNBC look good. And that's a pretty amazing feat. No joke. Or maybe I should say big joke. ;)

It depends. You alluded to the analytical problem: Are you sure the compounder is not Enron. That is not really factitious answer, you have to be sure that you have a high quality compounder (that is not totally over valued, say Coca Cola in 2003). You can do a blended strategy, which is sort of what Buffett did in his partnerships. Better than an academic study, when asked, Buffett said both strategies are good. (at least for small amounts of capital)

There is no leverage there because typically a major East Coast market you would have say channels 2,4, 7 as the ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates, then you might have another independent station (old movies, crappy children shows, etc.) say at 11 on the dial. For propagation and signal issues, per FCC that would be it for the lower channels. So the ABC is not going to induce the CBS affiliate to move so that is out. The independent? Well, that was the station owner clown with the bad toupee, who did ridiculous stunts like pushing a baseball around an infield with just his forehead (see Ted Turner circa 1977). You want to put your quality product and ratings with that fool?

In looking back overt this thread, I noticed that no one, including me said read the annual reports of suppliers and competitors. Once you have read say 4 years of annuals for one company and 4 different companies in the industry, say 2 suppliers and 2 competitors, stop a moment to think what you have learned: remember you need to have an explicit set of mental models of the industry. So ask your self, Using a Michael Porter type analysis, find out what is the competitive landscape in the industry. What are the key financial ratios in the industry include the similar and dissimilar companies, competitors and suppliers Ask yourself who makes money in the industry, why and how Don't worry all this is accretive, nobody popped out of the womb knowing the intricacies of biotech or the oil and gas industries.

Jeez, Buying when there is actually blood in the streets. yikes.

Fairfax India is not restricted to infrastructure. From the prospectus: The Company will invest in businesses that are expected to benefit from India’s current pro-business political environment, its growing middle class and its demographic trends that are expected to underpin strong growth for several years. Sectors of the Indian economy that the Company believes will benefit most from such trends include infrastructure, the consumer services and retail sectors and the export sector. The Company, however, will not be limited to investing solely in these sectors and intends to invest in other sectors as opportunities arise.