LowIQinvestor

any other oil majors trading under book value besides BP? I'm digging around as well.

Ha, Feels like the point of maximum pessimism for oil... My most profitable investments have always felt uncomfortable. SWING YOU BUM!!

VZ @ $46.54 Adding to my duopoly basket!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-24/renaissancere-to-buy-platinum-underwriters-for-1-9-billion.html?cmpid=yhoo Any PTP shareholders disappointed in this valuation? 1 X Book? I guess this is what an average reinsurer gets these days?

IBM is a great call here. 10 PE and you know they are buying back shares hand over fist at these prices. I think DTV merger arb is very attractive today!

I wanted to compile a list of obvious duopolies. If you have some ideas, please contribute. I think this list will be ripe for some investment ideas. 1) Verizon & At&t 2) FedEx & UPS 3) Visa & Mastercard (?)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-07/andreessen-on-finance-we-can-reinvent-the-entire-thing-.html "‘‘That also means we have the chance to radically lower fees. Most consumer transactions are weighted with a 3 percent fee; remittances run up to 10 percent, which I think is a moral crime. There’s a big opportunity to take those fees out.’’ Also, interesting interview with CEO of Western Union: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/western-union-ceo-we-ll-use-bitcoin-when-regulated-SulUCvcZQEixMGv9Mu~akw.html

ALLY Financial (CALLS)

ALLY- Ally Financial Buying from the US Govt. They want out by EOY.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-07-30/when-entertainment-passes-for-investment-advice Ironically, these financial "entertainment" personalities tend to attract capital for some odd reason...

See another thread from a couple months ago----- "Topic: Question for those who manage a fund --(costs) "

Found this article interesting... Vanguard's Founder Sees Investors Demanding a Smaller, Simpler Financial System: http://online.wsj.com/articles/john-bogle-on-the-future-of-investing-the-rise-of-the-shareholders-1404765274

Thank you everyone for your feedback. If I ran a plain vanilla (long only-liquid equities) investment strategy it seems that it would be considerably less expensive to use a "managed accounts" structure. From what I understand, Interactive Brokers (and others), are able to allocate trades to multiple accounts. For example, if I want 10% of my portfolio in Citigroup, it will allocate that same % to all other linked accounts I manage. In essence, this eliminates the need for an expensive audit, fund admin, accountants for K-1s, etc. Back of the envelope math seems to indicate one could run this for a few thousand dollars a year. I guess the downside is that you need to register as an RIA, no performance fee (good for investors), and there is full transparency (might be a good thing?). From a marketability standpoint, this structure seems much more attractive for the investor. Lower fees than typical hedge fund, capital in own account, no K-1s, no risk of fraud, etc... Anyone here manage money this way?

Thanks racemize, Would you mind breaking down your operating expenses and service providers? I am willing to run it very lean as a one man shop (no office needed). But an audit alone seems to be about $10K/year.

Would appreciate any advice from those that have experience in launching and running a fund: What were your startup costs? What are your annual operating expenses? Between accountants/audit, attorneys, prime broker, fund administrator, custodian etc., is it even feasible to launch a fund with AUM of around $5M? Thanks in advance.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/prem-watsa-takes-3-small-202308973.html I own SXCL (Steel Partners largest holding) and agree that both are undervalued but am curious why he would bother with such a tiny position.

A few months ago I purchased shares in a very small company listed on the OTC market thinking that I would get info on their next annual meeting. I just woke up today to find out that they had the meeting and I was never informed. I want to receive shareholder communications from a few other small companies but am confused as to why I did not receive anything. Some people suggested it may be because I hold the shares in "Street Name" but I receive other proxies etc from larger companies that are held in "Street Name". Any thoughts would be appreciated.

TEO- Telecom Argentina Worth at least 50% more than where it is trading today.

+1

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-17/bugatti-driving-26-year-old-tied-to-penny-stock-website.html

+1 I guess it is just an example… One of the most difficult thing to do for investors, according to Mr. Ray Dalio, is to think that what has gone on for some time might change in the future and even revert. You get the same idea in the chapter about “mean reversion” in “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Mr. Daniel Kahneman… When Mr. Watsa keeps repeating that things might be reversed, he simply is not believed and summarily dismissed by… well, almost anybody! If instead he provides evidence that things might actually reverse, maybe people will think twice before judging. Gio I think my point may have been missed here... You can't say you don't pay attention to short term fluctuations and in the same breath site your mark to market performance after the first 40 days of 2014. I have a lot of respect for Fairfax but I think this was an error on their part. It makes it seem as though they do, in fact, care about short term fluctuations when they move in their favor.

From Transcript: "We expect the unrealized mark-to-market losses to reverse in the future. In fact, as of February 11th, two days ago, we had an unrealized mark-to-market gain in 2014 of approximately $900 million. After-tax, this would have laminated our loss in 2013." "I caution you, we don’t pay too much attention to short-term fluctuations in market prices" So if they don't pay attention to short term fluctuations, why are they talking about one month of performance in 2014???

Maybe Dan Loeb will be there and ask Fairfax about their BBRY thesis !? http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/648ab300-95c9-11e3-9fd6-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2tLrXSxpn

Weird... http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/02/einhorns-greenlight-capital-sue-seeking-alpha-blogger/

I've always preferred Buffett's mentality of not trying to predict macro events and buying compounding machines. Cash is a good enough "hedge" for me. Interesting to see the stark contrast in results over the past 5 years: http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1392411600000&chddm=486406&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NYSE:BRK.A&cmptdms=0&q=TSE:FFH&ntsp=0&ei=MT3-Uuj9LIfpqAGeiQE