LC

I was going to ask if you've been buying more DFIN sub-60. I have been taking bites as well.

Regulators will essentially control the capitalization of the various insurance agencies. That said, Berkshire has in the past been successful taking over insurance books and re-aligning the investment portfolio to "something more Buffett-esque". Regulators generally have allowed it given Berkshire's sterling reputation. The play here as I see it: 1- Buy well functioning insurance companies with significant long-term customer relationships, who have a conservative investment book, at reasonable valuation multiples. 2- Leverage the existing customer relationships and re-align the investment portfolios, perhaps repricing some coverage (thanks, Ajit!) 3- Sit back and sip Coca-Cola

Those are on the bedside table. These are just pictures of the books he never read and stuffed away in a bookcase

I would break up the ecosystem into its components. What is needed for AI: -Energy -Compute -Data -Model(s) -End uses Energy strikes me as a race to the bottom. Compute not far behind (although I am surprised Nvidia has such a large lead here. It's been a year already and nobody has put out a competing product? Data I see as potential opportunities. Who has the latest/greatest data? How is it gathered/filtered/accessed/sold/used? I think there is opportunity there. Modelling. Kind of goes hand in hand with data. The modelling techniques themselves are well known. So this becomes an exercise in who has the most computing power and data size and quality. End uses. I see a lot of opportunity here (as does the rest of the world). Video is the next step. Who will own the best AI video generator. Adobe? Google/Meta/MSFT? A bit of this circles back to data: how will these models learn/license from all the existing privately owned video (think movies, tv shows) that exists? Are the major film and TV studios going to be big winners here as they (1) License their data for $$$ and (2) use the end product to save $$$? Is someone like Adobe or one of the Tech giants going to control the ecosystem? Perhaps the tech co's get the data for free in exchange for use of the model? Would be a huge win for tech. Of course there are other end uses as well. Curious what some ideas are for winners/losers there.

I don't like it either. Please post IB's reply, I am curious what is driving this.

The company should be compensating Gill as they would any other IBank bringing shares to market. Gamestop was able to raise a significant amount of funds due to Gill, should he not be compensated?

Outstanding find, dartmonkey

Looks like it was founded Nov 2010.

Looks like 15.3% annual return, inception->date Outperforms his benchmark (MSCI world index) https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/factsheet/ Not sure when inception was.

LOL this is hilarious, thank you for posting. It's hard to believe there are people out there who behave like this

Here's one the much older folks have probably experienced: When you're "young" (50s, 60s) start looking at single-story living (no stairs) with restrooms within walking distance. There's an age when you hate being seated close to the restrooms, there's another age when you greatly appreciate it

Move over to IBKR and enjoy the 1.5% margin rate on JPY. Boom, free 10%. Or free 10 stories to use your building analogy

Biggest regret was probably getting married too young. Neither of us wanted kids, we always kept our finances totally separate, but being labelled "married", we both stuck around in a decaying relationship far longer than if we were just "partners". Now I think unless there's a practical reason to get legally married (kids, some financial/tax/citizenship angle), there's no real benefit. Looking forward the next ten years, I'm in my mid thirties and so these are probably the last years I'll have to be fully physically capable. I imagine in my 50s I'll have to tune it down a bit, so I aim to travel and have as many physical experiences (skiing, climbing, etc.) as possible. Although I see some old guys on the chair lift in their 70s, still ripping it. And the older guys posting here about their climbs to Everest and such...it gives me hope!

Don't take it personally - this is what just what management does when they have some alterior motive. A new boss, looking to chop heads. Or a management team forced to cut staff and needing to come up with reasons. Welcome back, I hope you (and your family) are healthier. Life is a journey for sure...gotta deal with the bumps sometimes.

Keeping the mortgage in Canada allows you to deduct the interest- SD mentioned it earlier “smith maneuver”

Well, keeping the mortgage means you keep the interest tax deduction. I think the benefit is: 1- you end up slightly ahead on the spread 2- you get a lot more flexibility, i think, because treasuries are way more liquid.

That's what I'm doing here. Renting the 2.75% place and buying a fixer-upper (bored - need a project).

Assume you have the cash to pay off the note, why not instead buy a 30 year treasury, use the coupons to pay the mortgage? Plus you still have some spread for taxes or profit?

Tender offer for a huge chunk of the outstanding - and the shares already trade above the tender price. Interesting situation. Do you have a long term thesis or is this a trade?

doesn’t just go for boating- I spend a lot on travel and the activities I enjoy. I won’t be able to ski with the same intensity in 10-20 years, so I’ll spend 10k today to maximize that experience while I can.

Well done on the TPC trade. Looks even more torqued than Aecon in retrospect.

My guess is Warren and Charlie had their proxies doing the whip cracking - at least when they were younger. They spend all day doing financial analysis- if they look at their wholly owned businesses and see their labor or materials or whatever costs are X% higher than a competitor, don’t you think they will somehow prod that? These guys are shrewd- they just do it in a way that doesn’t come back to them.

Vestis looks like a debt paydown story. They are doing some cost cutting which may or may not work, but I imagine the real story is paying down all the debt they are saddled with post-spin. That value will accrue to equity holders over time.

Not hedging the yen, but buying in JPY. Ross- I also sold puts on DFIN this morning.

Both, or neither? I look at the last call it 5 years earnings just to get my bearings on the business. Then I look forward - are prospects better, worse, or similar to the past few years? If I think the prospects are way better (something like Fairfax in 2021), but the market is pricing as if prospects are middling, well maybe there's an interesting investment. Ultimately it comes down to what the business will earn in the future, vs. what you pay today. We know today's price, the rub is in estimating future earnings. I think prior earnings history does provide some baseline at least to start estimating.