mcliu

Good post zachmansell and wisdom. +1

I'm not familiar with the regulations in HK, but I'm speaking about controlling shareholder businesses in general. If the controlling shareholder is not friendly towards the minority shareholders, while they may not try to steal the whole company, there's nothing preventing them from larger than necessary expenses (having a couple of corporate jets, etc..) Hence you have these discounts to NAV, which may not be unwarranted. I am just starting to look at Henderson Land, this HK company is ridiculous cheap. P/BV = 0.5x. Book value has grown around 10-20% EVERY year for the last decade..... does anyone own this baby? I am still in the process of due diligence which involves just glossing over their 10K (or the ADR equivalent) But Henderson is a HK company. Marty Whitman basically said HK has good regulations to protect minority shareholders. Do you not agree? Also according to Wikipedia, twice the owner tried to buyout the minority shareholders but failed to get the votes. Their glossy annual report and 10% annual increase in book value seems to show that the minority shareholders get a fair shake. no?

The properties are marked-to-market on their books as per IFRS, so you would see big fluctuations in book value depending on how their marking these properties. If you factor in the lack of control, poor governance, conglomerates running like family businesses, over-valued properties and weak asset allocation, the discount seems pretty rational. Obviously, there are some better conglomerates and some worse so there may be opportunities. I am just starting to look at Henderson Land, this HK company is ridiculous cheap. P/BV = 0.5x. Book value has grown around 10-20% EVERY year for the last decade..... does anyone own this baby? I am still in the process of due diligence which involves just glossing over their 10K (or the ADR equivalent)

I heard software engineers are in huge demand, especially in California and that excellent engineers can get paid up to 7 figures when you include stock options and other perks..? Can someone confirm? You start with 6 figures (salary + bonus). However, it's not a lot on an hourly basis..

Thanks. Appreciate the feedback!

Has anyone every used this service? I was wondering if it's worth subscribing to and whether these interviews add any value..

Gio Seems like fair value is much greater than $30 if cost was $75 to produce it..

Tons of capital chasing small returns in unfamiliar markets with potential for large losses. Hmm... ???

FT has pretty good data sets. http://markets.ft.com/RESEARCH/markets/DataArchiveFetchReport?Category=EQ&Type=RAT&Date=01/23/2014

http://mcelvaine.com/our-fund/performance/

I just read the article today: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/george-soros-maps-the-terrain-of-a-global-economy-that-is-increasingly-shaped-by-china Pretty interesting stuff. I can't wrap my head around macro economics, too complicated. I hope the macro experts here could help me understand why it seems like every country in the world is issuing a lot of debt, and whether this a relatively recent phenomenon? Also, why are people borrowing so much and who is providing the credit?

There's always the issue of good management meeting poor economics. Although I think at these prices, if the company can get its costs under control, things will work out okay.

Does anyone have an easy way to look at the historical fundamentals of an ETF? Specifically, I'm trying to look at how something like XMA has traded on a P/E and P/B basis and the aggregate earnings, etc etc..

A couple of issues on our bins: 1) the poll started before the year ended; 2) There is a dividing line that was right on the S&P returns. So, ours is fairly poor sampling I believe. For example, when I answered, I was at 24.6% or so, and I finished at 28.89%. I think many people ended higher, and that dividing line has some impact. Regarding Packer's comments, of course we are above average. This is CoBF which means we are from the Graham and Doddsville school. And the school does yield superior returns. Or we take more risks..

Yeah same issue here. Is there an easy way to buy a basket of cheap O&G?

That's sort of my impression too of most Asian companies. They're still run like family businesses despite being public entities. Seems tough to be minority investors. Would like to hear some ideas though of companies with good governance and shareholder-minded owners.

Given how that sector's been hammered in 2013, what are your best picks for 2014?

You guys are all amazing. I'm only +9%

Seems like a losing battle for SCU. There's no real competitive advantage or brand loyalty for SCU, if Starbucks opens a location across the street from each Second Cup, which will probably happen eventually, it's game over.

This worries me... Reitman's isn't exactly fashion forward.. ???

EPS Accretion! Probably the first model you learn as a banking analyst.

Very interesting discussion! I think the problem is that you can't really spend "alpha" in Chanos' sense. Even though a portfolio incorporating Chanos' fund will have a higher Sharpe, you'll still be worse off in $ terms if you're invested without his fund. I guess it comes down to whether you believe portfolio volatility is a measure of risk.

I used a Bloomberg terminal which is a little $$$ for most investors. Also, even Bloomberg isn't perfect when it comes to very small stocks - particularly in Canada. Do you have a study that shows F-Score works for Net Nets? If -ve earnings helps (still trying to get my head around this one) then F-Score might hurt. Oh, if you've links to Net-Net studies, please share :) Btw, I've been following Graham's Simple Way for years. It is a high volatility method. So high, I'm not sure many would be able to follow it. Oh, and the value premium seems to persist for ~5 years at least but I've not seen a study on it for Net Nets. I'd also opt for an equal weighting method (at least approximately). Ideally, lots of small bets. Hi NormR, I was wondering, how much does a Bloomberg subscription cost and what do you think of the data integrity? Does Bloomberg have a team vetting the financials (for the larger companies) in their databases like CapitalIQ does?

Why does it matter who's better? This feels like comparing whether Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps is the better athlete.

Is there a reason they bought the restaurants and not the income fund?