hyten1

rtgross question on IB i have looked at their commission structure, http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=commission i thought they charge 0.005 per share with a min of $1 and max of 0.5% of trade value what are your thoughts on IB? I have been thinking about opening an account, however the commission structure is a little confusing. thoughts on other costs? thanks hy

i have hard time finding anything remotely cheap enough for me to buy anyone?

i just don't quite understand when someone push for more taxes whenever there is a budget deficit I think everyone would agree with: 1. gov doesn't spend money very wisely or efficiently 2. why does gov worker still have these nice pension plans, awesome vacation plans etc. I know many people who work for the gov where the retirement age is 55. after 55 they are set for life. how can this be? Like i said: 1. cut spending 2. spend wisely 3. cut more spending 4. spend more wisely I don't disagree with buffett that investment income should be tax at the same rate as regular income. But people seem to forget, there is another way to make that the case, that is to lower the personal income. h

i am with the came as tax as minimum as possible, now the question is what is the right amount i am already paying 50% of my income to the gov, when does it stop? i believe in: 1. cut spending 2. spend wisely 3. cut more spending 4. spend every dime wisely 5. last resort raise taxes

everyone is aware of the "checklist" that one use to quickly evaluate a company. was wondering what is one peoples checklist? i am just starting to build one, here is my current list. Check List 1. Do I understand the biz/industry or is it easily understood 2. Is it undervalue (by how much, diff level for diff type of biz) 3. What is my downside (worst case senario), what is the upside 4. What is the moat/competitive advantage 5. Can this business be decimated by low-cost competition from China or other low-cost countries? 6. Is this a win-win business for the entire ecosystem? 7. Does this biz depend on financing if it does what are the implications 8. Is insiders align with shareholders 9. Are you looking at normalized earnings or are you looking at boom/depress earnings 10. Any respectable value investor a shareholder 11. what are its competition and what product/service can replace this companies product/service (both direct and indirectly) 12. Can technology deminish the moat more...

i tend to be on the conservative side i would usually not include depreciation/amortization as part of earnings, nor would i include stock options etc obviously the depr/amort really depends on the company but i try to be conservative

Parsad, In your example, if you realize the $100K gain (that was unrealized on April 1st) in April, 11th partner will be allocated a portion of the realized gain even thought his investment may not have gone up in value (i.e., similar to mutual fund situation). Is this correct? I do agree that over a longer period of time, this effect is negligible. And you are doing it way better than mutual funds anyhow. yes the 11th partner realized the gain but this 11th partner paid for it through the nav, after the gain nav does down

here is my take on it, if you leave the market along i believe there is going to be deflation (balance sheet recession) however now you throw in gov interference, then it becomes iffy hy

try quicken, i track everything using it

base on Nassim Taleb, buffett may just be lucky http://www.cnbc.com/id/35300031

man what is this going to do to the annual meeting :) man the number of people at the meeting is just too many

folks, if you believe there is a massive china bubble, how would you profit from it?

sorry i posted in the wrong thread disregard my post above

this is very interesting and definitely worth watching but i do have to point out that both Ford and GM also said their says has increase considerable in China, now its possible that GM and Ford increase and other automaker decrease. http://www.egmcartech.com/2009/11/11/china-auto-sales-up-75-8-in-october-gm-china-doubles-sales/ just to illustrate the fact its not ALL smoke and mirrors I guess its possible to get ALL sales data from each of the major automakers independently to cross check the data. unless everyone thinks the automakers are also cooking the numbers

I was curious what are the varies different blogs, website, or investors/writes that people read and follow. i would like to get a list of diverse set of point of few for idea gathering (for stocks and financial opportunities of course) i typically read wsj.com finance.yahoo.com urbandigs.com gurufocus.com of course this message borad greenbackd.com calculated risk http://accruedint.blogspot.com/ http://10qdetective.blogspot.com/

i am still mostly a bottom ups guy (looking for undervalue stocks) but its getting harder and harder to find extreme values. its just interesting look for extremes (both bubble and crashes)

personally i think when there is a bubble its pretty much a no brainer ... you should be able to spot it a mile away. its funny how i think this is true, but at the same time people involve don't see it only until afterwards... human psychic how fascinating. i just want to be able to profit both from bubble and crashes... i read some people made a good deal of money from the recent Dubai trouble (selling/short their debt a few months ago) maybe we can broaden the discussion... what are things that people see that is unsustainable, considerably outside then norm, few standard deviations outside the norm?

i do feel like FFH is not treating every equally as equal partners, sure he doesnt have to but... would WEB have done it this way? I highly doubt it. the recent Burlington acquisition is good example, buffett is willing to split stock 50 to 1 just so that the small investor will have the same options. exactly why the rush...?

man i have always wanted to meet buffett personally, just seem so impossible right now, at AGM there are just too many people. I was so envyous of international folks.

williams406 and misterstockwell i would like to know about td ameritrade stock conversion as well, is it seemless or do i need to do something extra. I assume in order to trade this we will need to use a phone (no internet trades) and the commission will no longer be 9.99 I did not ask about that. I figured that I own shares of Fairfax, which will remain the same no matter where they are listed. I assume there will be no transaction involved, but I better ask!

wondering does anyone know i assume if you own FFH:NYSE in a discount broker that supports canadian exchange, will it get automatically converted to the securities under TSX? i am talking specifically about etrade.

my us td ameritrade account doesnt allow us to buy/sell canadian stocks not trading in the us exchanges man this sucks, unless an adr or something is available i would be force to sell

sorry i am still confused i am a us resident and i buy/sell stock using a discount broker, i can only buy/sell us equities from this discount broker (td ameritrade) does this mean i am force to sell?

am i force to sell because of the delisting from nyse

guys so what does this mean i own shares under FFH:NYSE