muscleman

merkhet, thanks a lot!

So if the company does not send documents to each US person to help him with the QFE elections, then there will be no way for the US person to do QFE election, right? Mark to market election is subject to ordinary income tax rate, which is much higher. Another question: Whether this year is elected as QFE has nothing to do with whether I elect QFE next year. So if I open a foreign investment closed end fund, and if this year's fund gains but the fund's shares actually decline in price, then I can avoid tax by electing Mark to Market? One more question: If the foreign closed end fund has $200 NAV but I buy the fund shares at $100, and then if the fund gains 20% and the NAV grows to $240 that year and the share price goes up to $120, it seems like Mark to Market election actually saves tax?

This is interesting.

Since I'll be back in DC by then, I'll report back what I hear. Thank you! :)

I feel puzzled with the situations here. Sorry for asking such newbie questions. :o So last month, the lenders approved extension and everyone seems happy. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/greek-stocks-bonds-rally-on-bailout-deal-optimism-2015-02-24 But then the debt problems come back again? http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-drop-greek-debt-talks-on-deck-2015-03-09 "Over the weekend, Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told an Italian newspaper that Greece may hold a referendum on whether to accept its creditors’ financial-aid terms if the government decides they are unacceptable." Can anyone please help me understand what's going on right now?

The url has changed. What happened? Did some politician hire some hacker to shut down his site and then he has to reboot it with a new URL? LOL Just to let you guys know, I asked in the blog. The original http://timhoward717.com/ was taken down for "a serious of issues." It is now back up. The new site https://th717.wordpress.com/ was created by someone else who thought he needs to carry on the march forward. It has nothing to do with Tim Howard. Now that the original site is back up, the new site is still updating. It is kind of funny.

With texas ratio over 100, are you not concerned that there will be another capital raise to dilute your ownership?

The url has changed. What happened? Did some politician hire some hacker to shut down his site and then he has to reboot it with a new URL?

timhoward717.com The site suddenly closed to public. Is it forced to do so? I think it is a sign that the politicians are getting increasingly uncomfortable with what has been disclosed and exposed about their lies. They kept silence for a while and finally started attacking back by that treasury announcement.

You can only do this with desktop turbo tax right? I am using web version so I can only manually copy and paste each transaction. I view this as a reminder that I shouk not trade too much.

Canada has a duopoly. Air Canada still managed to lose money four years in a row just barely avoiding its second bankruptcy in less than 10 years. Even if the airlines remain rational (doubtful), fend off Low Cost airlines, and remain profitable, the unions will reassert their power. This remains a terrible industry with very strong cyclical tailwinds. Westjet is 5% of my portfolio but I put no faith in the "this time is different" mantra. Why is airline so hard for investors? Is it because of the high capex intensity and Union? Why does railroad not have this problem now?

Twister's pay package is REALLY good. I felt sorry to have missed this boat. I was looking for a new job in 2013 and it was just two months too late for Twitter as they prepare for IPO and started hiring freeze. My other friend got into Twitter and got a stock compensation of 10000 shares per year for the first two years. This is in addition to the base salary and annual bonus. So the total annual package could easily be north of $0.6 Million. This makes Microsoft's pay to be really miserable as it is in the 100k range.

I wish dataroma has more data about each super investors. For example, I have no clue why Witney Tilson is in dataroma.

‘Crowd’ Sites Let Startups Tap Small Investors’ Cash http://www.wsj.com/articles/crowd-sites-let-startups-tap-small-investors-cash-1423446571 "The moves are a sign of the intense desire among small investors to try to cash in on the technology industry’s gold rush. Rather than wait for up-and-coming firms to go public, these investors are pouring money in much earlier, hoping for supersize returns if a company becomes a hit." How to profit from this bubble before the burst? ;D

So the GoodHaven guys left Fairholme, created a new mutual fund, and bought SHLD there? That doesn't seem to be logical to me. Maybe they disagreed on topics other than SHLD?

Yeah I am on it. What's interesting is that this mini crash started at 7:40 AM, which is 20 minute before the cc start time. :) I didn't spot anything unusual in Bruce's remarks on FNMA and FMCC.

Is there any news? FNMAS is dropping like a stone right now.

Regarding discovery, Fairholme's report says:"In the interim, the Fund continues to pursue litigation against FHFA and Treasury to defend its rights as an owner of the companies. To date, the Fund’s lawyers have received approximately 387,000 pages of documents – most of which have come from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and their respective auditors. Not only has the government insisted on shrouding all documents in a veil of secrecy known as a “protective order,” but FHFA and Treasury have further shielded responsive documents from disclosure by broadly asserting executive privilege. One example from the recently released Privilege Log is indicative:" So can judge Sweeney do anything if the government insists that these documents have executive privilege and should not be disclosed?

Thanks for your update. This is the report http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53962eb7e4b053c664d74f3d/t/54cc0c88e4b01e8c22bc8148/1422658696249/Fairholme+Fund+Annual+Report+2014.pdf

I didn't understand the margin of safety for ZTS and CP. It seems to me that most of these companies were fair to overvalued when he bought them. But he pushed for changes and massively improved the results, which pushed stock price higher. As an ordinary investor, I am not sure what to learn from him. Non-US investors can buy his PSH funds for sure. Or if you are in US and not afraid of PFIC filings, you can too. :)

Thank you! :D I hope other shareholders would stop pissing her off. That would not be good. It is nice to see that the government's trick to stop the discovery process will fail again. :)

New cars: Wait until 2 weeks before the next model year come out to buy. At this point, if the new Chevy 2015 is coming out, who would buy the 2014 model? So even though it is a new car, no one would buy. Dealers are getting desparate and would love to sell it to you 4000 below invoice. Used cars: Shop around winter time. Less buyers. Easier to bargain.

Thanks! I guess I need a notebook to systematically go over some stuff. :) What screens did you use? Just ran it on a Bloomberg

What screens did you use?

I am looking for either high growth companies selling at a reasonable P/E(such as 25% growth at 12 PE), or 1-foot hurdle turnaround companies, where the main business is still making a lot of money, and it is not costly to close the unprofitable peripheral business lines. I do not want to buy businesses that requires a transformation to make money. (SHLD). I do not want to buy businesses that's been heavily promoted by its managers. (Mart resources). I do not want to buy technology companies unless it is making money and it is dirty cheap. (AAPL in 1998 and 2013, but not now). I do not want to buy businesses that requires way too many assumptions about its asset value. (Oil and gas industry) I am willing to invest internationally, but very carefully. My IQ is average, but I am willing to do hard work to understand complex structures. Please show me 1-2 stunning ideas! ;D