muscleman

I really have no clue why people are so excited about these Greek banks. Texas ratio is well over 100 and stock price is 2/3 of tangible book. The risk reward ratio does not justify the investment. Wilbur Ross has made good and bad investments. His commitment to Eurobank is far less than his commitment to IRE. Look at XCO and SNBC. He didn't do too well on these two. Everyone has some failures and that's part of the game. Don't blindly follow him.

You are buying XOM at $88? Why? The P/E is 11. Does not look that cheap to me. ::)

Any thoughts? 1. Oil production companies: I am worries if the oil price can stay longer than those companies stay solvent. Look at today's nat gas producers! 2. Oil service companies: These companies will have much less business when OPEC decides to cut production. I expect US shale oil companies to cut production first and then OPEC will cut production. Therefore the oil service companies may experience a longer period of distress than oil production companies. 3. Oil consumers: Chemical companies and airlines and auto industry. It is probably already too late.

I don't think the current valuation of Alpha and Piraerus would interest me at all. Be careful. When he got in, he gets the warrants as well, so it is a different risk/reward.

Are you sure? I thought there would be no tax until you sell. Just like an ordinary stock holding. Or even worse a PFIC. That's a separate level of hell altogether... If this is a PFIC and you're in the US avoid investing in this in a taxable account unless you have a killer accountant, or want to mess with the taxes on this on your own. If this is a PFIC (from some Googling I believe it is) you have to pay taxes on the increase in NCAV over the year regardless of your holding period. For example, if the fund trades at $10 on Jan 1st and $12 Dec 31st you have to pay taxes on the 20% gain even if you purchased at $11. If you purchase at $11 and sell at $10 you still pay taxes even though you lost money. Brokerage fees aren't the issue here, it's the tax classification. For many investors this is stuffed in a trust, or in a fund where the manager/custodian doesn't worry about these issues. For individuals it's a different story. This is why many fund companies list the management company to get around these restrictions. Yes that would be bad, but any type of pass through would be annoying if PSH didn't distribute everything. And I would hesitate to buy this in a retirement account without fully understanding the ERISA restrictions (as I don't). I suggest people read the prospectus ... I read through the prospectus but didn't see any mention of PFIC. If this is indeed incorporated as a PFIC, I would at least expect some mention of that in the prospectus. Weird.... http://pershingsquareholdings.com/media/2014/09/Prospectus-Dated-2-October-2014.pdf So what you are saying is that if this is a PFIC, and someone bought in January and sold in Feburary to another guy. The NAV increased from $10 on Jan 1st to $12 on Dec 31st. Then at year end, both persons are subject to paying that 20% increase in NAV? If this is listed in Holland why would they need to detail US tax issues in a prospectus? Investors are on the hook for PFIC themselves. Some foreign companies will mention that they might be considered one to US investors, but the majority I've seen completely ignore the issue. If more than 50% of the company's assets are securities and the company isn't a bank or investment bank then this most likely qualifies. Not sure what Pershing does, but if he just listed his fund then this is a PFIC. Same thing as if you went and purchased a TOPPIX ETF, you'll get nailed for it, but the TOPPIX ETF won't mention PFIC in the prospectus. Thank you for bringing this tax issue up. I sold today. Glad I bought at the rock bottom price this year, so at least I didn't lose money. I understand that I can elect for Mark to Market treatment for this trade and I will pay ordinary income tax on it, which is the same as short term cap gain tax for US stocks anyway. I am sad that I can't hold it for long term investment.

Oddball, I think the following explanation makes a lot of sense. I can either do QFE election or Mark to Market election. If I do Mark to Market election, then I will have to pay the capital tax gain as if it is ordinary income, no matter how long I hold it. This really sucks. ==================== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_foreign_investment_company Mark to market A shareholder of a PFIC may also elect each year to recognize gain or loss on the shares as if he/she/it had sold the PFIC shares at fair market value. Such election is available only for shares the market value of which is readily determinable (e.g., regularly traded shares). Shares subject to this election are not subject to the tax and interest regime.[10] Also, this election is independent of prior PFIC elections (i.e. QEF or Sect 1291 election). for example: If stock X was purchased in 2007 for $100, has a FMV on 12/31/11 of $120, and no PFIC forms were filed until 2011 (when Sect 1296- Mark-to-market- election was made), no PFIC filings would be needed for the prior years as long distributions were less than 125% and no capital gains occurred. For the current year, 8621 would be filed using Mark to market and the ordinary income would be $20. see Section 1.1296-1 3 b.iii

Are you sure? I thought there would be no tax until you sell. Just like an ordinary stock holding. Or even worse a PFIC. That's a separate level of hell altogether... If this is a PFIC and you're in the US avoid investing in this in a taxable account unless you have a killer accountant, or want to mess with the taxes on this on your own. If this is a PFIC (from some Googling I believe it is) you have to pay taxes on the increase in NCAV over the year regardless of your holding period. For example, if the fund trades at $10 on Jan 1st and $12 Dec 31st you have to pay taxes on the 20% gain even if you purchased at $11. If you purchase at $11 and sell at $10 you still pay taxes even though you lost money. Brokerage fees aren't the issue here, it's the tax classification. For many investors this is stuffed in a trust, or in a fund where the manager/custodian doesn't worry about these issues. For individuals it's a different story. This is why many fund companies list the management company to get around these restrictions. I am learning the PFIC staff as hard as I can. http://www.deblislaw.com/understanding-the-pfic-rules-without-suffering-a-migraine.html It is still a bit confusing to me. It says I can either elect for paying taxes every year, or I can elect to defer taxation until I sell. But what's the tax rate when I sell? Is that just the capital gain tax or is it a higher rate? A taxpayer who does not make a QEF election is taxed under the pure PFIC tax regime of Section 1291. Under this regime, taxpayers are permitted to defer taxation of a PFIC’s undistributed income until the PFIC makes an excess distribution. An excess distribution includes the following: i. A gain realized on the sale of PFIC stock, and ii. Any actual distribution made by the PFIC, but only to the extent that the total actual distributions received for the year exceed 125% of the average actual distribution received in the preceding three taxable years (or, if shorter, the taxpayer’s holding period before the current taxable year). Can any tax experts help me please?

Are you sure? I thought there would be no tax until you sell. Just like an ordinary stock holding. Or even worse a PFIC. That's a separate level of hell altogether... If this is a PFIC and you're in the US avoid investing in this in a taxable account unless you have a killer accountant, or want to mess with the taxes on this on your own. If this is a PFIC (from some Googling I believe it is) you have to pay taxes on the increase in NCAV over the year regardless of your holding period. For example, if the fund trades at $10 on Jan 1st and $12 Dec 31st you have to pay taxes on the 20% gain even if you purchased at $11. If you purchase at $11 and sell at $10 you still pay taxes even though you lost money. Brokerage fees aren't the issue here, it's the tax classification. For many investors this is stuffed in a trust, or in a fund where the manager/custodian doesn't worry about these issues. For individuals it's a different story. This is why many fund companies list the management company to get around these restrictions. Yes that would be bad, but any type of pass through would be annoying if PSH didn't distribute everything. And I would hesitate to buy this in a retirement account without fully understanding the ERISA restrictions (as I don't). I suggest people read the prospectus ... I read through the prospectus but didn't see any mention of PFIC. If this is indeed incorporated as a PFIC, I would at least expect some mention of that in the prospectus. Weird.... http://pershingsquareholdings.com/media/2014/09/Prospectus-Dated-2-October-2014.pdf So what you are saying is that if this is a PFIC, and someone bought in January and sold in Feburary to another guy. The NAV increased from $10 on Jan 1st to $12 on Dec 31st. Then at year end, both persons are subject to paying that 20% increase in NAV? I was suggesting reading the prospectus for the ERISA stuff. There's nothing in there about U.S. tax treatment because I believe they specifically avoided selling IPO shares to U.S. individuals. Oh... I see. PSH NAV increased a lot this year. Does this mean if I hold it through year end, I have to pay the tax on the NAV increase from Jan 1st to Dec 31st? What if I sell now?

Are you sure? I thought there would be no tax until you sell. Just like an ordinary stock holding. Or even worse a PFIC. That's a separate level of hell altogether... If this is a PFIC and you're in the US avoid investing in this in a taxable account unless you have a killer accountant, or want to mess with the taxes on this on your own. If this is a PFIC (from some Googling I believe it is) you have to pay taxes on the increase in NCAV over the year regardless of your holding period. For example, if the fund trades at $10 on Jan 1st and $12 Dec 31st you have to pay taxes on the 20% gain even if you purchased at $11. If you purchase at $11 and sell at $10 you still pay taxes even though you lost money. Brokerage fees aren't the issue here, it's the tax classification. For many investors this is stuffed in a trust, or in a fund where the manager/custodian doesn't worry about these issues. For individuals it's a different story. This is why many fund companies list the management company to get around these restrictions. Yes that would be bad, but any type of pass through would be annoying if PSH didn't distribute everything. And I would hesitate to buy this in a retirement account without fully understanding the ERISA restrictions (as I don't). I suggest people read the prospectus ... I read through the prospectus but didn't see any mention of PFIC. If this is indeed incorporated as a PFIC, I would at least expect some mention of that in the prospectus. Weird.... http://pershingsquareholdings.com/media/2014/09/Prospectus-Dated-2-October-2014.pdf So what you are saying is that if this is a PFIC, and someone bought in January and sold in Feburary to another guy. The NAV increased from $10 on Jan 1st to $12 on Dec 31st. Then at year end, both persons are subject to paying that 20% increase in NAV?

Why is that? I use IB and I could buy the PSH shares with no problem at very low cost. Fidelity can do it too but would charge you a pretty big commission.

Are you sure? I thought there would be no tax until you sell. Just like an ordinary stock holding.

I use H2O wireless prepaid plan. 0.05 dollar per minute talking and per text. 4G data is 0.25 per MB. I usually turn of data and use home and office wifi. My bill is like $6 per month when I am not travelling and $15-20 when I travel and use a lot of data. You can buy their SIM card from Amazon for 0.01 cent. You need to have either an unlocked iPhone or an AT&T locked iPhone, as they use AT&T network. You need to use your mobile browser to go to http://unlockit.co.nz/ to install the H2O APN to enable 4G data. Buying the H2O prepaid cards from callingMart gives you an extra discount. I've been using it for more than one year and I like this plan so far.

Is there any law regarding how the turning over of documents work? Let's say the government has 1 million pages of evil documents, but they are only turning over 1 page per month. That would drag the whole discovery process to 1 million months. Why wouldn't they just turn over everything at once?

If you read the natural gas company statements like XCO in the past, they say exactly the same thing when gas prices drop. No more earnings? Oh, let's talk about cash production cost, cash EPS and adjusted EBITDA per mcf. Same as Gold production companies. The reality is that this is a heavy capex industry, not Burger King or Diary Queen. :)

Doesn't seem like a material event to me. What do you think? Of course the government will object to everything that the plaintiff proposes, even for scheduling. If the judge rules that the delay is not warranted, then I assume the plaintiff has to somehow get someone into this meeting, right?

Won't NOV be affected in this downturn? The oil companies will certainly order less drills from NOV.

Thanks a lot! I just requested an emergency cancellation of that contribution. I hope it can go through. :)

ELFCU now charges a $24 fee to wire money from your HSA at the credit union to TD. http://thefinancebuff.com/elfcu-adds-monthly-fee.html HSA Bank was the cheapest I've found with $66 in fees per year. (2.5 account fee + 3 TD acct fee). You can write off the out of pocket contributions this year to avoid state and federal taxes. The advantage of having your employer take the money out of your pay roll is to avoid SSI and medicare taxes (~7.3%). This isn't an issue if you are making more than the SSI cutoff. Thank you! I wasn't aware of the account fees change in ELFCU. For HSA bank, my current employer's HSA plan uses HSA bank and they waived the 2.5 account fee per month for me. I am not aware of the TD acct fee either so I will check with them on that. My employer is using ConnectYourCare as the HSA admin, which links to the HSA Bank's hsa account. I am not sure about the relationships between them. I can click "Make a contribution" in ConnectYourCare's website, and it will request a money transfer from my linked bank account. When I make this out of pocket contribution, I will receive some tax form later, which will allow me to deduct this from my taxable income, right? That's great.

I've been thinking about setting up an HSA account in Eli Lilly credit union. The primary reason is that my employer's fiscal year starts every April 1st, but the IRS fiscal year starts in January. Therefore This April first when I switched from other health plan to HSA and elected to contribute $6550 per year, they simply divide it by 12, and let me contribute $545 per month to the employer sponsored HSA. That means by the end of 2014, my contribution would have been $1600 shy of the IRS $6550 limit. Therefore I would like to open a separate HSA account in Eli Lilly credit union and contribute that amount to it. That $1600 should be tax deductible when I file my tax right? What happens if I over-contribute? Let's say I contributed more than $6550 for 2014. Will this incur penalties?

Let the speculation begin. :) Nice! This probably implies at least the discover did identify documents that are highly controversial. :)

It is amazing how much has changed since the board first talked about Biglari. A Buffet premium now has become a Biglari discount. :)

I am surprised the interests drawn to the thread is so low. The bond has gone up nearly 100% in 4 months. :)

He has over 118 Million shares of FNMAS. The average daily volume is merely 2 million. It would not be practical to do tax selling for him at all. Maybe he has been hassled by too much media attention and just want his peace? It is awesome that you have such great opportunities to speak with such great guys as Bruce and Paulson. :)

If the bloodbath comes on Monday, why buy today instead of on Monday? Timing. When I picked up more shares today, this news hadn't broken. I suspect I will be picking up more shares next week as well. Impressive! How did you end up in his office, if you don't mind me asking? Same question here. How did your interview end up? Did you get an offer from Paulson? It went fine, but it was very clear that they wanted an Excel monkey. Plus, I had a job at the time (same fund I run now), so I basically took the interview because I wanted to pick Paulson's brain some more. Wow cool! So you are a fund manager as well. That's nice! Regarding this: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/aig-may-be-on-hook-if-hank-greenberg-wins-bailout-suit.html Why did you say:"We'll probably get a resolution on the AIG case before year-end, which may provide some interesting guidance towards the Fannie & Freddie cases."? I assume you meant that the judge will rule by the end of this year, right? But appeal will take many years from this point on.

Impressive! How did you end up in his office, if you don't mind me asking? Same question here. How did your interview end up? Did you get an offer from Paulson?