Shawn

This is ignorant, Buffett is referring to a country with opportunity for him to build his wealth. If he were born in Bangladesh in 1930 he would not have had the same opportunities to go to the schools he went to and be exposed to the things he saw that influenced him to become an investor. Has nothing to do with IQ and IQ has nothing to do with success. Rose Blumkin couldn't read or write and build one of the best furniture businesses in North America, Temple Grandin was autistic and became an American icon, as Sanjeev pointed out there's a dozen examples of people we could refer to.

I would question the IQ of anyone who would use this as investment criteria. Also the comment suggests someone doesn't know a lot about IQ testing. +1 +2

Hillary Clinton

13.8% so far, still early and a lot can change. I'm trying to find new things to buy.

E-L Financial

If I found a company I could acquire whole and run myself (or with mgmt I like) I'd have no problem doing that. I always believed that size of allocation was a very important factor in investing that's severely underrated. I can't name 1 particular company but I wouldn't have a problem if someone came to me and with some of the Dow components at discounts and told me I'd have to keep all my money in one of them forever. I wouldn't be mad having my entire networth in either Walmart, ExxonMobil, Apple, Coke, Proctor and Gamble, or American Express. I can understand why a trader wouldn't do that but as a businessman I'd have no qualms doing it if it was a business I could acquire and run and had some knowledge of it's industry or was passionate enough to learn.

Happy belated Birthday Sanjeev !! Thank you for both the hard work and efforts of you and Alnesh for creating this site to allow all of us to communicate. Going to the COBF dinners over the years have been the highlights of most of my years. Being able to learn from everyone (Packer is easily my favourite poster lolol), meet people I look up to in the value investing community, get great ideas and learn as much as I have is something I am eternally grateful and lucky to have obtained posting and lurking the boards. Thanks a million times over to the both of you. I wish you a happy birthday, may you obtain more success, happyness, luck and prosperity in everything you do.

Large caps like Walmart and ExxonMobil are getting cheaper, prompting a closer look and possibly an investment. Is it me or are P/E ratios starting to lower ?

For the returns and success Fairfax and Prem has generated (and that is no disrespect to the other executives because I understand it was a TEAM effort) I feel that Prem should have control over his baby. I think that Fairfax will outgrow Prem and exist long after he's gone and with this control his family can still assert the values of Fairfax in potential successors. If it was my own company I would do the same. I think if you look at any of the wealthiest or greatest capitalists you can almost always find that most of them own or have significant control over the enterprises they create or run.

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. Thorndike Amazing book, absolutely amazing...

Floyd is going to floor Manny, those 2 were never on the same level. When you look at the news even, seems no one has faith in Manny the underlying question seems to be "how do we beat Mayweather" ? If it goes to points though, it's possible the judges might screw Floyd and give it to Manny just for the rematch because they know how much money is/would be on the table for a sequel. I think that Floyd Mayweather will make Manny Pacquaio look like meatloaf out there.

Apple - some are still sceptical but I'm a firm believer that it will probably become the next GE in technology and software Fairfax Financial - their best years are yet to come, the general market is underestimating the performance of it's subsidiaries over the long term The U.S. & Canadian Banks - goes without saying *shrugs* Wal-Mart Exxon Mobil Berkshire Hathaway - say what you want but at this point any theory I think is speculation, once again I don't think we should discredit the effectiveness of that whole ship and the subsidiaries 20-30 years out. I think Buffett's successor(s) will make it work. Algoma Central - ahh yes the odd one on the list (btw I don't have a position in it), high ROE, good profits and good mgmt, has all the workings of a company I wouldn't even mind owning down the road. I think it will make it's owners rich over the next generation. Goldman Sachs There's others but I think the above are likely to make their owners work.

I think Sam Mitchell said it best - in the longrun reality catches up - or something to that effect LOLOL. I think if you can discipline yourself to hoard cash and then allocate it when there's "blood in the streets" and do that periodically over time that's ideally a great approach to take. Simple yet most have issues sitting still. I don't think one would be wrong to even hold large cash balances at this point in time. That's how I'm starting to look at things today, I haven't found too many companies worth buying outside of BAC, AIG, BP and maybe a few other names but even then, there aren't many "cheap" companies. Plenty of moderately priced businesses tho. I think for now I'm going to hoard cash until a "no-brainer" appears and is worthwhile. I don't need markets to come down X amount of percent - I just need 1 maybe 2 companies that would meet my criteria otherwise, to get hit with some sort of calamity that causes the market to act irrationally and sell it to me for a price I'd like ;D I'd like to think that at least 1 of those occurs once a year or two.

True but I can't seem to find anything else that's selling for cheap. I remember another board member telling me at Sanjeev's meeting that Mohnish said something similar in regards to the overhead of being public killing them. But you never know what you can find. I don't want to leave any section or stone for that matter unturned. It is a risk I am willing to accept if I even find anything there that's worthwhile. I haven't been to oddball in a while but I'll be sure to check them out.

Does anyone have a list of good blogs, screeners or sites where we can find small, micro, and even nano cap companies ? I'm interested in looking in that area for potential value. The only ones I know of are the TSX venture exchange and the NASDAQ screeners. And my apologies if this has already been made/asked before :(