no_free_lunch

Thanks bizarro. My broker did let me enter the trade in RYCEF as you mentioned. However, the trade wasn't executing despite my setting a limit slightly above the current ask! I might try making the trade again and giving it more time.

I agree with pupil on the return. Your long-term return is dividend + share buybacks + growth in earnings. Other than multiple expansion I can't see how else you get a return. With BRK it's basically the growth.

Tried to buy Rolls Royce yesterday but found out I am not able to hold it in a registered account.

Thanks Shane! Did you factor in the cost to do the PCP deal? I don't know the terms if they are issuing stock or paying cash but there is a small amount of dilution in either case.

Also traded my OAK position for BRK. I don't know if that is smart or not, now that things are getting distressed it's probably a good time to hold OAK. Nevertheless the market offered me friday's closing price for OAK and -4% for BRK so I took it. If nothing else, I have a better idea of how to value BRK. I put no new cash on the table today just swapped up the quality chain where possible.

Sold SFTBY. Bought BRK & PNNT.

I have been thinking about South Korea as well. You are specifically saying that you want to buy stocks which is understandable but have you considered an ETF?

LILA

Good to know, I had no idea there was a general sell-off.

I noticed that the discount to NAV is around 13% now. When I looked at this a year ago or so it was 8%. No doubt this is the result of fairly lackluster performance. However, given that they specialize in shrinking discounts on other closed end funds does it not seem reasonable they would do so on themselves? Naive thinking?

We will need to provide means of living for 80%+ non working population. I don't think we are prepared for that at all (intelectually, spiritually, morally, economically, politically). I acree with the intellectually/sprititually.. but not economically. I mean if we are in a position where there are no jobs due to technical obsolescense it is because we don't need people to work. If we don't need people to work then what is the economic issue? However, politically it could be a bit turbulent as you will need to move towards a more socialist model.

SCTY

DBA $26 Jan / 15 calls. This is a tiny investment but I think the odds of a spike in grains is higher than the cost implies. It will still probably be worth $0 but if it hits it could be 10,20,30, maybe even 40x. Too many stories about drought out there and yet grains are fairly low.

GUD.TO Right back to the level of 6 months ago when they announced the sale of their priority review. Still not cheap but at least we are a little further along. The company has already made 1 exit already which was quite profitable so some evidence he still "has it".

Even where it is trading right this minute, $52.08, I think it is an incredible bargain. Based on the most recent quarter, free cash flow is annualized around $450M. So the company is trading in the vicinity of 15x fcf. It really should trade for at least 20x, given if nothing else that it has strong recurring revenue. When you factor in management's ability to acquire and control costs, it should probably trade at more of a growth multiple, likely 25-30x.

I bought a decently sized position in Open Text today. They do digital document management and are expanding out from there. It is a well run, fast growing company (15%+) going for about 15-16x fcf. ROE is about 25%. It has been mentioned by Donville Kent and Turtle Creek, both of whom have outstanding long-term records. Stock sold off on a weak quarter and currency effects. Should be a good long-term hold.

I have the same problem and am curious what others think as well. My main strategy has been to keep a substantial portion in index funds. I also am not too concentrated (12-15 positions).

We have a 1-year-old son. Over the past year, and the years before as we observed the many people around us who had kids, it became quite clear that kids can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want. And a lot of what people spend on kids isn't actually things that make them happier and better people. In fact, the best thing for most kids would be to spend more time with their parents, and to see those parents be stress-free and happy. Most people spend all their time away from their kids to earn enough to buy a bunch of crap that the kids don't even notice and that they would gladly trade for more time with their parents (do they care if you drive a BMW instead of a Honda or that you have granite countertops instead of wood?). Between me and my wife having taken about a 7 digit aggregate pay cut over a 4-5 year period, to spend more time with kids, I cannot agree with you more. I stopped going to office from the day my son was born, working from home for 7 years that offered a lot of flexibility. Finally I quit my job entirely when my wife was pregnant with our second. I used to take frequent unpaid 3 month time off as well. Main motive was time with kids. A good school district brings a lot of intangible benefits that I did not realize before my son started going to school. Moving to a good school district though increased our housing costs quite a bit. Vinod I agree with these statements. You are investing your time in a new version of yourself. The money you could have made couldn't replace that time investment.

I agree. Maybe, maybe over the next century you get a number like that but I think we are looking at 3-4% over the next 15-20 years, and that is sort of best case scenario. That being said, I don't know of any better alternatives. Cash? Only if we go into major depression and you time it right. Real estate? That is done here in Canada. Gold? It was at $250 in late 90's, who is to say it couldn't lose another 50 or 75% from here and no reason it will beat inflation over any long time period. Bonds? What a joke. I don't know maybe art or some kind of collectible will do better but otherwise I think stocks are a better bet.

Will a 0.25% drop in rates have any impact on borrowing or the economy in a ZIRP world? The only benefit I can see is to devalue the currency even further. It will increase debt relative to what would happen if you didn't drop the rate, otherwise what is the point? I have seen it first hand where people's expenditure on a house is based entirely on the amount of money the bank approves them for. If their interest rate drops by 0.25% then that just ups the amount they will spend on a property. I would have less of an issue with it if they had hiked rates at some points in the last 7 years. They slashed rates during the last recession, didn't do anything when the economy recovered and now they are trying to slash again. It really doesn't feel sustainable.

Where I am, ballpark, 3-5%. 5% would be a multi-tenant building and would assume 100% occupancy and minimal problems from tenants, e.g. not realistic long-term. That is also after property tax/insurance/maintenance/etc but before income tax. EDIT: Also that is based on current rental prices which have risen substantially (roughly 100%) over the past decade.

Just what we needed, now we can get even more in debt.

My personal experience is that with mechanical investing it's tough to beat the market. I have run quite a few test portfolio's with different mechanical strategies and I am unconvinced of their effectiveness. Regardless, if I was to mechanical invest I would definitely go for diversity as you don't have the time limitations and my trading costs are negligible. The only reason I would concentrate is because I only have so much time to read and do fundamental investing.

I think the one thing I see is that concentration levels should not be used as an excuse to cut back on research. You can look at great investors and see that they were concentrated into a handful of stocks and try to emulate that but you need to remember they were still doing their homework even when they weren't buying for a year or two. I guess it comes back to the 500 pages a week or day or whatever it was. You need to keep doing that, stay engaged, even if you hit whatever your concentration limit is. There is always something better to buy so you need to keep looking for that other option.

BAC common. Thanks to all who have posted to the thread, some excellent analysis in there.