tripleoptician

Uccmal, I agree medical doctors rarely retire but the reasons vary. A portion (mainly surgeons) derive most of their sense of self worth from their profession and continue long after what is needed for financial reasons. Often their insane hours and dedication has led their personal relationships to suffer and they don't have hobbies because they never had free time. Another portion have balanced lives but love what they do and the mental stimulation they derive from it. They often work reduced hours but will work into their 60-70's Another portion (more than you would think) take on heavy debt burdens acquiring possessions and need to keep working in their 60's as they need to pay for their mansions and boats. I hope to be in the 2nd category and continuing to work for pleasure but not for financial reasons by my early 40's. I don't like being dependant on the income because our government can be highly unpredictable in its approach to health care and our medical system is on an unsustainable path.

This is a very interesting topic because everything is so relative to your surroundings. I am a currently a two income earning physician family and can appreciate the skewed perspective the interviewee comes from. It isn't just Keeping up with the Jones' , it becomes what is social norm. I grew up in a wealthy family(my father was a doctor) but thought at a young age my dad was cheap because he made me work for all my discretionary spending and "only" bought me a used Suzuki Swift at 16 yrs old. When in medical school, I travelled in summers working off my "free money" credit line and went to underdeveloped areas like India and Southeast Asia. Very quickly I realized that the "poor" in Canada are wealthy by third world standards. I quickly saw most things as a waste of money in a relative sense and became ultra frugal. Slowly as I have began working I see a slow creep of upper class mentality affecting myself and my wife in a relative sense. We still rent, drive modest cars and save ~75% of our income, but I still find myself justifying expenses by saying its only an hour's work equivalent. I also feel constant pressure from my middle class friends for not "living it up". I should qualify this post by disclosing I do feel rich mainly because we never have to worry about money, although I'm not financially free and could stop working. I just think wealth/money psychology is so interesting as it is so relative based on individual perspectives.

Just read this article which tries to break down the conflicting variables of the overall market driving the bullish/bearish sentiment. Good article! http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/equity-risk-premiums-erp-and-stocks.html

Why would it be much better? The liquidity appears the same and it tracks TPOU perfectly in its NAV. It's the same company regardless...

My understanding is that it is listed as a vehicle on the LSE with 3 different share class forms for USD, EURO, British pounds. My brokerage wasn't setup for the LSE so I bought TPNTF on the OTC. Are you referring to your individual tax filing or the company's filing? If its your own filing you are referring to, it acts identically to trading individual securities for capital gains +\- distributions which Third Point has given special dividends in the past.

Hi muscleman You can buy on the OTC markets on symbol TPNTF. Nice 7% pop today....looks like discount to NAV might be narrowing.

Hi Gio I'm curious if you participated in the reverse tender offer at the end of the year? I personally would prefer them to close the NAV primarily with regular share buybacks or by continuing the special dividends. When reviewing the year end statements I noticed the euro/sterling total shares is a much smaller volume than the USD. Have you found the euro trading has big bid/ask spreads? Cheers

@giofranchi I just joined this forum and am pleased to find some like minded investors such as yourself. I'm building a core long term portfolio around Third Point Offshore when discount to NAV is >15%. This is in combination with GLRE and Fairfax when their book values trade at lower multiples. I think TPNTF (I assume you use the euro traded fund) with have a great long term CAGR and we have the added benefit that as a closed end fund it trades at a discount. This is especially beneficial now that in November they proved they are willing to return profits via special dividend to close the discount. Given the fact it initially traded at a premium to NAV when it first traded (as it probably should with Loeb having a superior long term CAGR), I'm wondering what needs to happen within the capital markets to see its discount close. Any thoughts? Add the fact that a market neutral strategy gives great diversification to a long value oriented portfolio, I see little disadvantage to owning this security. Cheers and thanks in advance for ongoing updates!