Parsad

No idea! I just keep adding and adding. Unlike the past, I don't think there is anything nefarious going on. If anything, I think institutions don't want to be on the wrong side of the trade, and are selling value stocks to add more and more high-flying stocks. As well, you have a ETF's pumping and buying more and more of the stocks in their indices. They have to allocate the huge influx of capital into ETF's and it's a self-propagating cycle pushing up prices in those stocks. Finally, you have millennials and their supporters pushing up heavily shorted stocks with poor fundamentals and high-flying stocks like Tesla, Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc. It's just a wacky irrational market right now! Cheers!

The market disconnect presently is the craziest I've seen since the 1999 bubble, which ended badly by March of 2000. I remember when Berkshire was selling at 0.75 of book value, while internet stocks were ridiculously priced. Today, we have Fairfax trading at 0.75 of book value in solid shape with insurance churning out cash, while meme stocks like AMC with a business being disrupted by streaming, will lose close to $1.5-2B this year, and carrying enormous debt being valued at $20B market cap...down from $35B recently. Just plain silly! Cheers!

Jordan is one of the friends I made due to Buffett and Prem. I met Jordan the first time when he was maybe 25...probably younger...he came to our very first COBF dinner in 2005 in Toronto. Our stories as similar as they are, are only two of probably hundreds we know of on a personal basis. The number of people directly influenced by Buffett and Munger, where it is a life-changing event, may be in the thousands by now. And I mean life-changing...perhaps monetarily for some...perhaps psychologically or career-wise for others...but the numbers are staggering. I can only imagine how many people would have been touched by Buffett's teachings, examples and generosity during his lifetime! Cheers!

PS: I am not sure how to weave Fairfax India into this post. The group managing Fairfax India are doing an outstanding job. IIFL was separated into 4 companies. Management teams were inserted into BIAL and CSB Bank (once they got control). Privi and Fairchem restructuring has been fantastic for shareholders. Sanmar and Seven Islands IPO's look promising. Anchorage looks promising. $100 million Dutch auction. Lots to like. Eventually Mr. Market will figure it out You can thank Chandran and his team for this, as well as Prem's commitment and belief in India's long-term potential. They really have some great investments in India...I've seen them first-hand...and they will add a lot more over the next decade. Cheers!

No, it wasn't anything like that. I believe Paul just wanted a change of pace and to slow things down. He had been working 16 hour days for Fairfax for like 15+ years. I'm a night owl and don't sleep till 1am or so in Vancouver, so I tend to send out emails late at night. On numerous occasions, I've sent out such late emails to Paul and I've gotten responses right away...meaning he was responding to emails at like 4am in Toronto! Paul was literally overseeing everything the last few years after becoming President. So he had a ton on his plate. I think he probably realized that the Torstar opportunity wasn't going to come around all the time, and he had to make a hard decision for himself and his family. Cheers!

Hamblin Watsa gives a certain amount of capital to its analysts and portfolio managers. Do you see any high-growth stocks with a high P/E bought in large amounts? No. Of the high-growth stocks with high P/E's in the portfolio, almost all would have been bought through the small portfolios that analysts manage. The exception being Google which they put roughly $20M into during the 1st Q 2020...they bought it for about a 15 P/E. Now, over time if some of these analysts become portfolio managers, and are given much more capital like the top six guys, then you may see a change in investment strategy. But the core guys...Roger Lace, Prem, Brian, Wade, Lawrence, Chandran, etc, aren't built that way...they are hard-core distressed value managers. They just won't pay a 30+ P/E for something. It runs completely contrary to their psyche! When I say that they are distressed value investors, it doesn't mean they won't look at other things. But if they have a choice between putting $1B into Atlas Corp at a 7 P/E or $1B into Amazon or Google at a 35 P/E...they will chose the 7 P/E investment every time. They understand growth, but they value margin of safety more. Cheers!

Nearly all of these investments (other than Digit) occurred through Fairfax's venture arm. The venture arm and lab are being eliminated, as Fairfax streamlines their investment and acquisition side...something that many shareholders have wanted to see for a long time, and perhaps is occurring after Paul Rivett's departure. Paul had significant influence at HW and over Fairfax acquisitions. See link below that no longer works. https://www.fairventures.ca/ A simpler, smoother Fairfax will allow the company to get back to 15% annualized compounding...to what the team knows how to do best...and it allows new leaders to work to their strengths like Wade Burton and Lawrence Chin...Cundill guys that are pure distressed investment managers. But that comes at a price...these are pure distressed investment managers! Cheers!

Discussion about bonds, rates, stocks and the U.S. dollar. Cheers! https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bond-king-jeff-gundlach-says-there-is-a-simple-reason-treasury-yields-are-so-low-even-as-inflation-surges-11626371005?siteid=yhoof2

Prem cannot invest in AMZN, FB, etc. At least not when fundamentals depend on 20-25% annualized growth rates. Their mind, the mind of a distressed value investor, just doesn't work that way. Neither does Buffett's...how many of these technology companies did Buffett invest in? Just Apple. When it had become a mature, cash flowing dividend stock! Munger is about the only distressed value investor, who I've seen that can truly wrap his head around growth and value...I certainly can't! As much as I would like to have been a holder of AMZN or FB, every time valuations would go over a 30 P/E, I would be selling madly. And that's if I could ever find them at a 15 P/E to buy in the first place. Just not something I can do psychologically because distressed value investing with a margin of safety is so ingrained in my head. Fairfax is the same. Francis Chou is the same. You will never see these guys buy anything but distressed investments. That may be perceived as a weakness or downside when you are in the midst of one of the greatest bull markets in history, where growth at a fair price or outrageous price is fair game, but these guys are built for distressed markets. They make money when others panic, not when sunshine is coming out of every derriere. And like any distressed value investor, I'll sell most of my Fairfax stock when it hits 1.1 times book or better. But I'm ok with that, because I bought it at 0.6-0.7 times book. I'm not going to hold on when it hits intrinsic value, and I'll be buying like crazy every time Mr. Market drops it to a distressed price. That's the only way I know how to invest! Same with Prem! Cheers!

What will it take for it to be priced appropriately? Time. Be patient...it's coming, and this time not for a couple of years, but they are finally in a position to take advantage of a good economy, bad economy and even a drastic market correction. Prem finally has his groove back! If he bet $150M, he expects that to double based on what FFH can do. That being said, yeah I would love to see someone take out Blackberry at $10B US! But if Prem thinks BB will be the engine for all future auto security including autonomous vehicles and will be worth $50-60B one day...I'm ok for him to be patient. Cheers!

The only person who has had more influence on me than Warren and Prem was my father...no teacher has had more impact than those two. How has Buffett changed my life: - He changed everything for me from when I turned 29...the first time I read the 1998 BRK Letter to Shareholders, literally a light went on inside of me. I had been extremely depressed since my father had died when I was 21 and I was helping my mother raise my brother who was only 9...I was a functioning depressed person wondering what I was going to make of my life. - That letter and reading subsequent letters and books changed my whole investing framework and how I thought about money, life, happiness and integrity. - It lead me to Fairfax Financial and Prem Watsa who became a mentor and very good friend. - It lead to the creation of the initial version of this website and now COBF and all of the wonderful friends and posters on here...especially lotsofcoke and Ericopoly...two that played a significant role in my life and learning. - After meeting Buffett, I came home and quit my job and began my journey in the financial world. - That lead to finding other more accessible mentors and friends who were equally influenced by Buffett and others like Tim McElvaine, Francis Chou, Mohnish Pabrai, Larry Sarbit, Jeff Stacey, Wayne Peters, Andy Kilpatrick, Guy Spier, etc. - It lead to me starting my own fund company with my cousin who was like a brother to me. - Which led me to build PDH...for better or worse! - All of this lead to the wonderful experiences I've enjoyed and my family has enjoyed...trips to Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, China and especially the Fairfax India trip...also meeting Wayne Gretzky, who was a childhood hero for me and my brother. - It lead to raising nearly $300,000 for Crohn's & Colitis Canada, roughly another $2M that I've helped raise working for Cystic Fibrosis, The Center for Child Development and other charities. - Finally, Buffett was the seed that allowed me to learn and also influence so many others...via coffees, lunches, dinners, our Toronto dinner, the funds, PDH, COBF, charitable work. I turned 52 a week ago...Buffett has influenced me now for 23 years, 2 years longer than my father did! I owe my father and Buffett everything...everything! Cheers!

Here's an example in Canada: https://www.pentictonherald.ca/news/article_6f7286de-ff86-11ea-8152-97e80e029848.html

Hey politicians serve a purpose and do a job 95% of us wouldn't want to do. That being said, I don't know about the U.S., but here in Canada, if you are a Member of the Legislative Assembly in a province, Parliament, a Senator or work for a municipal government, you get a gold-plated pension plan that kicks in after like 11 years, and superb long-term health benefits. I would guess that happens in the U.S. also. So to crack down on people trading in their ROTH IRA's and making money, while quietly trading on insider information in their own accounts...stinks of hypocrisy! Cheers!

Doesn't matter which party, they all trade while knowing important inside information revealed in government votes, committees, reviews, etc. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-husband-122625921.html

...to consider changes to investment account rules. He played by the rules, but this certainly isn't in the spirit of what these accounts were intended for. Personally, I think a $15M cap is more than reasonable. Cheers! https://www.marketwatch.com/story/peter-thiels-5-billion-roth-ira-moves-congress-to-consider-changes-to-investment-accounts-rules-11625786725?siteid=yhoof2

Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Frick & Baker...Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, Arnault & Musk. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/super-richs-wealth-concentration-surpasses-gilded-age-levels-210802327.html

40 years ago, my mother was the loans officer for TD who handled all of the Pattison accounts at TD...she was invited every year to his yacht for their annual Christmas party where he would play the piano for the guests and they used to send her a large Christmas basket. Too bad I paid more attention to the basket than who Jimmy Pattison was. Then again, I was 12 years old! Cheers!

There definitely is, and always has been, a number of shareholders who provide better analysis than the professionals. That being said, the public listens to the professionals, not us...so we're stuck with the status quo! Cheers!

Take this with a grain of salt, as a higher IPO price is something that could cut both ways...to the upside and downside depending on market sentiment. What we know is that a consortium is paying a certain price willingly, and we've essentially got $60+ per share coming to the upside. Anything else is icing on the cake! On another note, with the departure of Paul Rivett, I would imagine there may be some broad changes at Fairfax, which we may be witnessing already. While Prem remains Chairman, Paul had a significant influence from operations to investments, and with him gone, there will be a certain amount of streamlining going on as Wade, Andy, Peter Clarke and others have more responsibilities and perhaps a slightly different view of positions, holdings, ventures, insurance and the investing environment. I truly think Fairfax is finally once again getting to a point where the constant comparison as a "mini-Berkshire" isn't out of line. They don't have to reinvent the wheel...just copy it! Cheers!

Story about BC's "Warren Buffett", Jimmy Pattison, and his relationship with lieutenant Glen Clark, who used to be Premier of British Columbia. Incidentally, Buffett and Pattison are very good friends...one plays the ukulele and the other plays trumpet and piano. The billionaire and the socialist: No longer the odd couple, believe it or not - The Globe and Mail Cheers!

Hi James, Not what I meant. The point was that the success/failure of the investment was based partially on a rational outcome from the courts...not something solely based on underlying fundamentals. Once the outcome is based on something intangible, the fate of the investment lies in something completely out of the investor's control. And in this case, the intangible act was not what the majority of investors expected. Cheers!

Evans and Evans is who we used on the fairness opinion when PDH sold Russell Breweries. Mike is honest and fair, so I would imagine the price was well justified through their analysis. Fairfax probably paid fair value for the business...not distressed, but fair. Cheers!

To me it seems as though there were a few opportunities where investors could have walked away with the elusive 10-bagger or better return...to blame political machinations or an irrational court decision is silly. An outlier event has now changed the nature of the investment bet...shit happens! Cheers!

+1! Cheers!

What a joke! Without Prem, Blackberry would have been bankrupt 8 years ago under Thorsten Heins who the board picked against Prem's wishes. Prem is the guy who pushed for John Chen before Thorsten Heins got the job. The board went with Heins and lost almost three years on the turnaround. Cheers!