Parsad

Wishing you all the best for Christmas and 2016! Thanks for your contributions and support for "Corner of Berkshire and Fairfax". Also enclosed is our company Christmas email which is equally addressed to the board members here...who I consider my "friends"! Cheers!

Interesting analyst report regarding Fairfax's insurance businesses. Ironically, at the same time Greenlight Re and Third Point Re are struggling! Cheers! http://dashboard.cormark.com/servlet/display.pdf?repid=jfenwick%40cormark%2Ecom_20151214130804604&userid=jlotesto%40cormark%2Ecom

Get your tickets folks...about 1/3rd sold already! I can refund later, but I can't sell you a ticket if we are sold out. Cheers!

Hi Folks, Details for our annual dinner. Tickets will go fast, so please buy them now...I can always refund closer to the date if you decide not to attend, but I cannot provide a ticket if we are sold out! We had over 180 people attend last year and we will probably blow through 200 this year. To buy tickets, go to: www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca Scroll down half the page...Select the type of ticket you want, and click "Buy Now"! Please review the details below for the dinner. Cheers! 11th Annual Fairfax Financial Shareholder’s Dinner CMC Fairfax Financial Shareholder’s Dinner Imperial Room - Main Lobby Level Wednesday, April 13th, 2016 Fairmont Royal York 100 Front Street West Toronto, Ontario (416) 368-2511 Presentation Only - $100.00 CDN Presentation & Expansive Full-Buffet Dinner - $200.00 CDN Cash Bar If anyone is interested in corporate sponsorship of prizes, or any donors for prizes, please contact me at [email protected].

Essentially, you are correct in the way you laid it out and the repercussions. If you are privy to non-public, MATERIAL information from a board meeting or as a director through any correspondence/discussion, then you cannot trade that stock even in the SMA account. At any other time, when not dealing with material information or a blackout period, then you can trade as usual, but would have to file on each trade as an insider. Yes, you only have power of attorney over each of those SMA accounts, but you are also in a privileged position and there is a conflict of interest as a director and investment manager. The restrictions of a director should supercede your abilities as an investment manager. Cheers!

Went for $72,600 USD this year! Wow! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Lunch-Mohnish-Pabrai-/121786832318 Cheers!

Hey Folks, The two other auctions other than the Lunch w/Pabrai one are for a Conference Call w/Pabrai and a special Berkshire Hathaway rug. Both auctions expire November 13th: Conference Call: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121786892798?ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1554.l2649 BRK Rug: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121786949355?ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1554.l2649 Cheers!

At $11,300 US now! Auction expires tomorrow at 4pm. C'mon get yer bids in! Cheers!

LOL! Funny, but I think Kraven will probably stab you through your heart while you are sleeping tonight...and then go back to reading. Cheers!

LOL! +1. Cheers!

You can become a billionaire selling collateralized loan obligations that are worthless as well...it's been done as we all know. My point wasn't that you can't become rich from a short book or that people aren't willing to pay for it, just that the institutional money is stupid and thinks that they need to pay short managers to reduce volatility (not risk) from portfolios. It's modern portfolio theory and I cringe at that...just like I cringe every time I hear someone say the word "alpha"! Cheers!

I'd like to see that math. Making 20% a year it would take you 52 years to turn 100,000 into a billion. Making 8% a year it would take 121 year or so. Good luck! -you aren't including the returns from a long book. Very few hedge funds run with less than 100% gross (i.e. a short position does not crowd out a long position). So the rate of compounding would be much higher. build a spreadsheet. for any given time period, take the s&p, put in 100% long exposure and then add a 50% short book that makes 8% / year (you would obviously need to make it have some sort of negative correlation to the s&p to approach reality, but making 8% a year from shorting is certainly not anywhere close to recent reality so this is kind of a useless hypothetical). rebalance to 100% by 50% monthly quarterly, whatever. the compounding will be very high and it will have lower drawdowns and vol, the track record would be great. -you aren't including management fees and incentive fees, 8% / year from a decently diversified and scalable short book would make my fund incredibly attractive as a high return, high alpha strategy. If I couldn't raise money from institutions, I'd walk into Izzy Englander or Steve Cohen's office and be running a big book in no time. -you're starting value is too low ;D If you can make 8% a year shorting over the next 20 years, you'll be billionaire too. But it's not happening. That's really really really really hard. What was Einhorn's short book return from 2000 to 2015? That's not quite 20 years, but would you not say pretty close to 20 years. But Einhorn's already a billionaire, so he doesn't need 8% a year. When you build an investment portfolio, you shouldn't be thinking about 15 decent long positions and 6-7 decent short positions, so that you can avoid drawdowns while maximizing exposure in the porftolio. That along with the liberal use of the word "alpha" is modern portfolio bullshit! You should be looking for 8-10 of your absolutely best ideas...or less...and it shouldn't matter whether they are long or short. That being said, remember that the downside to shorting is unlimited, while the upside is limited. A great long position will always make you more money than a great short position. If your primary concern when running a fund is drawdowns, then you probably should not be running a fund. The primary concern should always be finding the best ideas you can and maximizing results for your partners with the least amount of permanent capital loss. Cheers!

Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett/2015 Golden Anniversary Edition http://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Value-Warren-Buffett-Anniversary/dp/1578649870/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446151758&sr=1-1&keywords=of+permanent+value Cheers!

Annual lunch auction with Mohnish has begun. 9 days left...at $2,025 US right now. Cheers! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Lunch-Mohnish-Pabrai-/121786832318

A basket of shorts may decrease portfolio risk if they move opposite your long positions in a down market, but there is no guarantee any single short idea would...unless you are shorting an index ETF or similar. Shorting Fairfax during the financial crisis would have been very costly. My point goes back to paying someone like Chanos 1.5-2% a year to do what he does? How has that worked for the last five and a half years? The institutional imperative and modern portfolio theory drive people to do things like short...especially if they wrap their balls in ungodly amounts of leverage. Can you imagine what happens if that leverage begins to squeeze...thus stupid people, doing stupid things like shorting. Cheers!

That's true, but it's absolute portfolio returns that matter for wealth, not absolute returns on individual investment line items. And risk matters too (especially when you are levered up), and shorts tend to reduce certain market risks in an obvious way. Of course risk matters. Do you think shorting is without risk? You have limited upside with unlimited downside...how is an investment based on that mitigating risk in a portfolio? This is the BS that those that short like to use to argue risk management. There are a number of ways of managing risk without the limited upside and unlimited downside of shorting. Cheers!

Again, you can make that argument for Chanos, as he has made his living primarily as a short manager, but not for Einhorn. That being said, compare Chanos numbers for the last five years against the S&P 500 and you will see the stupidity in paying a hedge fund manager to protect you on the downside. Cash worked in 2007/2008 and cash would have killed Chanos over the last five years if you were worried about downside risk. Absolute returns over the long-run are all that matter if you plan on becoming wealthy! Ask Ericopoly! Cheers!

You should compare it against what a short position in the S&P500 would have done in the same period. Why? Last I checked, Einhorn reported his results based on absolute returns...an 8% return is an 8% return. Cheers!

This has been obvious for a long time now. I wasn't so sure. He's done a great job with his restaurant businesses, all things considered, but I think that a different skillset is probably required here. So I think he's probably a good businessman, but not necessarily a good leader. No, he's not a good CEO or leader of people, and the restaurants were doing best when he had better people around him. The restaurant business in the last couple of years has been neglected, as he over-leveraged it and was focused on CBRL and other endeavours...such as getting control and voting rights. Cheers!

Watermelon Webworks updated the SMF software on the weekend, but they didn't install the modules. Once they installed the modules, for some reason the ads started duplicating. They are working on it as we speak...just taking longer than expected. Should be fixed some time today hopefully! Cheers!

Watsa! Rawraw, if you are posting, then you've already registered and it was approved. You don't need to register again. Cheers!

Looks like a capital commitment to help grow the business. Probably a minority stake and start to get the brand across Canada like Vij's. I sure hope they have gift cards at next year's AGM for the McEwen Group...their lobster grill cheese at Bymark is amazing! ;D Cheers!

I would suggest that CONeal is absolutely correct here! I was asked to speak to some engineers at Google, and I said that I don't deserve to speak at Google until I've done something noteworthy. I've seen other managers write books about how to be like Buffett, yet their funds or businesses flounder or fail. I've seen a manager I praised highly fall mightily in terms of ethics and respecting shareholders. Shareholders will see us announce many new things over the next 5 months, next 5 years and as long as I can run the company. You are just at the very tip of the beginning...the 1st batter, of the 1st inning of a 9 inning game. Let's get through the first few innings before you think I deserve any sort of section for Premier. I'll do my best to get one though! ;D Cheers and thanks for your support!

This is the purpose behind the whole section we have on books. I would recommend that you post a book, analysis of the book, and recommendation individually in that section. That way it is far more useful and is permanent. This thread will get lost in a few weeks and will serve no purpose. Cheers!

He changed my whole life, as well as the lives of many of my friends....what more can I say? Cheers!