Parsad

Here in Vancouver, we are running on nearly 60+ straight hours of falling snow. My driveway has two massive piles of cleared snow from the driveway and sidewalk...four feet high each and about ten feet across! I was enjoying talking to our various partners on the East Coast over the last three months about how cold it is there and how much snow they have received. Not enjoying it now! I have not seen this much consistent snow, in such a short period of time in Vancouver, since I was a little boy in the 70's. Global Shwarming! Cheers!

Vancouver fell into a deep chill on the weekend. We've had 48 hours of non-stop snow right now, so the atmosphere in the city was pretty great for the final. Cheers!

I'm looking forward to this one. A great investor and a great person! Cheers!

No, I think that is perfectly fine Palantir. There are no restrictions on what you can talk about here or elsewhere. Cheers!

I'm running a couple of polls to assist Fairfax in figuring out what type of demand there is for buses running shareholders to various Fairfax subsidiaries. Please make any comments about the past bus trips, how you felt about them, and/or how they could be improved. Also, in response to this post, list any Fairfax subsidiaries/businesses you would like to see, but might not be on the schedule. Naturally remember that they would have to be relatively close to the downtown core. Cheers!

No, all of the excess funds from ticket sales go straight to the CCFC. So after the food, room, prizes, audio/video, etc are paid, every other dollar goes to them. I would prefer to keep it that way. People always have the OPTION of supporting the site through the donation tab. I would rather leave it as an "option", and not as a "tax" on the ticket sales. Cheers!

Great stuff Gary...much appreciated! Cheers!

COBFF is one of my favorite boards, but honestly this thread has been very disappointing. not because many people are satisfy with what we have (I get that, if it isn't broke don't fix it) there is nothing wrong with that. it isn't broke don't fix it, i get it (I have to repeat this more than once so i don't offend anyone) its the attitude/response of the post i think part of it is due to my original post that wasn't very clear (i am trying to see if there are any improvements to the "TOOL" that people wanted that would ENHANCE the discussion), my bad. Well, I think you may have hit the nail on the head Hyten. The original post was the equivalent of me inviting you all to dinner at my place, but you decide that the food isn't quite up to par and ask who wants to go eat somewhere else. The point of dinner was the camaraderie, networking, conversation and sharing of ideas...not the food or if the wine was ok. The approach of "how can we improve the food and wine here" would have been the way to go. Incidentally, Berkshire's website and Leucadia's website are the model of inefficiency, yet it has zero effect on the actual utility of their site...why? Because it's about the content. I would also say that EDGAR and SEDAR could be improved immensely, yet they still work fine. Functionality is only useful if the content remains useful. Cheers!

We've got an excellent lineup of speakers for our dinner before Prem arrives with his crew! - Mark Ram, former President & CEO of Northbridge Financial and current director for The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Canada - Robert Robotti, founder of Robotti & Company and former Vice-President at Gabelli & Company - Craig Graham, Chairman & CEO of Rainmaker Entertainment - Andrew Berger & David Polonitza, AB Value Management LLC Cheers!

Hi Norm, The CCFC is actually providing a couple of volunteers this year, and I will be talking to George to see if we can get a couple of students from Ivey as well. Cheers

Wow! I didn't see this thread until our director Andrew Cooke alerted me to it! Thanks very much! I'm very grateful that you love the board and appreciate it! Before everyone starts donating, my comments weren't meant to stifle innovation on the board, but only to say that we get around to changes slowly and as needed. Maintaining a great community, with wonderful dialogue and ideas, is the most important thing to me. Any ancillary improvements are secondary! Cheers and thanks!

Cry me a river. It's like asking for Spark Notes for the 10-K. Tough shit. Read the whole damn thread. LOL! Love it! Couldn't agree more. If you are going to put 10-20% of your money into something, then shouldn't you know every single argument to be made...whether it is rational, silly, nonsensical, implausible or completely off kilter? The SHLD thread is so long and repetitive, because the damn history of the company is long and repetitive. They've gone through the same mistakes over and over. Thus, you are watching what happened at the company in real time, with real confusion or understanding by those investing in it, considering investing in it, or avoiding it all together. There's a lot to be learned from that psychology! Cheers!

Hi Matjone, Are you referring to PM's or general posts? With PM's, you have a choice to save any sent PM's, so you can see all of your old private messages. Is that what you meant? Cheers!

Hi Hyten, No, it wasn't your post that upset me. It's the curt post that I responded to that made me angry. It was curt, ungrateful and of poor taste. If it was so easy to make a good investor forum, why don't we have more around then? Why is that this one has grown while most have perished? It's easy to bash something successful, but hard to replicate. Cheers!

It is broke. What is broken, exactly? Do you realize that if members had their way, they would have kicked you out a long time ago, but after a few experiences in the past with kicking people out, I've chosen to give people a chance on here. Rather than complaining, you should be grateful you've been given an opportunity here to express yourself, even though many don't want to hear what you have to say! You guys whine so much about a forum that is virtually free, operates with an inclusive culture, has monitored posts, zero spam, and has existed in one form or another for about 12 years this Thursday. Yes, we are slow in making changes, and progress has been gradual...and that is because things aren't broke by any means! We've grown 50-100% every year for the last five years, and added new and exciting members who have added to the dialogue while retaining most of the old-timers. How many message boards are out there that have actually improved and retained members? Value Investors...no! Fool.com...no! Yahoo message boards...yeah right! Stockhouse...nope! Tell me how many message boards have a thread like our BAC thread? Or discussions on call options that are as detailed and informative as Ericopoly's? Or track individual stocks and information about each of them like on our "Investment Ideas" thread? Or how many have a growing conference around them in Toronto? Even Mohnish Pabrai is now telling people this is one of his favorite sites? But yet it's apparently broken! By the way, good luck on starting a new board. Unless you want to spend a couple of hours a day looking after it, monitoring posts, dealing with member requests and posting on there as well, it is not going to be easy. This board was developed out of passion, not out of necessity, but has become a necessary tool for many when investing and networking. That happened because of the culture here and great members...not so easily replicated...especially when one guy would give up sleep for years to look after it with no pay. And to those that continue to show support for the board and aren't bitching, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Paul will be inserting a mobile add-on that should give some mobile functionality in the next couple of weeks. The "search" feature is something we'll have to work on and tweak over time. Cheers!

Folks, Down to my last 8 tickets! No room at the inn after that! Cheers!

It's ok if he talks up his investment, but don't make him pay a higher price! ;D Cheers!

Nice Olympics analogy Partner! C'mon Prem...own the podium! Cheers!

They've been selling the stocks and reaping the gains as the market went up. Those gains won't disappear if markets correct. Cheers! Based on my understanding, they had to realize hedge losses to keep that ~100% hedge stance. Those gains instantly disappeared. Your assumption is that markets won't turn the other way. If they don't, then Fairfax was very wrong. If they do, then they won't look so stupid. I don't see the same possibility of a massive correction like they do, but at the same time, do any of us really think that Europe has finished restructuring? The U.S. has yet to tackle it's debt problem...which is up to $17T now! Things could go sideways for a long-time as Europe restructures...those deflation hedges could be huge. Only time will tell if they were right or wrong. So far...very wrong! Cheers!

They've been selling the stocks and reaping the gains as the market went up. Those gains won't disappear if markets correct. Cheers!

Hi Folks, Many of you will be attending our Fairfax Financial Shareholder's Dinner on April 8, 2014 at the Fairmont Royal York. The dinner raises money for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Canada in memory of Prem's former executive assistant, JoAnn Butler, who passed away of colon cancer back in 2009 and was a good friend of mine. Last year, we raised almost $20,000 from ticket sales, a few prizes donated by myself, Fairfax and a couple of other people, as well as some large donations from key attendees. I'm looking to add a few low-key corporate donors this year. We've already receive a couple of great offers, so I'm very pleased by their generosity! There are a couple of options: - Corporate donors can give a platinum donation...$5,000 or higher...their name or logo would appear on the powerpoint home page, just under the CCFC logo, as well as on all key signage and table signage. - Corporate donors can give a gold donation...$2,500 to $5,000...their name or logo would appear on all key signage and table signage. - Corporate donors can give a $1,000 to $2,500...their name or logo would appear on all table signage. - Donate a prize for the silent auction...your name or logo would appear on a small table banner in front of the prize. Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested. Thanks very much to anyone who donates, and to all of you simply for attending and supporting the dinner! Cheers!

With all of the differences from country to country...a good song is a good song wherever you go! The Red Army Choir's take on Daft Punk's "Get Lucky". Cheers! http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/music-news/%E2%80%9Cget-lucky%E2%80%9D-and-5-other-mind-blowing-covers-by-the-red-army-choir-235005231.html

I like the line in the offer..."An offer like this can only be offered to someone credit worthy...". Apparently a fictional name is credit worthy! Either that or banks are lending to anyone again. Cheers!

LOL! By the way, Cohen also has one of the largest collections of Hurst's artwork I believe. Cheers!

I agree. There was some discussion on here of another manager with stellar returns, where one investment had created a disproportionate return over the years when annualized. But if you look at the returns now, they are in line or below the S&P500. You need to see a significant number of swings before you can come to any conclusion about batting averages. That's the one thing I'm proud of so far. Because of our cash holdings over the years, you don't see the high batting average of our picks that have worked out...year in, year out. Not any given year, not any given pick. That's what you want to see over time...that the average is high on the analysis and the swings. Cheers!