Parsad

no, criticism is one thing, lack of insight is another. her psychology is monumentally ill-suited for someone like buffett & munger. might as well have asked cramer or some other fast money trader to have done his biography. therein lies whatever disappointment WEB or his admirers might have for Alice. Ive spoken with her on numerous occasions in person, have heard munger & his crew opine on her and her book, and i completely disagree with everything you said. id say shes similar to munger in many ways. I've heard her in person as well, and I can't agree with you at all. She is in no way similiar to Munger. I couldn't believe the stuff she was talking about in her presentation on Buffett. It started off well and then fell apart ending in answers regarding his emotional state, vices and hypocrisies. Have you ever heard Munger say anything about Buffett or his insecurities? Munger is blunt and has plenty of criticisms regarding behavior and ethics, but he doesn't stoop to innuendo or unqualified psychobabble about a person's mental state. Cheers!

He's probably seen it, but he won't respond. You'll have to keep guessing! ;D Cheers!

Buffett has made at least one truly significant, irreversible decision that has haunted him for some time. He humbly and graciously tapped on the shoulder of some completely obscure, no-name analyst at Morgan Stanley, trusted her intimately, and then made her a millionaire several times over after she wrote a book on him and gained the type of notoriety she could only dream of. I'm sure she'll be sobbing madly the day Buffett dies, and then as certain as I am that the sun will rise tomorrow, she will write another book on Buffett that will sell millions, followed by tons of interviews, articles and paid speaking engagements...all on Buffett! I've really tuned her out now...along with Mary Buffett...Doug Kass...Jim Cramer...and Snookie! Cheers!

Article that discusses the only two bank stocks we own...WFC and BAC. Cheers! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303812904577293790642621590.html?ru=yahoo&mod=yahoo_hs

Some companies you do, some you don't in North America. Fairfax does not require it right now, but maybe when they are even bigger they will...just like Berkshire. Cheers!

Sure,... at least seems so, unless Sanjeev would have taken down the payment link to purchase tickets. Here's the link: http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/ You buy the tickets at www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca (top of right hand column) at the PayPal link. Everyone that wants tickets, has done it this way. Hope this helps. Thanks Berkshire! Folks, We are about 90% sold now, so if you want tickets, you better get them soon. About a month left and I will probably be shutting it down the week before, because I need to finalize numbers for the Fairmont Royal York by then. Cheers!

Hi Steph, Yes, and I did receive your payment for two tickets, so you are good. Cheers!

Saw this in today's WSJ (Wall Street Explores Landlord Business, A1-2): Buffett... said in an interview on CNBC last month that he would buy up "a couple hundred thousand" single-family homes if he could do so easily, given the high yields on rental investments. I've really enjoyed this discussion. Why doesn't Home Services of America open up a property management office in each real estate office? Buffett buys the properties and has his own company manage them...as well as for others. I'm sure there is plenty of demand for quality property managers who provide good service at a reasonable price. Should be no different than the real estate franchise business. Berkshire could become the largest property manager in the U.S., and is probably one of the few companies that can scale that across the country. Also creates more recurring income for Berkshire, and keeps another service business within the company in a related industry. Cheers!

maybe you guys should get into short term trading! (j/k) Bsilly did join here, but the last time he was actually logged in was back in March 2010. Not sure if he reads as a guest still. Does anyone know if he still runs his fund? The interaction between him and Hempton was great back in the day on the old board. Cheers! Oh, if only. I was looking at my records. I first held the warrants at the beginning of September 2010, 1.5 years ago. That means I was probably looking at it even earlier. Same with WFC warrants, some of which I still hold from the first purchase. I started buying call options on BAC a year ago. LessthanIV - I too wonder what became of bsilly. I met him a few times in Toronto.

It's just the manic-depressive nature of the markets. You are just watching it in action. ECRI and Hussman are probably correct in their assessment, but missed the timing. The problem with forecasting is that you will be correct eventually...be it in a week or 70 years...the problem is the little gap in between! That's why investors should ignore the markets and focus on individual stocks only. After significant runs, start looking at obscure investments. We are back to hunting for unloved, small, distressed businesses...not companies you would find in the broader market. There were people screaming on here that a few of us were wrong, that the S&P500 was at historical highs on profit margins, that macroeconomic events were ominous, that the Fed was running a ponzi scheme...you name it. My argument was always I'm buying individual securities, not the market, so I don't give a rat's ass! But I always get more cautious when everyone else starts joining me...thus as the margin of safety diminishes relative to intrinsic value, I start pulling back. Cheers!

Doesn't this remind you guys so much of the old Fairfax days when it traded under $100...and then took off. We were all watching it like this then too. Cheers!

Investors always feel like that after a significant rally. We are in the fourth consecutive year of market gains in the U.S., so the odds are that things are significantly less cheap than they were in the past...even with better balance sheets and higher profits. We are building cash, as there is always a new opportunity around the corner. Patience is the hardest part of this game. Be patient and only buy when you feel something is truly cheap. And I would not be surprised if insider selling does increase significantly, if it hasn't already. Cheers!

Hi Hundredwaters, welcome to the board! One word of advice...if you are asking others for ideas, you are going to get burned again or be hesitant to invest. Best to check out the posts on an idea, read the quarterly and annual report for the company or investment you may be interested in, and then on things you have questions about...ask away. Anyone familiar with the investment will respond. Over time, if you do the legwork and trust your analysis, you'll always feel comfortable with a decision...and the opinions of others won't sway you either way. Cheers!

Apple is calling a conference call tomorrow to discuss its cash balance. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/46779100

I thought a "Bollinger band" was what Al Roker had surgically implanted so he could lose weight! ;D By the way, we have plenty of cash and I did not use technicals to figure it out. Cheers!

I disagree with this statement, you are making a ton of assumptions about what will or won't happen between now and expiration. Anything can happen and will there for IMO anytime you at the mercy of time you are introducing risk. I don't disagree with the overall BAC thesis, I own warrants, common, and 2014 $10 calls. But I would never say that the warrants aren't all that risky. I think you are correct on that. Mohnish says that the warrants have a 7-8 year life...whereas equity has a 100-year life. Anything is possible in that 7-8 years period...good or bad. Cheers! Guys... come on. I said "aren't all that risky" Do this mean: a) less risky than the common b) same risk as the common c) more risky than the common If your answer isn't "c", I'm throwing a shoe. What? b)...yes, I agree...thwap! Ouch! ;D Cheers!

I disagree with this statement, you are making a ton of assumptions about what will or won't happen between now and expiration. Anything can happen and will there for IMO anytime you at the mercy of time you are introducing risk. I don't disagree with the overall BAC thesis, I own warrants, common, and 2014 $10 calls. But I would never say that the warrants aren't all that risky. I think you are correct on that. Mohnish says that the warrants have a 7-8 year life...whereas equity has a 100-year life. Anything is possible in that 7-8 years period...good or bad. Cheers!

Article on Japan and its debt load. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/land-of-the-rising-sum-japans-toxic-mountain-of-debt/article2372141/ Unfortunately, the Japanese population's psychology to any investment other than Japanese bonds is preventing the repricing referred to in the article, but at some point, you will get an unwinding and it will not be pretty. I would guess that at some point Japan is going to go through a massive devaluation of their currency and the population will be hit hard by inflation. Cheers!

The U.S. government will be releasing confidential census data for the 1930's on April 2nd. Cheers! http://news.yahoo.com/census-documenting-great-depression-released-151755443.html

Al, I think you called it. $9.88 after hours -- I think we can round that up to $10. Where is it headed by next weekend? I said tangible book by Christmas, but you turkeys seem to be nailing the increases on the head. Ok Al, when do you think it will now hit tangible book...so say around $12.50? Eric? Cheers!

11 months ago Doug Kass tweeted "repeating for emphasis - msft is a value trap". MSFT closed at $25.50. This one not working out so well either. That's pretty funny, because we had a shitload of MSFT call options too! More than we had in BAC or Wells...10% of the fund was in MSFT call options...and we bought them when MSFT was around $24.50 at a $20 strike! Unfortunately, in my infinite wisdom of averaging in and averaging out, we averaged out of alot of the MSFT call options over the last four months. That's the problem with no lockup...you're always making sure you mitigate risk and maintain adequate liquidity! If I had kept all of the MSFT options, we would be having the best quarter in our history...still a damn good quarter...but it would have been a blowout on par or better than Berkowitz's! And that's with OSTK being a real dog still and 40% cash in both funds. Our director Glen Rollins gave me a quote by Peter Lynch when I lamented this fact..."Make sure you don't cut the flowers and water the weeds!" Cheers! parsad, im interested in hearing your take of OSTK. what is the investment rationale there? congrats on the financial bets I'll just lay it out in one long paragraph...I just think the business is cheap...they have a decent model and could offer other services to their demographic (primarily 35-55)...core base of about 25M annual customers...$1.1 B in sales, so they realistically should be able to achieve a minimum of 1.5% net profit margin on that...they should be able to grow at a minimum of 12-15% a year for the next 10 years...not much debt...their closest competitor sold for 7 times their current valuation...CEO takes almost zero compensation...board owns 35% of the company...Fairfax owns another 15%...Chou Funds own 15%...our board and funds own 3.5%...so you have a tightly held group of shareholders...there are a handful of other, smaller things as well...customer service is great for online retailers...partnership agreements with Travelocity, etc...flexibility management gives to executives (could be good or bad). The main problem is they blow too much company on expenses (corporate, legal, technology) and not enough on driving traffic to the site. The CEO needs to focus on the business and less on his legal battles and blog. They need a true marketing expert...which they have hired and should be announced pretty soon. Cheers!

Oh yeah sorry, he works with only one analyst...himself! He and his administrative assistant, Jing, look after $1.2B. He started as a worker at Bell, where he grew a investment club fund of $50,000 to $1M over five years. It was then converted to the Chou Funds after he got his CFA. Fairfax has funds invested in the Chou Funds. Cheers! 50k into 1m in 5 years? Was he using options or some other kind of investment that wasn't more then just common stock? Was there large additions into the club fund that helped toward the 1m? Only asking bc my mouth dropped in awe after reading your statement. Let me clarify that. I was describing the fact that he grew the assets to $1M before converting it to the Chou Funds. There was capital also contributed by the club members over the years. I believe the actual investment return was something like 50% annualized though, excluding capital contributions. Not sure what he was doing, but certain it was heavily concentrated and possibly leveraged. Feel free to ask him at the AGM or dinner this year. Cheers!

Francis is the kindest person I know in the financial industry, and that says alot because I know Prem, Mohnish and Tim McElvaine, and they are also some of the most generous people I know. But Francis is unique...very unique! If I were a captain in the investment industry, he is who you hire to be your right hand man. His honesty is beyond reproach! And he will never take credit for anything. Has anyone ever heard from Francis that the CDS idea was his? Nope! You heard it from Brian Bradstreet. We all know how talented the team is at Hamblin-Watsa, but all those principals there hold Francis in very high regard. That should tell you something. Everyone else can have Sprott, I'll take Francis. Cheers! so Prem's CDS idea was Chou's? thats interesting b/c prem is known as a macro guy, and chou value. does Chou make macro calls? They were in a Hamblin-Watsa investment meeting back in late 2004 or early 2005, and Prem was asking the team for investment ideas. Things were over valued and no one had a compelling idea. Brian and Francis had previously discussed CDS' and no one was throwing any ideas out, so they looked at each other and then said to Prem...there's these credit default swaps! Actually Francis did try to buy CDS' for the Chou Funds, but had to get regulatory approval as they are mutual funds. He got approval after a few months, but prices had started to move up already. Not exactly clear on why he likes RSH, but it is distressed and cash flows are good. Cheers!

Oh yeah sorry, he works with only one analyst...himself! He and his administrative assistant, Jing, look after $1.2B. He started as a worker at Bell, where he grew a investment club fund of $50,000 to $1M over five years. It was then converted to the Chou Funds after he got his CFA. Fairfax has funds invested in the Chou Funds. Cheers!

Francis is the kindest person I know in the financial industry, and that says alot because I know Prem, Mohnish and Tim McElvaine, and they are also some of the most generous people I know. But Francis is unique...very unique! If I were a captain in the investment industry, he is who you hire to be your right hand man. His honesty is beyond reproach! And he will never take credit for anything. Has anyone ever heard from Francis that the CDS idea was his? Nope! You heard it from Brian Bradstreet. We all know how talented the team is at Hamblin-Watsa, but all those principals there hold Francis in very high regard. That should tell you something. Everyone else can have Sprott, I'll take Francis. Cheers!