Parsad

Why do we spend so much time taking advice or at least seeking knowledge from those that suffer from deep inadequacies, failures and insecurities themselves? Anything that starts with "Five Habits..." or "The Seven Secrets..." is probably a waste of time. Peterson has showcased his inability to control drugs, money, etc. Just like I'm not going to listen to Oprah about Weight Watchers, I'm not about to listen to Peterson about an all-meat diet. They are two of the same...cut from the same cloth, but different ends of the spectrum...opportunists, who shill themselves as self-help gurus, but suffer the same angst, anxieties, problems and insecurities that everyone else does. Rubbish! I learn more about what is important in life from my six-year old nephew. Amazing how enlightened children really are! Cheers!

Like Francis Chou, another good friend of mine, Andrew Wilkinson who founded Metalabs, has developed his own wealth creation vehicles: One is Tiny Corp (https://www.tinycapital.com/), which acquire digital/non-digital businesses utilizing a fundamental analysis approach not dissimilar to Mohnish's unsuccessful idea from over 20 years ago...Digital Disruptors. Andrew is slowly building up a treasure of businesses, and in my opinion will be the wealthiest person in the city of Victoria one day, if not British Columbia. He's young, ambitious, driven, extremely talented, a contrarian and executes flawlessly on his ideas. His second vehicle is We Commerce (WE.V) which monetized a number of Shopify-related companies he owned and they are looking to develop/acquire more of these businesses under WE. Again, he has succeeded in an old idea of applying fundamental analysis to the technology business and is succeeding. I've never seen someone acquire businesses (big or small) in such rapid succession, and he has the cash flow to continue doing so. As fast as his development has been, he shows immense patience...he's been trying to develop these vehicles for years, doing substantial research and ground work...then finally launching. What's fascinating about Andrew, is that he has that Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk moxy. He will make money in good times or bad times, whereas many of us distressed value investors will sit on cash when valuations get high. Andrew just mints money...period! Another great long-term case study. Cheers!

I thought I would give this a separate long-term thread to follow. Francis has done a remarkable job with Stonetrust Insurance after acquiring it from Dhandho (Mohnish Pabrai), and it is essentially his long-term vehicle to grow his wealth. A handful of investors joined initially, and if we're lucky, one day it may be a public company accessible to all, but for now it is an interesting case study. Attached is Wintaai's (parent company of Stonetrust) 2020 Annual Letter and 2021 Semi-Annual report. Cheers! Wintaai Financial Highlight (June 2021).pdf Wintaai Letter 2020 (Final).pdf

Spekulatius...are you and I the only die-hard South Park fans on here? Cheers!

Feel free to discuss these various areas that B of A identified as possible future moonshots in tech. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bofa-identifies-tech-moonshots-catch-155524237.html

Fairfax had their concerns about China's housing bubble a few years ago, which seems to have fallen by the wayside as the world was worried about Covid, but is China's housing bubble finally cracking? They've long played the hide the battered developer game, but are some of the developers just too big to hide. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-property-market-runs-steam-143429278.html https://www.barrons.com/articles/why-china-could-seek-controlled-detonation-for-troubled-developer-evergrande-51631577210?siteid=yhoof2

Will look for a plug-in that allows you guys to change your screen appearance as you wish. Cheers!

You should be able to find Fever Tree in Trader Joes and Whole Foods as well. The tonics are great...try the Fever Tree ginger beer with rum or in mojitos...terrific! Use half of the ginger beer and half of the tonic, otherwise it might be too sweet. Cheers!

After several months of testing the subscription based model, I've decided to go back to the old lifetime membership model. This will go into effect as soon as Watermelon Webworks makes the change. The one-time fee will be $49.99 going forward for a lifetime membership. Those grandfathered will not have to pay anything...just keep using as usual. For those that have paid since we switched over formats...your monthly or annual charges will be terminated and you will be automatically grandfathered in without any further fees. Because we are moving back to the old format, two other changes: The Investment Ideas board is now only for member use. It will not be visible to the general public. I think we've put together a pretty fantastic database of posts that is continuously updated on hundreds and hundreds of stocks...so if people want access to it, they will have to join. We've also added a Wealth Advisory & Financial Management board. It is member use only as well. It is for those in the industry to share experiences and for those that want to join the industry to learn more. If you share any client experiences, please ensure you do not use names or client details, as those posts will be immediately deleted and you will be given a warning before future acts lead to membership cancellation. Cheers! Sanjeev

I always cry when I hear U.S. liquor prices. I miss being able to cross the border for 48 hours to save like 40% on a bottle of just about anything! And my God, your wine prices...U.S. wines in U.S. grocery stores are 50-70% cheaper than the same U.S. wine in Canadian liquor stores. Cheers!

Fireball! What the heck! Friday night drink at my place!

For you Monday morning quarterbacks...he's killing it at Wintaai and Stonetrust as well...so far a 72% CR for 2021...destroying it both on the insurance side and investment side. He's finally running the type of vehicle that allows him to use all of his talent...no limits on concentration, his insurance expertise and float leverage. And for those that complain about Fairfax's complexity...Francis is keeping it simple at Stonetrust...more like Markel. Cheers! Wintaai Financial Highlight (June 2021).pdf

Sorry to disappoint, but Vancouver's strip club scene has essentially collapsed. We used to have a dozen or so strip clubs...now we're down to about four. Real estate prices on the other hand have increased faster than anywhere other than perhaps Sydney and San Francisco. Cheers!

Cathy Woods has Tesla pegged at $3000 a share. May happen, but for some reason I have Woods pegged as this era's Abby Joseph Cohen...perennial bull of the 90's, who essentially disappeared for a decade when the tech wreck happened. Reminded also of CIBC analyst Jeff Rubin's call of $200 a barrel oil back in 2007 too! Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-stock-is-worth-3000-ark-invests-cathie-wood-201139618.html

That's what worries me! I told her to just take a small piece of her portfolio (preferably a non-taxable account) and trade within it. We'll see what she decides to do. Cheers!

True, so true! Hey, I avoided buying a car last year and this year, as I felt it would be in bad taste with the pandemic. On another note, nobody questions Buffett's or Prem's choice to use private jets...comfort, convenience, security, efficiency. It's no different when multi-millionaires think the same way about their cars. I drive to the office three-four days a week, and unfortunately the office is a good 50 minutes (non-rush hour) from my home each way. If I can get there safely, in comfort, then I'm ok with spending money on a 2-3 year old luxury car/suv. Now spending $15K for a watch or $2K for a bottle of wine...yeah, those are lifestyle choices I would have to question and can't get behind. Unless they are collectors...then that is a different ball of wax. A Timex and two-buck chuck is fine for me! Cheers!

Yes, she does! I just hope she doesn't blow it all again. She seems quite content to sell only as much AAPL as she needs for retirement to minimize taxes. But the other side of her wants to get to $5M as soon as possible. I told her just holding on to her AAPL and MSFT will get her to $5M faster than she could probably do it, and she would be taking little risk. But when she gets in these trading moods...I really hope she doesn't blow it! The irony is she barely spends $30-40K a year...her house is paid off...$4M or $5M...makes no difference based on her expenses. Cheers!

The Outback and Forester are great...but we don't have alot of dealer/service support in Vancouver for the brand. Don't know enough about the Q8, but my brother bought a Q7 which is very nice for the family. Cheers!

The 2022 CRV looks amazing! The outside and inside design looks more akin to their sister-brand Acura. The sheet metal looks alot like a RDX. Cheers!

Americans already knew they have to save more...looks like they are going to have to increase the amount they save if they want to retire with some dignity! Cheers! https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/31/politics/social-security-medicare-report/index.html

Ha! I like mini vans too...great for long trips. But my family will never sit in one if I got one! Cheers!

All of the things you pointed out are what makes companies like Fairfax terrific cyclical investments where you can take advantage of deep discounts by Mr. Market. This used to happen all the time when Patrick Byrne was CEO of Overstock.com. I probably will never get the opportunity to make money on Overstock.com with the same discounts that I used to get now that Jonathan Johnston is running it. Cheers!

This is a true story! I have a friend, who is frugal and a good saver, but who 21 years ago blew her whole RRSP (same as a 401K) on Nortel and other high flying tech stocks...about $100K. Lost the whole thing in less than 8 months. I told her about Berkshire Hathaway, but she didn't listen and was a hardcore CNBC fan. Fast forward 14 years, her sister, an entrepreneur, has been managing her money since she lost her RRSP investments. After all this time, her sister looked after her money, creating a diversified portfolio of quality stocks, and beat the market. My friend, feeling confident in her abilities again after watching years of CNBC and Jim Cramer, takes back control of her portfolio...about $400K at this point. She sells everything and puts nearly all of it in AAPL stock...in her RRSP, TFSA (same as an IRA), personal brokerage accounts...80% AAPL and 20% MSFT. Why? Because she heard about it on CNBC. Today, she has a net worth of about $4M! Is she a good investor? Is she a better investor than Warren Buffett, because she just destroyed his numbers? Is she a better investor than almost anyone on this message board? By your standards, the answer would be yes! Cheers!

Sure a few investors on here essentially picked the bottom of the Covid low on Fairfax and have experienced a nice bounce in the share price until now however gains of similar magnitude could have been achieved by investing in any number of other stocks and in fact the return from several of those other stocks would have resulted in greater returns than from Fairfax. I can't speak for others, but one is not connected to the other. I bought some Fairfax during the lows of March/April 2020, but I loaded up on as much Macy's, Overstock.com, Biglari Holdings, Shake Shack, Cheesecake Factory, Bank of America, Atlas Co and Wells Fargo. But most of those stocks rebounded 100% or more and became much closer to intrinsic value. As I sold many of them, there were limited opportunities to put capital to work, even now...Fairfax is discounted far more to intrinsic value than many opportunities other than a handful of ideas in the recovering retail/travel/infrastructure sectors...so it has become a very large holding. As TwoCities stated...what has changed at Fairfax negatively between mid-2019 and mid-2021? The only obvious difference is interest rates. Insurance and investments are doing better than 2019...they've streamlined and simplified more of the businesses...they've monetized several others...many of their core holdings have increased in market value since then...book value per share is increasing very well. So why would it be so unimaginable that markets would revalue Fairfax back to 1.1-1.2 times book...certainly not unfathomable, nor unrealistic. Cheers!

Interview with John Paulson on gold, crypto, investing. Cheers! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/is-bitcoin-a-good-investment-billionaire-paulson-says-crypto-worthless-bubble?utm_source=twitter&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&sref=acfjrZ8Z