leeway

How does he deal with drawdowns? It seems currently he is in a large drawdown both in absolute and relative terms. Does he tend to stick to his ideas and even double down, or cut losses somehow (say even for tax purposes like Ackman did with VRX)?

I am concerned. Trying to be "politically correct" makes this country less safe IMHO.

I use portfolio123.com to do some backtesting. they have fundamental stock level data going back to 1999.

I doubt this is true. Since last year SGD can directly trade with RMB (no need to be quoted through USD etc), which is far from full convertibility. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/china-picks-singapore-dollar-ninth-currency-directly-trade-against-yuan-1471916

http://newsletters.briefs.bloomberg.com/document/25z1bq1xnb2zkmlet8/front

Petrobras just issued 100-year bonds yielding 8.45%. The PV of the final principal is almost nothing at this yield (3 cents per 100$ notional per my estimate). This is kind of an annuity with some default risk. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/02/brazil-petrobras-bonds-idUSL1N0YO01V20150602

another complexity on capital gain treatment at the state level is that some states don't allow capital loss carry forward. I used to live in NJ and I tried to avoid taking more than 3K capital loss in the years that I would like to take some capital loss.

I got CFA quite late (but not that late), and I don't think it helped my career in any meaningful way. Granted I was already in the industry back then (10+ years ago). Sometimes I wonder if it is worth keeping paying close to $300 yearly to maintain it. Now more young people prepare for the exams in college years, so I would guess the value would likely be even less in the future.

what is the supposed time limit for the test?

Many thanks, will check out. Have you or anyone looked at Schwab's Portfolio Center?

nice python script. and also good collection of the math puzzles

P's statement (P knows Q does not know) is based on the info P has, ie the sum of the two integers.

this one is relatively straight forward with this type of problems. I just spent an evening and more to solve a similar but much more complicated problem: 2 numbers a and b, a >=b, both integers between 2 and 99. Mr. P knows the sum S=a+b, and Mr. Q knows the product M=a*b. Here is the conversation: Q: I don't know what are a and b. P: I know you don't know, and I don't know either. Q: I know now. P: I also know now. What are a and b?

A related question, anyone has a recommendation for portfolio management software, that can help to reconcile, calculate returns, aggregate client accounts and generating client reports? Basically I am trying to find a cheaper version of InData IMS and Advent. thanks

some PFIC discussion here: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-02/more-unofficial-capital-controls-us-pfic-rules

Uh, not true, once you have changed employers or retired, you can rollover your 401K Roth funds into a Roth IRA. (There may be some loophole that allows you to roll it over while still with your original employer, but I have not looked into that, so, as they say check with you tax professional first. Netnet, not sure which part you meant "not true". Yes I can rollover the Roth portion of my old 401K (with a previous employer) to a Roth IRA account . But since there is no so called "Rollover Roth IRA", the rolled-over money will be in a standard Roth IRA account and would not qualify for ERISA status. Thus by rolling the Roth portion of my old 401K account, I would lose some ERISA protection. You or anyone thinks otherwise?

I think so (losing ERISA qualification in both cases). Here is another link on this: http://www.ehow.com/about_7605326_ira-accounts-erisa-qualified.html I actually have some Roth 401K money too. Since there is no Roth Rollover IRA, I can only roll it over to a standard Roth and thus lose ERISA qualification.

Many thanks Eric for pointing out this. I was reluctant to move past 401K money to rollover IRA partially for ERISA status.

This is from the letter that mentioned the unconventional idea of BRK. I think "unconventional" means the resistance to the idea back then, and has nothing to do with leverage. Three years ago BRK represented a slam-dunk idea yet drew unease from outsiders that had read our letters, causing many to leave us at the altar due to our unconventional stance and commitment to our reasoning. We unloaded most of our BRK position in 2014. Our decision was driven by outside opportunities and a diminishing gap between price and value. I’m happy to report that over roughly 41 months of ownership, our unconventional BRK holding outpaced the S&P in fine fashion, registering a gain of more than 170%. The premise of our BRK thesis always rested upon minimal risk concurrent with a high probability of adequate return, analogous to a 3-yr T-bill yielding 15%. Such an unusual opportunity (carrying almost zero chance of major loss) and associated large position size should be considered an anomaly rather than a regular occurrence.

for a US investor, does it make meaningful difference to hold FFH or FRFHF as a long term holding? besides the small ADR fees, would any rights offering to existing shareholders be only offered to FFH holders not to ADR holders? thanks in advance.

here is GMO's 7yr forecast. GMO_7YrForecasts_Dec14.pdf

I think these are good reasons why EM will likely outperform developed in the next 10+ years. GMO forecasts US equities will have negative real returns in their 7-yr forecast, and calls for EM equity to outperform, but still at a modest 3.8% real.

If you just want to get one card, I would second the recommendation for Citi Double Cash mastercard. You get easy 2%, just try to remember to pay the statement balance every month. I try to charge all I can through rebate/point cards, and should have get 10K+ back over the years.

+1 I am in a similar situation, now aiming for 5% real on total investment portfolio. I prob diversify too much, with no single stock more than 5%. I read on this forum a few months back that someone lost ~18mm overnight (on GTAT), got totally wiped out plus some. That's a too extreme case of concentration, but surprisingly did happen in real life.

for many investors in the states, even the long term cap gains are taxed much higher than 15%, including state tax, medicare tax, etc.