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fishwithwings

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Posts posted by fishwithwings

  1. It really seems like a lot of these Japanese net-nets have help up better than the market, or at least better than certain areas of the market, possibly because they're so well capitalized and names with debt have just been killed.  In any case, I've been selling that names that have held up to buy US names that seem relatively cheaper now.  Who knew that the only way these things would actually outperform the market would be in some sort of cataclysm?

     

    Do you mind sharing some of the US names?  Maybe not on this thread b/c it's for Japanese stocks tho.

     

    I mentioned some names in another thread here:

     

    https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/companies-with-a-fortress-balance-sheet-and-liquidity-at-the-moment/msg404747/#msg404747

     

    What do people usually say, do your own research?  Statistically though I'm not sure it makes a difference

     

    thx :)

  2. It really seems like a lot of these Japanese net-nets have help up better than the market, or at least better than certain areas of the market, possibly because they're so well capitalized and names with debt have just been killed.  In any case, I've been selling that names that have held up to buy US names that seem relatively cheaper now.  Who knew that the only way these things would actually outperform the market would be in some sort of cataclysm?

     

    Do you mind sharing some of the US names?  Maybe not on this thread b/c it's for Japanese stocks tho.

  3. I do know of an example where a company in the real estate / consultancy business wanted to spread ownership in advance of a stock listing. Therefore, they issued stock at a big discount to equity value to their 20.000 members who had "savings accounts" where they could save to invest in future properties. These savings accounts could be very small.

     

    They did not put a cap to how many shares could be subscribed by each saver and one guy had shortly before the share issue become a "home saver" and subscribed so many shares that he got to own almost 10% of the whole company. This was made possible because the other "home savers" did not subscribe to enough shares to fill up the share issue.

     

     

    The year after the stock listing, he sold his shares at a 700% profit.

     

    Thanks. Now if there was a way to find these ideas...

  4. I think that he would be looking at share issuances in poorly marketed very small companies where it would be possible to find opportunities. For example Peter Lynch S&L strategy where you would need to open up accounts in the S&L:s to be allowed to participate in the share issuance taking palce far below market value. There might from time to time be similar situations in other companies, such as real estate companies etc, where you would need to have a savings account to participate. He might try to oversubscribe the share issuance in a huge way, which might be fruitful if it is poorly marketed. He might not be inclined to describe these sorts of situations, because there can be cases when the issuer does not expect someone to subscribe for 1.000 times more shares than everyone else and even though it is not illegal, it can be perceived as un-ethical, since it is against the intentions of the issuer.

     

    There would also be share redemption situations where it can be possible to make 20-30% in a few weeks in a very safe way. I have encountered one such situation myself in a very small stock with no analyst or mutual fund coverage and made lots of money from it.

     

    If I did not have a regular job and was planning to put 1 MUSD to work, I would probably try to read everything I can find in order to try to find these kinds of situations and bet hard when I find them.

     

    I think you're on the right track...  Do you have an example of these situations with real estate companies?

     

    Another thing worth noting down is that investors like Alphavulture are earning very high IRRs on special situation investments.  Not sure about the specifics tho...

  5. When they asked him about it years ago he said the return would go down dramatically as AUM went from 1M - 10M.  I take that to mean to look at things that are too tiny even for a $10M fund.  So look in small stuff, find something way out of line, and bet big, cause you're probably not gonna find them that often.

     

    Look at the ethanex bankruptcy Thomas Braziel invested in,  Norilsk Nickel arb at kiddynamite's blog, mexican restaurants (CASA) which was a regular long from oddballstocks blog a few years ago (actually just read the whole oddballstocks blog archive).

     

    Yes, correct.  Really obscure stuff in the past...at this year's meeting, he did say it would be very specific unique arbitrage opportunities.  He said that opportunities are much lower today to do this than say 10-20-30 years ago.  Cheers!

     

    That’s interesting to me for a number of reasons:

     

    1. In the not too distant past I’ve heard him say it might actually be easier now cause information is easier to access.

    2. He seems to have switched his stance a little.  Before when people asked him to speak on this subject he’d talk about finding super cheap small companies and going long the stock.  Now it seems he thinks arbs are more inefficient.

    3. I assume that for him to have an opinion in this he must be looking in that area from time to time.  I like the idea that Buffett loves this stuff so much that he’s still taking an occasional peak at these tiny obscure situations, even as an old billionaire philanthropist who has no reason to care.

     

    By the way, does anybody me have a transcript or audio/video of this?  Thanks in advance.

     

    Yeah, he was pretty specific by mentioning arbitrage in an unconventional way. mergers and acquisitions are arbitrage, but in a traditional sense. I wonder if he is talking about investments outside the stock market.

  6. IB is reporting dividends from ISTB and FLOT as qualified dividends.

    Fido is reporting them as not qualified dividends.

     

    This also shows they are not qualified dividends:

    https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/tax-information/2018-ishares-distribution-summary-icrmh0219u-716296.pdf

     

    Crap, so now I have to try to manually persuade Turbo Tax that IB's reporting is screwed up... FML.

     

    Probably a better idea to call IB to get it fixed.  There will be a discrepancy between what you file and what the IRS will get from IB.

     

    Yeah.

     

    So IB has "Tax form correction" option in their support section. Except that it does not work. They implemented new interface, but part of the code refers to old form and you can't submit the correction - it requires you to fill in no longer existing checkbox(es). Great programming! This company rocks! NOT.

     

    Well, I submitted generic ticket instead. We'll see where that gets us.

     

    BTW, they had exactly the same issue with ISTB/FLOT dividends reported as qualified in 2017 tax form. 1099-DIV got fixed/amended in March. This company rocks! NOT.

     

    Was this a special dividend?  I would have though reporting dividends would be pretty straightforward.

  7. IB is reporting dividends from ISTB and FLOT as qualified dividends.

    Fido is reporting them as not qualified dividends.

     

    This also shows they are not qualified dividends:

    https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/tax-information/2018-ishares-distribution-summary-icrmh0219u-716296.pdf

     

    Crap, so now I have to try to manually persuade Turbo Tax that IB's reporting is screwed up... FML.

     

    Probably a better idea to call IB to get it fixed.  There will be a discrepancy between what you file and what the IRS will get from IB.

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