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TWACOWFCA, 40% seems very courageous especially if it is other peoples money, especially when those people are family + friends. How high of an allocation would you ever go,or what is your highest % amount have you allocated to a single security. Its good having courage + capital with these volatile times. Do you ever worry that a better buy comes along + you don t have the powder for instance Lancashire gets cut by 50% (I guess you would sell some TRH to buy it). I am working on using more than a thimble when opportunity comes around. Then again I never have trouble sleeping at night. Thanks for all your previous comments + the albionresearch site

Is that not the case for most accounts-brokerage, checking , savings, or other?

http://www.gurufocus.com/news/142268/consuelo-mack-interviews-james-grant Have not seen this posted here before

Thanks for posting He is very pessimistic. Is it just me or have most of the talking heads/commentators this week been more optimistic than they should have been. I always feel optimistic. I am trying not to be naive. This interview helps to balance this. Thanks again

I think this important. Its reassuring if he has all his net worth in the company stock, If he is lying or stretching the truth about this, then its a bad sign i.e. how can the rest of what he said or his running of the company be trusted.

Thanks for posting. Enjoyed it. These guys sound like some of the posters on this board. All their holdings are items discussed + favoured by the guys here e.g. MSFT, GOOG,,HPQ, BRK

Good point Packer. Hey, who is Frank Martin?

http://online.wsj.com/video/cuban-on-investing-diversification-is-for-idiots/233AE43E-9DA3-40A3-8F6B-9DC23DD82BEF.html

it is used by some to figure out how much of your portfolio to invest/allocate to a given risk/security. based on probability of winning + how much you gain or lose i.e if probably is high, potential loss is low,and potential gain is high then allocate a high amount or go all in vs (at the other extreme) don t allocate any amount if there is any chance that particular investment could go to zero

since the article I tried to learn about Richard Koos theory on balance sheet recession. I am thinking (and hoping) that it may not occur or be as severe because: -our "strategists" at the fed/government have studied this new disease + will eventually implement rational therapy -we are not starting with assets that are so overinflated (stocks are not at 50+x PE, real estate has taken a hit already) -culture in western business is different in that i. we are willing to take right downs, layoffs ii more innovations (medicine, internet, software, etc) seem to come out of the west I have banking on a little inflation. With deflation, the consolation is that I can buy more with the dollars I make. I have trouble seeing this still---with Mr Watsa thinking that it will happen---I am trying to figure out what to do (best I can come up with is to buy more FFH) What do others think?

Great idea. By the way tab works well...left tip

Viking, thanks for your analysis (a good buy <$70), which makes sense. I think that book value is underestimating the real value---as the book value of companies they have owned for quite a long time are not adequately accounted for by looking at BV alone-e.g. Geico, Sees, other long term holdings.

Thank you Parad, thank you Paul. Very glad to see you back.

the brief interview with Jamie Dimon just before was reassuring. He basically stated that he did not understand what people were talking about in the media in regards to the health of the major banks.

that was dated June 22 I wonder if they were buying this week?

Are we looking at the same stocks? I am seeing plenty of that "single digit P/E 10" stuff? ??? edit : Nvm, you were talking about Schiller's PE... 50% seems crazy. Many companies are already under 2009's low valuations. People seem to be looking at price ("All that downside!!!!") but don't see value. I don't get it. Do you truly believe we can get to an S&P500 of 560 without any major depression? I am just not seeing it and the market acts like it is a serious recession already and some things will never recover. Tom, anything is possible. I think (hope) not probable. I think that there is more manipulation by Big Brother than we appreciate. 50%+ drop would be catastrophic---I am thinking of the underfunding of retirement plans, pension funds, not to mention the decrease in confidence of consumers and business. I am prepared for that chance by trying to keep a sizeable amount of cash, keep working + saving/living below your means.

thanks for the link I think that last night he called it "amateurish" that people were selling stocks for 12- 15% less than the day before.

It's interesting that everyone seems to think that this is a minor market decline and a buying opportunity. This blasé attitude scares me. Except for our core holding, LRE, we've been at about 80% cash for some time. If the wisdom of the herd proves to be right, and the markets bounce back, we should still have an opportunity to buy P&C cat exposed insurers at bargain prices because a bounceback for them is likely to be attenuated by the hurricane season being yet to peak. Best wishes to all. Blase attitude=Just my way to deal with adversity. Still almost 40% in cash, scaling in as the market declines as I have never had any luck at all trying to time the bottom, I have tried believe me in the past + managed to miss all of them. I wish I had some LRE. It has not lost anything on the pink sheets i.e holding their value

What are you selling? Or doing to raise cash I regret not selling my lower quality stuff, which is going down faster than what I am buying which are the high quality owner managers with cash. Is it too late to sell these lower quality stocks like JOE, SHLD, SMED (all 2% or less of portfolio, so hardly worth it?)..I have held as I don t need to raise cash.

Maybe a dumb question. Can the U.S. Treasury buy stock market? i.e. print money + buy stock to stop the bleeding. Stock market crash not great for consumer confidence to go out + buy stuff. They need to inflate there way out of this problem

looks like there will be some more opportunity tomorrow...futures are down 300 pts at 9:43 pm. Oh boy.

I feel like I am at #6 today

BRK ALS.TO (market cap $289 million. No debt, $200 million in cash. Lots of royalties on hard assets-iron, potash, etc)

these bad mortgages were probably in the countrywide portfolio, which the US government made them buy. Is that right? If so, you would think that B of A is owed a favour by uncle SAM?

in 3 years it wont matter, $69 or $71...it will be dumb if I put in a low bid + it does not get filled