Junto

One reason is move to self funded insurance plans. We moved our banks last year and it has been a very good move. Generally will be if your workforce is healthy. The result of our moving and other small, medium sized businesses with good health will take profitable clients outside the overall system driving up premiums on those who haven't or can't self insure. Most large organizations have self insured for years. It hasn't made sense for smaller companies until most recently.

I feel like the author has little concept of the CUs. They are the banking equivalent of mutual insurance companies and provide a great service by providing pricing competition. The "profits" made are just partial rebates on the costs of owning a bank and services are limited regionally. I hope technology will allow CUs to thrive again (atm deals aren't cheap). Ha! That was a joke right? On a serious note, Mutual Savings Banks were tax-exempt until the Revenue Act of 1951 changed their status. They now pay taxes along with the banking industry. Credit Unions have also moved away from the purpose of their tax exempt charter.

Alternative to those that have benefited from investing in US companies from Europe, I am looking at the value option and currency metrics from the other view. Use dollar strength to buy more Euro based assets that likely have more value options than what I am currently seeing in the US. If Euro gains strength over next several years, it also helps the investment. This is a five to ten year trade move in my mind. Anyone else looking at it this way and making similar portfolio adjustments? Any particular managers that people are tracking? I know limited managers in Europe and don't have the time to become an expert on European securities in specific, so this is a macro investment, portfolio position strategy.

Great old books: Old Gorgon Graham: https://books.google.com/books?id=eQcdAAAAMAAJ&num=19 Letters from a Self Made Merchant to his son https://books.google.com/books?id=Wg5FAAAAIAAJ&num=19&source=gbs_book_similarbooks http://www.notable-quotes.com/l/lorimer_george_horace.html The books are full of applicable quotes. Not always politically correct given it was written in late 1800's/early 1900's

The guy is a superstar regardless if he made a mistake guessing s&p 500 in 2011...look at his average returns to benchmark. He has outperformed. Good to review his comments and reasoning, don't get lost in the exact forecast or "target" A lot to be gathered with the global view and market comments right now from him and others if you are a fixed income investor.

I have been buying and now its my 2nd largest position TAXI. Very strong buy at these levels IMO. Top positions (BAC, TAXI, AAPL, C, AIG)

Accredited, but as LC said, you will be able to buy shares in the open market...maybe not at the same price as the private placement though. Cheers! Probably cheaper after buzz settles from the corner...just saying.

I agree. And thank you for the book tip. I think you could also hire good sales and marketing people. In my experience you should enjoy the process of selling… If you don’t, because you find it time consuming, time you’d like to devote to other activities, a good enough alternative solution is to hire someone who truly likes selling. ;) Gio In most smaller companies the best sales person is the owner or founder. They know the products, have a passion for the business and want satisfied customers. I don't know what selling is like in Italy, but you're trying to match customer needs with products you offer. That isn't slimy or shady at all. If someone has a need and you have a solution there is no pressure, the buyer is happy to buy from you. What you're offering is of greater value to them than the money they give you. You as the owner want an ongoing relationship. You can hire people to do all these things, and at some point to scale it's necessary. But in my experience the CEO is always selling to the biggest and most important clients. Even at multi-billion dollar firms the CEO is at key customer meetings. The CEO is the spokesperson for the company. Important accounts need that contact. Maybe the CEO sitting there doesn't think they're selling, but they are. They're trying to find if what the company provides can meet a custom need. +1

I think arguing the company could go under is a little aggressive. The values may reduce but the company itself is not highly levered against the medallions and the management has been proven operators in the space. Here is an article of interest. I went back into TAXI after selling a couple years back today after earnings. http://seekingalpha.com/article/2352885-survey-shows-the-uber-story-is-overblown-taxi-remains-dominant

Outside of the common metrics, price to tangible book, price to earnings, margins, asset quality, etc.. I look for these specific things in regional to smaller banks: - Niche Lending Focuses (Think NYCB, TAXI, CBSH, ) - Growing Economic Areas (Banks are generally a reflection of the strength of their market area, the better local market place, the higher chance of better returns) - Deposit mix is of particular interest right now forecasting into a rising rate environment - Dividend Yield and historical consistency to maintain or grow it, speaks to accountability of management in my eyes - Management (what can you find about their specific knowledge, team, and performance in the market area they serve. There are a lot of sleepy managers out there that appear to slowly float to the top just like in other industries) I also like to look for characteristics that could lead to it to be an acquisition candidate or alternatively, I like buying proven acquirers (RNST, OZRK) who have demonstrated proficiency in consolidating operations while growing loan demand in the new markets. I also like teams like SBNY has established whereby they can solicit and sign on teams of relationship managers to move business (note I like their strategy but have not been an investor in their stock).

I stand corrected, I shouldn't comment when I was so tired. I was incorrect. I know what you mean as I have built an excel model to track my competitors in my local market where we upload call report information into it every quarter. When do you think Q3 will get updated?

Nice work, signed up for a trial run. I did notice a potential bug on tier one capital calculation (I stand corrected. I was incorrect.) http://Bankregdata.com probably a better provider at current time vs fdic.gov website. I like that there is something else to look at though. Thanks for sharing!

We have more than two events and ample history to build a story of Biglari's investment prowess regardless of the opinion of his management of the changed BH. Start with Western Sizzlin to Friendly's Ice Cream to SNS to PMIC to Cracker Barrel. My suggestion is to follow him into investment opportunities that underwrite well on your own part and let him shake up business and drive value as a partner in it. It has been extremely lucrative to those that have over the past several years.

The key part to ask is the bank profitable and then is the holding company profitable. You can value the bank separately from the holding company. In FMAR's case, the bank is on rocky footing and I would run as fast as I could. Tier one at 3.55%? Likely a Chapter 11 363 sale with no value for equity holders. At a conference in the past week and the FDIC representative indicated that he expects to see a higher level of 363 sales like Wilbur Ross's Talmer Bancorp's bid for Capitol Bancorp's four charters (http://on.wsj.com/1aIcp3c). The answer was in response to holding companies who are unable to get dividends from their banks sufficient enough to cover their debts (TRUPS and otherwise). I would agree. However, there are instances where maybe there is some residual value if the underlying bank is performing in line with its competitors and has the ability to upstream dividends to pay down debt and create value for the holding company. However, it should be doing so not at the expense of future profitability and growth at the bank. Hard to establish and find. Better to bet on Talmer and other buyers in any case as more value is likely created from these situations on the buying side than the selling side in my opinion.

I don't hate anyone Junto...not even Steve Cohen. But thanks for explaining to me how I feel. You don't even know me! Have we even ever met? Have you even had a conversation with me as long as I've spoken to Sardar, Prem, Mohnish or even many other board members on here? Yet, you are perfectly comfortable making a statement like that. People are awfully brave and honest under anonymity! Cheers! Far from anonymous....links abound since the beginning. I stand by my comments and my assessment of your constant either support or negative comments towards the two. Perhaps, severe dislike is a better characterization. I don't need to meet you to follow the trends/tendencies. No negative feelings on my end just trying to point out my assessment of the situation that I think gets overlooked on the site. Words on a page are words on a page. Cheers!

Parsad, your view is blurred by your love for Prema and conversely your hate for Biglari... simple as that and you should own up to it. I have been on this forum for years and this is clear as day. On the second item regarding to returns, Biglari's investments by and large have been superbly executed. It is still early to know how everything will play out. The key with him is to follow him into investments and not invest with him in BH. Prema has been an average insurance company operator and slightly better investor. Nothing there to spark my interest in following or investing in FFHH over the years.

If anyone knows of a service that would sell raw data - updated daily with pricing information - for income securities in foreign markets that would also be interesting. I would certainly love to have this for Canadian debentures. I have shared this before but it is still a good site: http://bit.ly/oOeDmc Google doc on REITs and Preferreds...extensive list and includes pricing, yields, etc... this should cover what you want to get started

And meager returns...not much upside either. :P Likely small cap play...good luck either way.

Long duration bonds are an asymmetrical investment in the wrong direction...good luck on that gamble...better be for a short-term trade...

Bank Management - Koch http://www.amazon.com/Bank-Management-Timothy-W-Koch/dp/0324655789 Commercial Banking - Management of Risk http://www.amazon.com/Commercial-Banking-Management-Benton-Gup/dp/0470810726 Decent books. Look for others by same authors for additional reading. I would also encourage you to read call reports at the FDIC and instructions. This is very important from a smaller bank research level as there are lots of details embedded in the reports.

Probably too early to invest yet but PlanMaestro is already tweeting about it...https://twitter.com/PlanMaestro Here is the link of companies for you to start: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/companies/country/cyprus/

Here is the article for you... http://lifehacker.com/5990456/google-reader-is-getting-shut-down-here-are-the-best-alternatives I am trying to move over to NewsBlur but I think their website is being overloaded.

It is because the history is that their underwriting is unpredictable and unreliable. Nearly all the value created by the business historically has been use of float for investment gains. It has not been through underwriting profits. This is a very large variable that takes time to get comfortable with and why I think some of the longer term investors provide more affiliation than someone who is just looking at the history and reading the letters. Given the current rate environment and Watsa's negative tilt on the markets, his firm will underperform other insurers who are better underwriters and have a more positive outlook and position in their portfolio.

+1, there is a lot of dreaming here and minimal ideas.

junkyard operator / consolidator....extremely high margins, fragmented, technology could improve but not make obsolete... mobile home park owner - not manager some form of drop shipping business... Feel free to run with any, I have my hands full in banking.