EdWatchesBoxing

Yes, I have a feeling it's not included the CMHC data in it.

Really fast turnaround. The SFK web-site already has the Fibrek logo on it!

Interesting to see C make it into FFH, but it's just about 1.3% of their holding reported on on the 13-F. This means it's less than 1% in their overall portfolio. I wonder who on the HWIC team came up with this one. Funny, 13F lists the position as PRN (principal amount), but the Nasdaq link shows it being a common stock position.

Buy FFH, live off the dividends, and put the rest in China and let it ride. But to stay on topic, AAPL for me.

Good one! You got me to click on the link without checking the URL :P

It would be pretty cool, everyone could wear their Fairfax caps too.

I think betting on the right things is a skill. You're taking the bet that gives you favourable odds. The more I learn about the investing game, I realize that you need some luck too. Eric, I share some of your reasoning on C (I also own it). Sounds very similar to what I've read about Berkowitz' reasons for buying it.

Interesting, I guess investors are able to cope with the fear and buy from those selling due to their "amygdala." Casinos must be full of these people that don't have this part of their brain working. Phil Ivey's a great poker player who can make a fortune if he just stuck to poker. I heard that he'll gamble away greater than $1 mil playing craps. I admit that playing craps can be a rush, which is why I stay away from it.

SD, I like to call what we have on this board "reverse" herd mentality. Seeing the regular SFK updates on the board got me looking into it again. Also looked CFX.UN and I would say there's still quite a bit of MOS on SFK.

It really does look like a cash flow machine.

I support Toyota by being a car owner. I don't think I would ever buy an auto stock. I love reading about their culture and production methods though.

IMO, save the money you would have spent on MBA school and jump into investing directly. You will probably learn more that way and you'll have skin the game up front. I share SD's thinking, if you really want some formal education go sign up for the level 1 CFA exam. So you have have something to study in between your investing research. Go for the CSC course if you want. These 2 exams will cost you less than $2000 for your first attempts. Hell, use some of the money you save to buy a Wii ;) I wrote the level 1 CFA exam last year. It's good stuff to learn if you're really interested in it. I don't think you need it to be a successful personal investor though. OT: anyone else have a Wii and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for it? It's extremely addictive. It's been cutting into my poker time.

Would be interesting to see this happen.

lol. I won't waste anymore time.

Reread my initial post. I didn't say anything to suggest that.

OK, you made look for the Buffett reference and here it is (See "Selling Berkshire Short") ;): http://www.ntimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=4121&print_page=true As for Fairfax, I wasn't talking about Prem lending out his shares, I was just thinking the borrow rates would have been high for those willing to lend their shares out. Much like over the Sears Holdings past year. Got to look into this, thanks! I've been looking into IB for a while (procrastinating) because of their programming capabilities and commission structure. Makes sense SD, this is something you can do in an RSP to create additional income. Buy long, sell volatility.

Happy New Year everyone! I am trying to figure something out with respect to securities lending. As a retail investor with a margin account, my understanding is that the broker is able to loan out stock in your account to short sellers. So I imagine the broker pockets the borrow rate fees on the stock. Can we get our share of these fees? I read about how Buffett loaned out some stock to make additional money on the borrow fees. I imagine that the borrow rate on Fairfax was very high when it was attacked by short selling. I hope others have more knowledge in this area.

That's why my motto is "friends don't lend friends money" unless it's < 20$.

Quite true from my experience too. I was once told by a girl from Boston, that I had an accent! I'm from Toronto, I never thought we spoke funny up here. Maybe it was just me :P My experience in the American cities I've visited have most been great. I like it in the Bay area, but nothing beats Vegas.

The rates probably play the biggest role with the group of people who have less than 20% down on their house, where they need the low floating rate to get approved for a mtg. The 0 down, 40 year amort. mtgs were only available for a little while in Canada, but they're still getting around it these days. In theory, the home buyer needs 5% down, but the bank is lending that 5% to the buyer some other way. So it's effectively a 0 down mtg still. The mtg is passed on to CMHC and so the bank has less skin in the game. Of course, the home buyer has no skin in the game in this case. The 2009 stat that shows the %age of LTVs in the > 80-90% range would be very interesting to see. IMO, that's the group that is causing the bubble in the major cities. I think the avg salary / house price ratio in Toronto is over 5 (according to Garth Turner). Affordable house prices are generally around the 3 range. Affordability is definitely being affected in Toronto. Vancouver is even worse, just take Toronto's numbers and multiply by a factor of 1.25 -1.5 at least.

Regardless of current discount to book between WSC and FFH, I would bet that FFH outperforms WSC in the next 5 - 10 years.

What can you say, Fairfax had good timing.

Even with FFH being at it's current levels, you see quite a bit of volatility. IMO, the longer I've played this game the more I appreciate their approach at Leucadia. They don't fight Mr. Market, they take advantage of him. So I've come to accept splits as part of the game. It's a non-event from a business owner perspective, but it allows Mr. Market to play games too.

Good point, I was only thinking about NB and its CR, I didn't think about the FX.

Strong results on the investment side, but this info was already known to board members. Without looking at details, I guess that ORH had an OK CR, NB and C&F probably had a high CR, Asia was outstanding. (I cheated and checked the report and I was right!) For underwriting, keep ORH where it is and continue improvements with NB and C&F and FFH be alright. If they had decided to bring in ORH first before NB, they may have gotten NB at a lower price.