Myth465

I feel as though plenty of people have done this. They just tend to focus on their circle of competence so it looks different. Buffett is most interesting because he has the widest circle. I also think your thinking suffers from survivorship bias.

Im ordering a Kindle today and hoping for a netbook by December.

I must be the only guy who prefers the CNA preferreds.

I dont know. Buffett seems like a tough guy to not get along with (his enemy list seems quite short and no one really ever says much bad about him and him bad about others). If she was so smart why did she fail at what appears to be a simple task.

I think you guys are expecting a bit too much when it comes to fair value. Rates are low, the market is soft, and alot of major insurance companies are trading at below book. Who is going to pay 2x BV, would you?

Im shocked its moving up so much. Perhaps I should have held my options. The PIK was a bit too much for me so I had to move on.

I like calls alot. I prefer to listen to them while doing routine things like cooking or folding cloths. I listen for the "color" though my biggest loss came from listening to Management on a call.

Too bad I never bought. Been on the watch list for quite a while. Congrats guys. Things are really heating up with the buyouts.

Thanks I had just given up on the options setting and was hand keying those in. It seems like it takes alot more effort to pull down options info though.

Thanks alot Value Hunter

What a stupid headline.

Thanks alot - for some reason I am drawn to Faber and Bass. They tend to keep me centered when I get a bit overexcited. Tilson has also been very impressive over the last year and appears to be coming into his own a bit more vs. being the guy who follows around Munger and Buffett. I like his bold bet on BP and he was right, at least in the short term. Whalen's thought on housing has me salivating about what may become available here in Houston over the next few years.

Reading ideas on VIC and reverse engineering post plays by famous investors is also useful. IMHO learning how to think and learning basic economics / accounting are all one really needs. It also helps to get screwed on a few investments but there are cheaper options if you are willing to learn from others. I do a bit of both ;D Also Pabrai and Klarman frame things very well inmo. Pabrai really shows you that you are really just making a very educated (sometimes over educated) bet on an outcome. You should ensure that even if you bet is wrong you dont lose too much and you should focus on improving your thought process so your bets are more and more accurate.

Lol I agree, Thanks again for the link. I prefer the layout compared to Guru Focus.

Yes im not sure where you guys are going with all these comparisons. I wasnt even around 30 years ago, and am trying to pick the best investments available today.

Tilson on his Netflix and Open table shorts. http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/?video=1628416100&play=1 He touches on Risk Control.

Looks like Bruce has sold about 10% of his holding, which further confirms that FUR is moving closer towards fair value.

Very good point. I look at FCF after compensation, and will adjust for options if they are significant. We cant all be so high minded. For me if the company is not an Owner Manager type company with reasonable compensation / ethics, then it will not be a buy and hold longer term holding. Simple as that. Buy cheap, and sell near / at fair value.

...and the stock has gone nowhere. I think the criticism of Ballmer is valid. He basically has done nothing extraordinary considering he took over a monopoly and has had blunder after blunder. In fact, if Windows 7 hadn't been a success, he would probably be gone. Microsoft seems to have no business strategy to speak of. Their non-core products are generally an embarrassment to the company but their obsession on those same embarrassing non-core products was effecting the quality of their core product. (e.g. putting resources into the Zune while releasing Vista.) 74% of businesses still use an OS that is a decade old (Microsoft XP.) That's a lot of missed opportunities. You can only coast on past successes so long. Now that the mobile computing revolution is upon us, MSFT has one again missed a big opportunity. People are just frustrated and I am sure shareholders don't like owning a company where half of the equity just sits there earning 1%. You bring up a good point, I see both sides. Also he almost bought Yahoo for a retarded about of money.

Buffett also bought CNA's run off. I think everyone is upping their bets on insurance.

Thanks for the letter.

Me not owning Berkshire has nothing to do with LUK. I have never owned LUK either. I just dont see the point, when you are working with less then $200k and trying to build wealth, I dont see how Berkshire gets you there in a meaningful way. Now if I had $10 million and was looking to protect wealth then ...

Thanks alot for the MP3. Beats calling in.

I am just as annoyed but it has become the norm, not much I can do. Buy cheap, sell high.

Will they eventually start consolidating these? It seems like FFH will be a collection of 1 - 2 dozen different insurers / brand names.