Saluki

In doing a new video I mentioned this book, which not many people have read but it's very good. McCaw's dad was an early cable pioneer who built a regional cable company with a mountain of debt and lost it all except for a single franchise in a small community in Washington State. It's why I always hated investing in cable companies. Even the best like John Mallone and John Hendricks have almost gone bankrupt many times. We lionized the survivors, but forget about the others that got wiped out. McCaw inherited that, grew the company and made a lot in the hey day of cable and then got into Telecom, invested in Nextel, and did very well for himself. He's not a household name, but it's an interesting part of the history of the industry. Well worth checking out. I especially liked it because a client (who recently died, with a net worth of almost $4 billion) is mentioned in there in an accurate but unflattering way. Some partners at my old law firm made millions when they invested along side him in a cell company which became the second biggest in the US (Metro Mobile) and was sold to one of the baby bells. It's a reminder to me that you only need one really good idea to get rich.

Some TV and CPNG

I'm going again to Woodstock for Capitalists this year. It will be my second year. I was pleased with the number of meetups and side events in Omaha compared with how many there are in Toronto for the Fairfax AGM. Although to be fair, my better half loved visiting Toronto both times and could not be convinced to come to Omaha even once. Last year I could've done a better job of planning things out beforehand, and I found out about a few things from word of mouth by talking to people there. Rather than leave it to chance, if you know of any meetups, brunches, annual meetings, talks, presentations etc, that are going on in Omaha that weekend, please comment below and we can have them all in one place for reference. Cheers!

Bought a little Fairfax India in my Retirement account, a little VTS and a nice big slug of TV on the dip I also bought some BABA and NETI on which I have some losses, but plan to sell the earlier shares in 31 days which will help reduce some of my gains on the ATCO I was squeezed out of. I plan on reclycling that capital and doing that again and again with other down positions until the end of the year and hopefully end up not having to write a big check this year to the tax man. I'm making an actual written note to myself to sell, because in the past I've tended to hold on "well I SAID I would sell in 31 days, but it still looks pretty cheap, so maybe I should just hold on longer."

Sold some of my ATCO (if I don't wait until the freezeout happens, I will only miss one dividend payment) and bought more TV. Put in a limit order for SWBI but I didn't get a fill (thinking of adding to some of my underwater positions and selling 31 days later to keep my same position but offset some of the gains from the ATCO forced sale. Whenever I try to time things it doesn't usually work out in my favor though).

I've been listening to several videos by this guy. Very thought provoking. Besides being a performance psychologist for many of the top golfers, he also works for a very well known fund.

More TV and OXY

A little more OXY and TV on the dip. I still like SWBI at this price, but I have as much as I'm comfortable owning (it would be higher but gun companies, like tobacco, don't make sympathetic defendants and civil suits are always a looming threat that is not quantifiable).

No difference really, but the FFXDF is less liquid because it's a small cap Canadian company trading on a US exchange. Sometimes I don't see a resting bid/ask at all on FFXDF so make sure you put a limit order, not a market order. Some US brokerages won't let you trade on the foreign exchanges. At my brokerage I have to buy FFXDF, not FIH but because it's not very liquid it makes me do two-factor authorization and I have to do it as a limit order.

Just finished Crunk on Earth. It's a mockumentary interview format like Sasha Baron Cohen, but without any physical humor. Very funny!

Bought a little OXY and Fairfax India on the dip. Added a little more to TV and SWBI.

Are you suggesting that the market is inefficient? Keep talking like that and you'll get rich, but you'll never get tenure and a key to the faculty lounge.

Just an FYI, the Seagrams Bronfmanns are the branch with the crazy sisters who were in the NXIUM sex cult in NY. The Brookfield Bronfmanns were the branch of the family that was squeezed out of the liquor business and went into real estate and became Brascan, which became the basis for Brookfield. "The Brass Ring" is a book that has that story and is excellent. It's out of print but I have a copy sitting in my office somewhere. If I go in person anytime soon, I'd be happy to mail it to whoever wants it or bring it to the Omaha for the Woodstock for Capitalists meeting.

I bought too early (2017 after my first Toronto trip) and those buys have underperformed, but the additions after the pandemic rout in 2020 have made up for that. At this point, the business keeps growing and they are not doing things like making market calls with swaps and instead using that money and brainpower to grow the insurance business and make opportunistic investments, so I don't plan on selling any shares. The only FFH shares I have sold have been this year in my retirement account and I moved that over to Fairfax India, which I also like and is a bargain comparatively, IMHO. I have no idea how the market doesn't value FF India like it values the companies on the Sensex. During the pandemic, the P/E of the Sensex reached 36, and FFI is still trading below book for some world class assets that are getting more valuable. FFH has less moving parts than BRK but it's still difficult for me to follow all the pieces. Still, the important stuff (record premiums, record profits, combined ratio under 100, opportunistically buying assets then selling them for multi baggers a few years later) seem to be providing consistent steady growth. Still holding and collecting the dividends

Added to TV and SWBI using some money from stuff I trimmed yesterday. Added a small amount to NETI, which was down 6% today on no news (I plan to double it this year on the dips, then sell the half that I bought back when it was Scorpio Bulkers, to harvest the tax loss before year end while keeping the same position size).

Got rid of the last of NFLX that I bought on the first giant drop. Held it through the second giant drop, and now that it's almost back to even (and I'm not convinced on the free with ads model), I sold out.

Added a little more to SWBI and TV.

A Noble Function helps understand the founding of the company. It was authorized by the family, so there is no mention of the dysfunctional family dynamics in there. It's helpful to understand how they pulled ahead of all their mom and pop competitors making moving trailers like their in the post war era. It also goes into that weird lending club thing, if I remember correctly. Basically, they couldn't get bank financing because of all the existing debt so they were being lent money by the franchisees who understood the business and some were getting like 15% returns or something.

Uhaul is a great company with an impressive moat, but I passed on it when I looked at it a few years ago because I don't trust the family. This book is fascinating, by the way: https://www.amazon.com/Birthright-Murder-U-Haul-Family-Dynasty/dp/0688112552 The founder was a genius, but it looks like one of those things where it skips a generation. He's a got more kids than you can count on both sets of fingers from several wives and they were all forming coalitions and trying to get control of the company. After you read how they treated minority share holders in their own family, it doesn't give you a lot of confidence.

Bought the last bit of VTS that I wanted to buy for a full position size. Added a little more to SWBI and TV (can't get to full position size unless I sell something else).

Added a little more SWBI on the dip. Currently only 1/2 a position for me, but my cash is fully deployed

There is no trade press that I consistently read anymore. When I was in private practice I used to read Cablefax Daily (which in 2000 used to literally be faxed to our law firm) and a Natural Gas publication whose name I forget because it was relevant to work and it was a half an hour a day that I can bill to the firm (only 7.5 more billables to go for the day!). When I have a position in something (or am researching) they can be very helpful and very specialized. During one of the bird flu scares I invested and did well with Pilgrims Pride and Sanderson Farms, but only after reading several issues of Poultry Times (yes, that's a real magazine) that had discussions about bird flu, bio security and stuff like that. I think as a part time investor with a day job it would be hard to do anything close to Buffett's level of reading, so if you are looking at a stock or industry it might be better to read stuff "just in time" rather than "just in case".

Added some TV and SWBI on the dip. Placed a limit order for Fairfax India in my retirement account this morning, but it hasn't been filled

New Prem Interview. A few interesting tidbits about his first meeting Buffett and Francis Chu.

I have family in PB County and have been going there once or twice a year since the 90s. I don't know any professional who has moved there and regretted it (3 friends from law school, my sister (Ph.D) and my best friend since HS (CPA). I think it's harder to make a go of it as a working class person because lower salaries go along with cheaper house prices (compared to the Northeast), but a professional salary that would make you middle class in NYC is baller money in a place like Tampa or Jacksonville. I hope JOE land gets to be a popular place to live, not just vacation, in the future. In isolation that club membership sounds like a lot, but a partner at my old law firm pays more than that for a Golf course membership and it's only warm enough to golf here 8 months of the year. That pool looks small, but if you were to install something like that, it might be small enough for one of those endless pools where you can swim against the current and never have to turn around. Something to consider, there's no law that says you can't have a club membership AND your own pool