Saluki

Yes, FFO and AFFO are the key metric, not earnings because of the reason stated above. There is a book called Investing in Reits by Block which everyone who likes reits has read. It's a good place to get a foundation in what types of reits are out there, how they are valued and what to look out for. It's what I read to get started learning about them.

Bought more EAF and a little more TPHS. I was in NYC a couple of days ago, and after I visited the Charging Bull Statue on Wall Street and tapped its balls for luck, as I always do, I stopped by the TPHS property at 77 Greenwich and liked what I saw.

I have Schwab but only have about US$3k parked there. My GF and I both use it when we travel because they reimburse you ATM fees (even international) so it's like getting no-fee ATMs anywhere. We used it with no problem in Canada, Ireland and France, but in Chile some bank's ATMs accepted it and some did not, so I had to try it a few times.

Thanks Cigarbutt! I think this news will still help because with fewer people needing these credits, the price for the credits should come down, but it's not the homerun I was hoping for.

One of my holdings, PBF pays $100+ million per year to purchase renewable fuel credits. I read the news about granting waivers to 31 refineries, but I haven't been able to find a list of which refiners got the credits. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ethanol-epa/trumps-epa-grants-31-small-refinery-waivers-from-biofuel-laws-angering-corn-lobby-idUSKCN1UZ2AV Does anyone know where to find a list of who got the waivers? Should be big boost to the bottom line of whoever got the waivers.

Bought some more BRK and PBF. Just starting a new position in EAF.

Merrilledge makes me get an authorization code for certain stocks that are international but thinly listed in the US (Fairfax and Fairfax India US listed shares), and certain smaller companies even if they are not pink sheet companies (Intrepid Potash). I put in the order, it sends a code to my phone and I have to enter it manually. The one time I owned a company that did so badly that it became a pink sheet company, I had to call to be able to sell it. A bit of a pain, but not enough to make me switch brokers.

Bought some more BRK and PBF again today. I have a resting limit order in for some IPI too, but hasn't been filled yet.

Picked up some BRK and PBF. I wish I had more cash laying around!

Did you buy JOE in December? If so, you did great. I'm still a holder. Been selling off a little of HHC. Still like the company and the assets, but I see some cheaper stuff out there and I'm overweight in real estate (also own SRG and TPHS).

PBF. down to the mid 20s again. I was kicking myself for only buying a small amount last time it came down to these levels.

Refineries! They are required to purchase renewable fuel credits because it's cheaper than rebuilding their refineries to meet the requirements. Wall Street banks purchase the credits, jack up the price and sell them to refiners who have to purchase them and there is a limited supply. One refiner I owned was paying $100 million a year for these credits. It was a $5 billion market cap company. If the government had rescinded that requirement then, at a 10x mulitple, it would add another billion (+20%) overnight to the value of the company with the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen.

I usually wait to finish a book before recommending it, but I'm halfway through this fascinating book and can't recommend it enough. When I "The Grid", I realized how little I knew about the electricity infrastructure and how bad it is in this country, and the Big Thirst is a similar awakening. The author wrote "The Walmart Effect" and is an entertaining writer, which is unfortunatley uncommon in non-fiction books. I thought I knew more about more water than the average bear because I actually worked on a couple of M&A deals for a water utility when I was in private practice, but I really had no idea how little I knew. The seed was planted to learn about water a few years ago when I saw the Big Short movie and the epilogue mentioned that Burry was interested in water. I have looked at a couple of companies where part of the value is the water rights (Tejon Ranch (pass) and Intrepid Potash (small position for me))but still can't see a clear way to make money on it. I know Buffett years ago bought a minority interest in a water utility so is that the side of the table where the money will be made? I'm still in the thinking phase about how to make money from water because it is very political. At this moment that state of Georgia is fighting with Alabama and Florida in a supreme court case over water rights and the great lake states have passed a law forbidding their water to be shipped outside of the region. Places like Phoenix and Las Vegas are growing like weeds, but that can't continue without more water (which belongs to other people in other states). Although I'm not done with it yet, it's given me a lot to think about.

I am overweight in real estate and although I think it's underpriced in the market, I'm trimming little by little and adding to defensive positions. Sold off a little in another position and added to PBF and IPI on the dip today.

I have his other book, More than You Know. It's similar to the ideas in Hagstrom's Latticework or what Charlie Munger preaches about grasping ideas from different disciplines. Highly recommend.

It's also a historical index of your life events. It has symbolically replaced scrapbooks and baby albums (to an extent) The longer it has been established the harder it will be for people to leave all that behind. I think there is a sense of effort from the user perspective. The idea that you're building something to be able to look back on has value in and of itself. But let's not forget 2.5B active users....that number alone is insane. They also have not yet monetized WhatsApp. I didn't get the big deal about it until I went to visit relatives in Patagonia where cell service is spotty (and expensive) and everyone uses WhatsApp. I think it's the same in many other parts of the world. I don't see why they couldn't throw ads on there like they do with FB and instagram.

PBF, I only bought a little when it came down last time and regretted it, now I am sizing up as I sell other things off. And I just started a position in IPI (I liked the water rights part of this business but now that Potash prices have gone from the low $200s a ton to the low $300s a ton, the mining side should be profitable too and the shotgun will be firing with both barrels).

I came a across an interesting podcast called Household Name recently. I listened to the Sears episode out of morbid curiousity (I own SRG) and went down the rabbit hole from there. The first episode about how the TGIFridays chain restaurant started out as a singles bar in manhattan is very entertaining: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stitcher/household-name/e/55480565

I started a small position in ADT (it IPO'd at $14 and is at ~$6 now and I love a bargain). I also took another bite of TPHS at $3.71 (it's only slightly above the price for the giant blocktrade that Michael Price brought from Mercato).

I recommend the book too. If you're already familiar with the Kelly criterion for bet sizing, this is very basic but still entertaining. Howard Marks and Nassim Taleb have talked about decision making and probabilities--how you can't determine if it was a good decision by looking at the outcome, only by looking at the process--but this is a book solely on that decision making process. I think people will get a lot out of it because besides just announcing the theory she gives you some practical advice on how to apply it to your own decision making process.

In Montreal or Toronto, I recommend doing a bike tour of the city. I just got back from Montreal a few days ago and I highly recommend the "Aura" light show at Notre Dame Basilica. It's like those synched light/music displays you see at Christmas, but it's inside the church, with laser lights and music. It's at night after the basilica has closed for visitors. About $25 Canadian if I recall correctly.

Well, think of a classic example, LTV (Ling Temco Voight). They had a high P/E and they would buy low P/E companies and it would immediately make a positive impact on stock price because their earnings kept going up. So if they had a P/E of 30, and bought a company with a P/E of 10, that portion of the P/E 10 company's earnings becomes P/E 30 when valuing the acquiring company. The problem is that LTV had to keep borrowing to buy more and more companies and they had a low P/E because they were terrible companies and the end you have a company that's made up of other terrible companies and loaded down with debt. That's sort of what Valeant did (although they raised prices, which helped them boost earnings) and it's what a several dot com companies did in the 90s. Bricks and Mortar + clicks = a Low P/E company being bought by a high P/E company and having the earnings being revalued by the higher P/E by a gullible public. AOL Time warner, anyone?

I own both and have not bought or sold either in a while. I like both as counter-cyclical bets because they tend to get great deals in a downturn. Why do you prefer BRK? (I think it's a great company, but so big that I wonder if there are more doubles or triples in there)

I'm nibbling on Fairfax India. It's now at book value so you are getting the airport and some other nice assets at the prices that Prem paid for them. The 1.5% management fee should be more than offset by the growth of these assets and we are well below the high water mark, so it will have to go up sharply before you pay the performance fee which has a 5% hurdle rate. I'm also adding small amounts to JOE when it dips below $16, TPHS when it dips below $4 and Seaspan when it dips below $9.50.

Buffett used to feel great about the newspaper business and even when it was a good business, there where people who made a lot more than others at it even though they were operating in different markets. The same came be said with TV stations which, before cable, were a license to print money. Even the mediocre people got rich, but some people made fortunes. So I think in good businesses, a great operator can make it a great business. And even in a great business like Microsoft that is almost indestructable, a bad operator like Steve Ballmer can work his incompetence to turn it into a mediocre one. I think that's why a lot of cable operators ended up selling out to bigger competitors like John Malone. They were in a great business but weren't getting all the horsepower out of the engine so they were better off merging into a worldclass operator and let them take over the ship. Buffett has said that he doesn't like turnarounds, he wants great businesses with great management already in place. Maybe that's a recognition that some things where you don't have both are trades and other are lifetime purchases (100% owned operating companies).