alexmiddle

I don’t understand why Chris attracts so much criticism. He has always been generous with his time and comes across as a genuinely nice person. Some people may scoff at the composition of his portfolio, but outperforming the index by 1.5% is better than what most U.S. hedge funds achieve—and, I suspect, better than the results of many people on this board, despite inflated claims. Why should anyone care how he did it? Moreover, his analysis of Berkshire is, by far, the best I’ve encountered in my 30 years of investing. Much of the criticism seems to stem more from jealousy and envy than from any substantive shortcomings.

In 2018, after 10 years of active investing (and a lot of work) and achieving performance roughly equivalent to the performance of the S&P, I made a big bet that both Berkshire and Fairfax were likely to outperform the market in the following 10 years. I consolidated my portfolio into those 2 stocks and was just willing to let the thesis play out. So far so good. Investing is one of those things where increased work intensity does not always equate to better performance. Even if you have the ability to outperform the market by 1%-2%, is it worth the effort based on how much time it takes you away from your other interests? Even Ed Thorp pulled out and invested in Berkshire. The old saying goes, not everyone can be an Olympic gold medalist, but everyone can try and in investing there are a lot of people who think they are the next gold medalist...

It does not seem that Aibnb has replaced people's desire to own their own vacation home that they utilize only 5-10% a year. There is a strong bias for people to own something even if it does not make economic sense. Lots of people own F-150's who only haul 1 big load of gardening supplies from Home Depot every year. I love Uber, I think autonomous ride sharing is great and will make big strides in grow. I just think people will be people. Who would have thought 25 years ago when they introduced self-checkout, we would still have cashiers in major grocery stores?

Most people on this thread are fairly optimistic on FFH's future, as am I since approximately 2018, but has anyone come across a short thesis or a negative write-up on Fairfax recently? With all the positive results being announced, the stock really is not getting much attention still. I couldn't find any article on BNN after the recent quarterly's were announced. Fairfax does not seem to be finding its way into many hedge fund portfolios...

You can sign up for free to see the whole article. It was a very high level sum of parts that I felt didn't address the value of the huge cash balance enough. They estimate the value of the b shares at $253.