Castanza

LOL sentiment from who? Every hedge fund and talking head is pumping China right now. If anything the sentiment is positive as Chinese equities are at 52 week lows. Regardless of sentiment your initial comment has little to do with sentiment...

Just enough mystery with just enough sprinkled in credibility, potential catalysts, and fomo that make it easy to sell to the masses.

I was just a kid when the last round of this happened to Fairfax. Was this really some of what happened?! Since finding this board I have always wanted to hear the full story on this.

FFH

Well...

Added a good amount at 913-915.....would love to see this hit October prices; but with earnings soon, not sure we will get there.

$SAVE, $PARA, and $FFH....great start to the year.... Time to put on the big boy pants and buy the dip. Greg does make a good point that the majority of what he said is simply in the past. I mean he's talking about their short positions from the GFC lol Fairfax is a whole new animal at this point. Carson: "Nobody's done the work on Fairfarx." @Viking <---- someone who HAS done the work

Grid has been on my list for a few years, but I tend to focus on other topics regarding the power grid because of reasons. You've inspired me to pick up a copy. If you're interested in power grid related topics I highly recommend the following two books which have focuses on cyber security aspects of the grid. Sandworm : Andy Greenberg Countdown to Zero Day : Kim Zetter ___________________ Quick example of how vulnerable our power grid is: 1 - Looks for ICS (Industrial Control Systems) on Google or any search engine 2 - Peruse CISA to see if there are any recent announcements 3 - Once you determine a ICS continue begin "Googling" eg: Siemens Synco OZW default password" 4 - You're looking for the product manual 5 - Search the Table of Contents for default passwords "Log info Web Server" 6 - Head on over to Shodan.io, and search for your ICS model and a port. "Siemens port:80" <---who needs https anyways? 7 - You will now see hundreds of ICS systems (connected to the internet) and their detailed information 8 - From here you could begin trying default passwords and gain access....(do NOT do this as from this point on you're breaking the law) 9 - With a little luck and a little time you too could find 20+ year old equipment managing key infrastructure with ZERO security.

Yeah not sure either….haven’t seen any news regarding the acquisition and not sure we’ll hear anything till next earnings call. Hopefully some more insider buying shows up soon. 1% position for me currently so figured I’d average down a bit.

HQI

Balcones is good stuff. Stopped by their distillery back in 2021 when I was out that way for a wedding. Texas has some unique whiskeys for sure. There’s quite a few micro distilleries throughout Texas. Rebecca Creek is a little hidden gem in San Antonio. Pretty new and not all their products are great. But their Double Barrel about a Spanish Oak was pretty solid as well. At least a unique offering.

Sparrow plus Coldcard

Equally weighted 10% - SCHD - ITA (or something similar) - BRKb - FFH - MSFT - NFLX - CPRT - WFG - TPL - GLD (or t-bills)

There is a lot of amazing inventions that were obvious in hindsight. The idea of the steam engine existed since antiquity but was never applied commercially until the Industrial Revolution. Bread existed for 14,000 years, yet nobody sliced it and sold it until 1928. Pockets didn’t exist in clothes until the 13th century. Gunpowder took awhile before it was used for weaponry. The cotton gin…people picked it by hand for thousands of years…. Point being, BTC absolutely was a genius invention; no ifs, ands or buts about it.

Appreciate the perspective

It's called a soft takeover. Different means to a similar end. Both are bad imo. One chose immense violence and the other chose corrupt legalese and political influence. The only reason Hong Kong didn't continue to get coverage was Covid started to take off. Again, you're missing my simple point by overcomplicating and going well beyond what I said.... I'm talking about ADRs and ADRs only. The fact is and supporting evidence shows, the biggest threat to YOU as an American retail investor owning ADRs of foreign companies is the US Govt blocking ownership or freezing assets. Main Point: Everyone was blaming Russia and China or saying they are the biggest threat to holding ADR shares. When in actuality so far the US govt has been the perpetrator. I'm not whining about it; I knew it was definitely a possibility when I bought the shares (hence the beer sized position). Frankly I expected it. This is also why I don't own Chinese equities even though some look dirt cheap.

That’s fine and I accept that risk. It’s just my opinion that the biggest risk to your foreign investment shouldn’t be your own govt.

That's not correct. OFAC is the main problem for US investors. Other countries have similar issues. More can be read about it on the Sberbank thread.

Then stop trying to managing my risk by blocking ADRs....Allow me to trade the ADR's I wish and if Russia decided to block my shares then that's my mistake and my risk. Same for China and any other country. Not sure how I can make this more clear for you lol

+ = US Gov't/Policy + = US Citizens

Yes and gun crime went up with the ban for law abiding citizens ownership....irony 1. You said Russia securities are banned because of the current invasion of Ukraine 2. I said ok, why are Chinese and MX securities not banned because of the current drug situation 3. You said the drug history goes back further in time then the quoted 6 years 4. And I said yeah and Russia Ukraine conflicts go back further as well so why are securities only banned now? 5. You said securities of KNOWN enemies should be banned or excepted to be banned. So why the inconsistency is my point...and why the double standards on which equities to ban. That is my point. Russia and China have both invaded countries in the last 5 years. Yet every talking head on the news and hedge fund manager is saying "We need to start investing in China." When China is doing far more directly against the US than Russia is. Blocking investments is just a stupid way to handle the situation. Either let people assume their own risk and invest where they want (free market) or don't and block all foreign adversarial exchanges. I knew the risk when investing in Russian ADRs...that's why it was a small beer money bet. But my initial point was pointing out the hypocrisy that it wasn't Russia who stole my shares....it was the US. That was decades ago and although linked, it was different than the conflict in 2018-2020.... China broke the agreement to maintain the segregation of govt and laws in Hong Kong post handover from the British. CCP worked their way into Hong Kong through legislative annexation. They imprisoned protesters and advocates of democracy since the mid 2000's and additional change in 2018-19 basically removed all freedom or independence of Hong Kong. Simply a different approach. Many many changes - Freedom of press gone - Bogus elections with CCP stooges put in office - Extradition laws on the books and anti protest/democracy laws put in place to silence any dissident. Same thing China will likely do with Taiwan imo....China is damn good at invading through means of the nuanced legal process with no small degree of corruption. _________________________________________________________________________________________ All this to be said: Investing in foreign countries comes with risk 100000%. But that risk is not consistent and often times the risk does not come from the foreign power. It comes from out own country. So to the initial post I responded to....Russia was not the problem with Russian ADR's....it was the US who screwed it's own citizen shareholders. Some consistency from OUR government would be nice. Either make it clear what we can and cannot invest in or don't interfere. Also the brokerages are to blame to an extent. Some of them took it upon themselves to block ADR's and I think that's very wrong. Right in line with banks choosing to lock up finances of businesses they don't support. That's not capitalism and free market.

So which is it? The here and now that matters for which equities are banned and blocked? Or further back in history? Because Russia owned Ukraine a dozen times over the last 800 years. I also seem to remember Russia being a vital ally to the US during WWII....again...inconsistency regarding actions in both the historical and present perspectives.

China and Mexico are flooding our country with Fentanyl which has killed close to 500k US citizens in the last 6 years.…are their equities banned? China took over Hong Kong just a few years ago…they also leaked a virus that killed millions globally and caused untold amounts of financial damage. There is zero consistency to this nonsense. “Morality” and investing don’t go hand in hand.

My Sberbank investment in Russia is actually mostly impossible to access because of the US not Russia. My 5k investment that’s worth 45k is just stuck….in limbo until the US decides to allow ADRs again if ever.

100% on the stimulus America is quickly becoming a Corporatacracy with an overly political and corrupt judicial/legislative system. That’s a recipe for destruction of capitalism. Look at our presidents and look at congress lol zero leadership. It’s been almost 3 years now since Congress has allowed bills to be amended on the floor. 100% of them are written and handled by a handful of people (mainly lobbyists) behind closed doors. Don’t get me wrong, I much prefer the US system to anything else out there. Its short term benefits are unmatched in history. Capitalism will always struggle with the above but its flavors exists on a sliding scale based on current political appetite and environment. I guess the question always is how far can you stray and still be able to find your way back to something that resembles your founding principles. Looking at the panel of presidential candidates…..well nothing inspiring there to say the least….