zippy1

Ha! Ha! I shall vow to one-up you by tracking the investment performance hour-by-hour and maybe if I can do it, minute-by-minute. ;D

Buffett & Munger are holding BYD like they are with The Washington Post - forever. The naysayers will always have thier day, but in the long term evolution the value investors win. Watch this video and you will understand why BYD is held by Berkshire Hathaway. From the Cloud to the BYD Car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVrlivwAiOU&feature=related I watched the video and I am wondering that is this thing even safe? That must be a whhole lot of distractions during dirving?!

Ha! Ha! That is a good one! :D

This must be in the sarcasm mode. :D

Claphands, It can be find in this thread. http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?topic=175.0 Sanjeev explained how to use this archive in it. Good luck. best regards, Zippy

Claphands, About Hempton, I think you may still be able to find the post in the archive of the old MSN Berkshire board that Sanjeev put up. Hempton got on the old MSN board and started to engage the old board member. If I remember correctly, there were quite a few exchanges between him on one side and Sanjeev and another member "Bsilly" on the other. You probably would have to judge yourself. best regards, Zippy

If you are willing and able to read Chinese, Muddy Water did provide additional material other than the report as supporting evidence. One Chinese material (A5) appeared to be about complains from local governments about TRE not honoring the agreements. I wonder whether this is just a running dispute with a local government or not. One Chinese material shows lots of transcations that are related-party. I actually wonder why TRE did not respond to these other issues. I don't have a position in this but I think the company's respond appear to be weak.

Harry, Good to see you back. Your ideas are always interesting and thought provoking. Zippy.

I am neither long nor short in TRE, but I remember in the previous incarnation of this board, the MSN board, there was quite some discussion on this company. I never did hold a position, but I am wondering whether any board members who invested in it and are more knowledgable about this company will be willing to discuss about it. It seems that this is a situation where to invest in it, one needs to have confidence in the management. Without access to the company's book, it seems that confidence can be gained by 1) having invested in it for a long time and thus observed in great depth how the management actually performed or 2) having some sorts detailed background checks on the members in management. Any old members care to share their thought?

Options are cheap when people are not fearful, and expensive when they panic. When KO was $40 the 20 month calls cost $8 at-the-money. But at the same time the $30 strike KO put was $3. So people would pay 10% premium for an option 25% out of the money. A repeat crisis would put the $60 strike JNJ call at about $6 or maybe more if stock dropped to $53, and the $50 strike call would probably be about $12. Eric, Is there a way to get historical price for options? It would seem to me that if JNJ fall to $54 due to general correction, it would be the time to load up. But it sounds like the call prices actually would not change much just because the volatility would be way up.

Parsad, Your lunch today saved me lots of money in FFH. Zippy.

I was bit surprised by the $20 drop shortly after the open. I thought: Wow, that's a bit of an over reaction. But, didn't think much more than that. Back almost to even now . . . quite an odd morning. Someone is out having lunch in Vancouver?

Harry, Do want to thank you for SURW. I don't know much about insurance companies. Thank you for sharing the points about how to chose insurance companies to invest. They do make senses. Please keep posting. Whether you share specific ideas or not.

I guess it will depend on what alternatives that one compares to "giving to goverment." Is inheritance tax earmarked for social engineering only, really? Can't revenue collected from inheritance tax be spent in positive things such as education, research or SEC enforcement division? If one does not want to pay inheritance tax, one can always set up a charity foundation and have children run the business adventure via the foundation. Just do as Buffett does then one will pay very little inheritance tax. ;)

Harry, I don't have a position in NFLX, but it is good to see that your NFLX call is right. So is this another 1% position in your portfolio?

Yes, the rumors on the street have it that the sith lords issuing non-interest bearing no-maturity bond to Fairfax. Cheers!

Is this real? Or is this April Fool's day a day too early?

Janus capital group used to be a ~50% owner back in 2002-2003 time frame, I believe. I remember doing valuation on JNS and had to include DST in the valuation.

I was poking around the reuters site and noticed that companies like Jardine Matheson is trading at a PE~3 accoding to Morningstar. Isn't this a very major company in Southeast Asia?

Wow! I put in a bid at $340 and did not get it! Lucky you!

More bad news. According to NHK. Video shows that the outer shell of the reactor building is now gone after the explosion.

I went on google map to check out this area. Most of the population on the map appears to be within 1-2 miles from the shores. So if the tsunami comes inland by 5-10 miles, the results will be really really bad. Both Fukushima No.1 and Fukushima No.2 nuclear power stations, having 4 and 3 reactors, are having problems with the colling systems. The backup diesel colling system is supposed to be destroyed by the tsunami. They are running the second backup coolling systems with battery power. Near power plant No. 1, population within 10 miles radius are being told to evacuate. Near power plant No. 2, population within 3 miles radius are being told to evacuate. This nuclear incident probably will be a bigger problem than the direct damage created by the tsunami. One of the coworker was from Sendai with parents still living in the area. He tried to fly back last afternoon. Another Japanese coworker told me that this is much worse than he would ever expected. I can see the great sadness and pain in his eyes. Let's pray for the people's safety.

NHK world english is now reporting trouble brewing at the nuclear power plants in the area.

This video was shown to us in a training session last month and generated quite a buzz in my class as it is such as nice video. I am not sure how much "manufacturers" will actually will benefit from making it happens. It seems today that people making LCD displays are not making much money. It would seem to me that the product shown in the film likely will also become commodity and be priced like commodity. To embedd so much electronics stuff in glasses, I assume the MCU makers and the semiconductor foundries will get new businesses that today does not exist except I am not sure whether the margin will be good. Maybe it will be more interesting to find out, which companies will benefit the most if such technology exist at a low level of cost?

From the page 10 of the last 10-Q Not sure what to think about this arrangement.