My Own Personal Hedge Fun

Interesting to hear people say good drivers are going with Progressive. I know independent agents who only use Progressive for the drivers with DUIs and other issues that more selective carriers reject. He's mentioned GEICO, State Farm, and others taking it on the chin recently with poor underwriting and noted that these increases would be coming as they try and recover.

Here are a couple more to consider: Willow Oak Asset Management After Meeting Event Gabelli Funds Value Investing Conference Vitaly's breakfast seems to be a smaller group. Anyone know if there's an expectation that you're connected in some way to IMA or a prospective investor/allocator to attend? I'm just a regular dude on his email list.

I decided to sell most of my position. I still have Fairfax India and willing to give that more time. Seems like they have a little more preference for quality assets in that portfolio, and I like India's 5-15 year growth potential.

I entered a limit order to sell my Fairfax position at $370, just in case the price popped next day on this news. Looks like I'm still holding. For now. Debating if I'm holding just to get back to even, or because there is some actual value in the company and management.

Just tried again with both Fairfax and Fairfax India and online orders are allowed again. Suspected with the updated annual report that the situation might have changed. Of course, not so sure I want to buy or sell. Unfortunately, feel like this one is not something I understand well enough, which is a good argument for selling.

I did last year, but got someone who wasn't interested in really finding an answer, probably because I phrased my question as a theoretical "what happens if I want to sell?" I figured it would be a temporary issue, so I didn't push much either.

From https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8621 "Passive Foreign Investment Corporation (PFIC) Generally, a U.S. person that is a direct or indirect shareholder of a PFIC must file Form 8621 for each tax year.... ...However, a U.S. person that owns stock of a PFIC through a tax-exempt organization or account described in the list below is not treated as a shareholder of the PFIC. An organization or an account that is exempt from tax under section 501(a) because it is described in section 501©, 501(d), or 401(a). A state college or university described in section 511(a)(2)(B). A plan described in section 403(b) or 457(b). An individual retirement plan or annuity as defined in section 7701(a)(37). A qualified tuition program described in section 529 or 530. A qualified ABLE program described in section 529A."

Curious if anyone knows more about this? I am blocked even for sell transactions (and frankly, I'd like to reduce this position). It's unusual to be blocked for sell orders. I would try selling directly on the Toronto exchange, but Fidelity doesn't allow International trading for IRAs.

The Niagara College Teaching Winery is a really cool stop - they also make beer and developing whiskey. Don't worry about the duty tax if you want to stock up. U.S. border patrol probably won't ask you to pay a duty, and even if they do it's pretty reasonable. Ontario's 15% sales tax, however, is not so reasonable, but it's basically a wash after you account for the cheaper Canadian dollar. Traffic in Toronto is terrible. You'll want to plan around that. My vote would be to focus on Ottawa and Montreal instead. That said, my favorite thing about Ontario are the provincial parks, but they're a few hours out of your way :)

I've been using it the site a little bit for a few weeks now. Good to know OTCs and foreigns will be available in the future. I like how conference call transcripts are integrated into the site and the entire call loads on a single page, and you can Cmd+F / Ctrl+F for keywords right away. It's a lot easier than Seeking Alpha's format. Of course, you have no ads which I know isn't sustainable. Hopefully any future ads run lighter than they do at SA (which tends to bog down my computer and take extra time to load). The Financials pages show promise. I'd really like to see % Change and % Of Total selections available in the future. Price charts should have a logarithmic selection available (personally, I think charts should default to log once you go 5+ years out, but that's a personal pet peeve especially with the media because exaggerating recent changes is more effective at getting attention and selling ads).

Bitcoin isn't capable of handling the transaction volume that's necessary to become a currency or medium of exchange. And to the argument that some holders aren't willing to sell at any price, there is a sizable portion of Bitcoin that cannot be sold at any price because the holders lost access to their private keys. The ultimate problem with holding any cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum with the expectation that this technology is the future medium for financial transactions is that a new cryptocurrencies are being created for commercial use. Just like Facebook created Libra, credit card companies, the Fed, banks, etc. can all build their own cryptocurrencies that work for their specific needs. The technology definitely can make transactions like international wires and real estate closing which currently take several days (or weeks) to complete and make them as quick running a credit card. Ultimately, that's a boon to the banking industry, bank customers, regular people sending money across borders, etc. but it's tough to see how that translates to a higher value for Bitcoin specifically.

Yes, Modi for sure. The uncertainty about Modi's re-election is the #1 reason that I like investing in India. P.S. This is my first post here at the Corner. I'm a little disappointed that we don't have any threads on value investing at Churchill Downs today, but I guess Omaha is too much of a distraction :)