NormR

Reading Krugman destroys brain cells ;) Canadian housing prices have been bubbly for years now. The devil is ready to take the hindmost, and most everyone else, in Vancouver in particular.

I think the little book was reissued a while back with updates.

Damn! Accredited investors get to have all the fun. IIRC, the bar isn't very high in BC ...

The one on the next page in his slides, RHJ International.

Thanks for the link!

It might take a bit more ;)

From an outside observer, it seems like a strange situation. As far as I can tell, several online retailers are essentially tax arbitrage plays. But now that the online guys are big, they can influence regulation and it seems unlikely to change soon.

Many of the multinationals have a problem with stranded cash. That is, cash in their overseas operations that would be taxed heavily if it were moved into the United States. Thus it tends to be used at boosting operations overseas. I love the smell of unintended consequences in the morning. >:(

Yes! Yes, I do. :D Ok, not really. But you'll only be able to pry this ice cap from my cold dead hands. ;D Now this stuff we might not need, but the stomach wants what it wants ... http://www.thisiswhyyourefat.com/ ;D

If you like it, his slightly older book Behavioural Investing is similar and even larger. :) His first (?) book, Behavioural Finance wasn't great. Oops, I forgot that he wrote a "little book" which I skipped. Value investing and Behavioural investing are my recommendations to this more sophisticated audience. :)

Oh, be careful with that one. Going with since inception muddles up the time period under study. Searching for annual returns on globefund (tracks funds based in Canada) ... 20%+ over 5 years search comes up with 23 funds. (didn't bother to spot dups) 20%+ over 10 years comes up with 18 funds and the funds are all basically precious metals / resource heavy funds. 20%+ over 15 years comes up with 2 funds. 20%+ over 20 years comes up with 1 fund. (Front Street Growth for the curious) So, most of the winners you highlighted were likely very new funds that are getting big returns since the lows of 2009. They've yet to prove themselves over the long term. Going down a notch, 15%+ over 20 years yields 5 funds 10%+ over 20 years yields 40 funds 5%+ over 20 years yields 287 funds Total number of funds with 20 year numbers (ok, with returns > -99%): 376 (all fund categories) However, the long-term numbers are likely heavily biased upwards by survivorship bias. IMHO 15%+ returns should be viewed as quite excellent over the last 20 years.

I'm with you there. The longer I've been in the field, the more I agree that various behavioural biases the come up. Montier does a good job of describing many in his books / articles. (If you don't already have them, his last two books are quite good.) So a smart individual can have an advantage over institutions but they also have disadvantages in some areas. (Try buying a CDS for instance.) However, most people don't have the right temperament and others get lured into Dreman's red room (about half way down). Anyway, as Sanjeev said, I think most value guys and gals who aren't too skittish should be able to nab the value premium - say 200 bp to 400 bp better than the market - reasonably easily. Alternately, reaching for very high returns can be dangerous because such return expectations tend to lead one to lotto-ticket type stocks.

IIRC, Jim ran a partnership for a few years but then closed it down. At last check he was running real estate seminars or some such. IMHO, as a general rule of thumb, besting Buffett's long-term return record should be viewed as hard and not achievable by most. A poll of results, even on this esteemed board, should be viewed with suspicion. The results are both unaudited and subject to selection bias (i.e. those that didn't do so well aren't likely to speak up.) But undoubtedly a few have done very well indeed. If you do have a good performance record, that can be backed up via brokerage statements, I know that Money Sense has a hard time finding top performing 'retail' investors who are willing to talk. If you fall into this category, send me a PM. Derek seems to generate a fair amount of ire in some quarters. IIRC, the Canadian Business forum has several long Derek slag fests.

Wow! Glad I was paying attention this week!

At this rate we'll have to set up a secondary market in tickets. I'll start the bidding on my ticket at $1000. Just kidding! ;D

A little bit of inversion. Value = Investments + P/E * Pre-tax earnings from non-investments Current Price = 120,600 Investments = 88,000 PTEFNI = 7,200 Set Value = Price, solve for current P/E P/E = (120,600 - 88,000)/7,200 = 4.5 Seems like a low multiple. Now consider a 30% discount for the investments. Like a rather out of favour closed end fund without the Buffett factor. P/E = (120,600 - 88,000*.7)/7,200 = 8.2 (Pre tax P/Es) Time to breakup the company to unlock value? ;)

Instead one accumulates from other old investors? :-\

I think they've probably done quite well on RIM too but I don't remember the price they got in at.

Darn, they should have raised it - even by a cent - just to stay on the radar of dividend growth investors. Oh well.

Extra bonus points for figuring out the real name of XYZ corp. :D

Shhh, next you'll be spilling the beans on Santa :D

It's quite remarkable really. Getting the asset allocation moved is more than a feat at most pension funds. Big kudos!

IIRC, the new investment editor is a long time FFH shareholder. :D

Love the banner/pic on your blog. ;D

Just get the Schweser Notes. IIRC, level 1 has lots of basics, level 2 is more interesting with accounting/valuation stuff.