Xerxes

pupil in my case, anyways I don’t see any problem with fund managers buying Berkshire as a 3-5 year “trading opportunity”. But not as a multi-decade holding. I think that is the distinction. Even Bill Ackman did it in 2020, but he also sold it right away, making the statement that he is not going to outsource capital allocation decision. Another example is Mayers, who owns Brown and Brown, Old Dominion etc. as part of his fund. I don’t know if he has external clients. Mayers does own Berkshire (never sold a share I think) but he owns personally. And not through his fund.

this is from last year. https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2023/02/27/116190-everything-we-know-about-new-lord-of-the-rings-and-rights/ Tolkien rights, and who (WB or Prime) can do what, and what are they swim lane can itself be a worthy book. looks like much like the Spiderman franchise that SONY has to come up with something every 5 years or lose the perpetual right, PJ also needs to trigger something on the LOTR from within the 25 year period. I am glad the Tolkien Estate has ruled: no reboots.

fund of fund !

I meant I found Peter Jackson later movies very cartoonish. There are racing for no reasons in the Hobbit trilogy. I really like Prime’ take on Rings of Power. It has the magic of the original LOTR, Fellowship of the Rings and Two Towers. That is what LOTR is about. Not the cartoon Peter Jackson created in the battle of five armies in the last of Hobbit movies. I think he lost it there.

“An example is his milking of a pretended Berkshire connection - the best selling vehicle of his selling model.” love this !

Rings of Power is truly fun to watch. Lord of the Rings without Peter Jackson’ at times cartoonish movie making, with “race scenes” for the sake of having race scenes.

John I don’t have a problem with his content. I am grateful for anything that he writes. The issue is X/Twitter that promote “cult” behaviour. Bloomstran is just the latest Twitter user behaving as a head of a cult.

instead of blowing a fuse, he could easily sent his comments to The Economist. Where it might even get printed. Despite that, an unsuspecting reader of the formerly great Economist might conclude that the index is a better investment than BR

Started reading Tai-Pan. Great setting, great writing. The author in less than three pages nailed the opium trade, the silver surplus buildup in China and the trade imbalance ….

Not a joke, but funny

i had used TFSA several times in the past ten years to do in-kind transfer to RRSP to “freeze” large capital gain in specific stocks in TFSA, thereby making large RRSP contribution w/o any new incremental dollar needed for the year. Your accounting cost average goes up as a by product of this transaction but there is no economic gain/loss. Of course the TFSA would have a hole in it which can be filled the year after with new money.

Thanks GFP

you must have had a good few years as a part time investor in the 90s to decide to go full in. I don’t know if you can answer this (not too personal): in the past 24 years, did you ever go +40% on one single position if opportunity knocked ? (or whatever % is considered significant for you)

the issue is going part time, would actually means “spend going up”. I.e travel etc for me anyways.

@alertmeipp I would probably blew everything away if I focus on the stock portfolio as a means to generate “income” because I left my job.

Thanks Dinar. Much appreciated. I actually didn’t know Ibn Sina was written/known as Avicenna in the West.

i was in Iran in the 80s, the Soviets being there for ten years and the finally withdrawing barely registered on the VIX. granted I was just a kid. But I was watching news all the time.

plot thickens. a new suspect in the Nord Stream case ?

For clarity, by the professor I meant, Professor Clark from SkyNews and not Mearshiemer. The former is a military analyst, while the latter is a Realpolitikist who does not have a problem to call a spade a spade. While Mearshiemer speaks his mind, on military matters, I will go with professor Clark. On Special Operations, well let us not forget that the last time U.S. Congress declared war on any nation was in Dec 1941, and it has been a roller coaster of "special operations" since then till today. With a couple of U.N. mandate special operations thrown in between (thinking Korea and Kuwait). Though technically, it might have been actually 1942, as per Wiki, U.S. went to war against other Axis powers in 1942. Declaration of war by the United States - Wikipedia

I saw some reports that the Russian are building trench around the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk. So if Kursk is a huge tactical victory, it may end up being a strategic mistake, if Moscow doesn’t take the bait. And pushes on. The good professor on SkyNews said the same thing on his channel.

in terms of ROIC in isolation. Yes. With very limited investment, significant damage was inflicted on the Russian military and whatever myth was there was shattered. But has it been a best investment ? (Putting aside that U.S. had no choice) if that same ROIC is looked at a macro level. Russia is probably lost to China for next several decades, the Russian state took back the “commanding heights” of the Russian economy, removed the political dissidents and now Kremlin has every incentive to chart its own course and do a “hard break”. often time, the easiest calculable ROIC are the ones that don’t matter. The hardest calculable ROIC are the ones that matter. Vietnam War was a significant ROIC gain for Moscow, if one calculated the very limited Russian involvement, vs losses (material and PR) on the U.S. side. Very high ROIC. Yeap, they were high-fiving in Moscow in Dec ‘68. Yet just a few years later, the war ended and Beijing moved permanently out of Moscow’ orbit. Vietnam and Korea had to happen so that Zhu Enlai and Kissinger could happen. That was a great victory for the West.

No historical analysis of BAE is complete w/o “Al Yamamah”

kids are a lot of work. That is why Xerxes manages a diversified portfolio of nieces and nephews. Much easier, no logistics involved and you get all the upside.

thank you the map is not mine though. I copy pasted from a guide. thanks for the tip about Vasco da Gama. I recall in 2006 I was searching for the burial place of Tokugawa Shogun in Tokyo. There it was. Just a tomb. Nothing special, but just the fact. my focus will be on the west coast and will probably skip Delhi.

GFP Unrelated to this thread, do you believe that changing of the guard in the CFO office at Apple’, is signalling new era on capital return policy …