nodnub

This is easy to understand. First, the insider buy is the response to short seller's accusation of fraud by false acquisition. Second, it can work this way: 1. Raise $30 million by selling shares to investors. (Chinese small caps are very good at this.) 2. Using $25 million to buy a company that was set up by my brother with 50K initial investment a year ago. 3. Using $5 or $10 million to buy shares. If I am the con artist, I do not mind to spend the $5-10 million to show my confidence. That is not my money originally. And most likely, insider will keep the money and won't buy shares without being accused. Your post and succint explanation reminded me to take another look at First Natural Food Holdings Ltd. (seafood). This was a company that I had investigated a few years ago but had not gotten comfortable with. I just looked and discovered that trading was halted December 2008 and it appears there was fraud here as well. Based on publicly available information, voluntary suspension of trading in FNF shares was effected on 15 December 2008 following the resignations of several directors of FNF residing in the People's Republic of China on 12 December 2008. After further resignations, new directors were subsequently appointed. On 6 January 2009, FNF presented a petition to the High Court of Hong Kong, pursuant to which the High Court appointed provisional liquidators to FNF to take control and possession of the assets of FNF and its subsidiaries. The hearing of the winding-up petition has since been postponed several times to 19 July 2010. On 26 March 2009, the provisional liquidators announced that, among other things, a HK$84 million withdrawal from FNF's accounts maintained with Xiamen International Bank was not recorded in FNF's books and records and had not been made known to the existing board of directors. Attempts to reach the Executive Chairman and director of FNF, Mr Yeung Chung Lung, were unsuccessful. The provisional liquidators have since commenced legal proceedings against Mr Yeung. On 10 May 2010, FNF announced, among other things, a very substantial acquisition under Chapter 14 of the Listing Rules of the SEHK. In addition, FNF is required to submit a viable resumption proposal to SEHK at least 10 business days before 20 October 2010 before its listing status is cancelled by SEHK. At no point in time has Mr Li been the subject of any investigation in connection with the above events.

I googled Ally Financial Preferred and found the following link which may be helpful. You could email the contact listed and ask for the CUSIP numbers. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ally-financial-declares-dividends-on-preferred-stock-98599394.html The issue you referred to appears to be Series G: http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/EFX_dll/EDGARpro.dll?FetchFilingHtmlSection1?SectionID=7086828-130591-138631&SessionID=KhklH6MVEdLslA7

I love playing soccer and hiking--especially descending steep snow via standing glissade. I also like to travel, I spent christmas a few years ago on a train through siberia and mongolia but lately it seems to be more conventional 1-2 week getaways. I have a background and interest in technology but I rarely invest in technology companies. I am learning to sail very small boats. I love the freedom and quick set up of small boats and how they can turn on a dime. I read a lot. Lately I've been reading some Studs Terkel - "Hard times" short interviews with people from 1930s and "The Good War" (same thing but WW2 anecdotes). It's really interesting perspective from that time period. I'm a fan of lifelong learning and trying to broaden one's perspectives. I also try to follow Charlie Munger's approach to life--I think he put it like this: "a year in which I destroy one of my favorite ideas is a successful year". I try to constantly re-evaluate my favorite ideas on life and amend or destroy when necessary. I believe it came from one of Ben Franklin's favorite verse: "Examine everything, hold on to the good" (or the true).

I didn't understand the comment "less than 20% for A stocks" so I looked it up and added a bit of detail below. Fisher's rough guide for minimum diversification was a maximum of 20% allocation to each "A" type company. Maximum allocation of 10% to each "B" type company etc. If you invested only in A companies then you should own 5 or more. If only invested in B companies then should own 10 or more. etc.

You can do this via the recently opened Chou America Funds http://www.chouamerica.com/shareholders.html

I think your questions would be best answered by a brief phone call to Chou Funds.

look above. I provided the link to the search results page that will take you to the full article. You have to come from a google search results page for it to work.

The only way that link would work is if you are coming from a google search referral page, (whereas here the referral page is cornerofberkshire A work around is to provide a google news search results link for the article title such as: http://www.google.ca/search?tbs=nws%3A1&q=Firm+Makes+Bold+Bet+on+Falling+Prices

thanks!

http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html%3Fsymbol%3DWFCL%26type%3Dusstock Eric, when I lookup the preferred share WFC Pref L --- it only includes the current yield on the underlying common shares.. not on the preferred stock. Therefore... it appears that WSJ fails in this regard just like all the other sites.

Unfortunately the globe does not appear to be a definitive source. They have no dividend details for this one. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/stocks/summary/?q=RBS.PR.P-N while they do have info for this one. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/stocks/summary/?q=RBS.PR.L-N I can't see the logic in how they decide whether to publish this information for a particular share... maybe it's based on volume?

I'm lazy... Does anyone have a website that can show the current yields on preferred issues? Google and Yahoo do not contain the dividend amounts. I currently look up details on preferred dividends on QuantumOnline. Eg. http://quantumonline.com/search.cfm?tickersymbol=RBS-L&sopt=symbol I would prefer a site that show the current price and yield all on one page. Any suggestions?

I have held WFC-L since March last year. In the last few days it traded up to par ($1000). The yield is 7.5% at par.

I believe you have assessed it correctly. I would say there is nothing to motivate them to pay dividends if the company is going to be liquidated in Chapter7. In a chapter11 there may have other motivations?

valuecfa, Sounds like you were ready to move on.. so I think this may be a blessing in disguise. Good luck in the job search. I agree. You can always rent... it makes you a lot more mobile if you decide you don't like living in some city or neighbourhood.

With any newspaper article link like that... just take the article title and post it into google search or google news search. Referrals from a search engine are not sent to the "you must be a subscriber to read the entire article" page. http://www.google.com/search?q=Treasury+Lover+Bets+on+Disinflation+&btnG=Google

good point.

I guess you meant AGT.TO http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AGT.TO

Hi all, I am trying to determine the following: 1) The price of Cominco (TSX) shares on July 20 1965. 2) The price of Cominco shares on July 20 2001, prior to merger with Teck. 3) The total dividends paid in the period per 1965 share (I assume there were stock splits) Does anyone have any idea where I could find that information? (without spending 10 hours reading newspaper microfilms in the library). Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions.

a Are you referring to this site? https://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspotURL=http%3A%2F%2Fdardashti.blogspot.com%2F It seems to be invite only. google shai dardashti BYD and you will find his other blog.

thanks alex, that is a great collection of anecdotes and facts. very interesting.

I've used BYDDY and still own a significant position in this company. This is much more efficient through my Schwab account than BYDDF, which can only be bought through the international desk, which would require at least 500 shares be bought, and charge a $100 commission (compared with no minimal share purchase requirement and the normal $8.95 commission for the BYDDY unsponsored ADR). I have tried to find out if there is any negative to purchasing an unsponsored ADR, but have not found any disadvantages, other than Citigroup's $.02 per share per year as the fee for administering the unsponsored ADR. Does anyone have any counter-information on that: for instance, do unsponsored ADRs have qualities that make them more unstable (other than the obvious one of possible liquidity problems, which can largely be effaced by judicious use of limit orders when buying or selling). Thanks. That should not be the case. Sponsored ADR (BYDDF) should trade for a normal commission. It is a US traded ADR. It should only go through the international desk if you are buying BYD as "1211" on HongKong Exchange. -- confirmed.. my broker only charges regular $9,95 commission on BYDDF. Better to buy BYDDF than BYDDY if there are no voting or other rights attached to the unsponsored ADR (BYDDY)

No offense intended but did you actually try searching for the ticker on any financial websites? Trades as "1211" on the HK exchange. BYDDF is the ADR ticker in the USA. BYDDY is an OTC ticker for 1/10 of a share. Financial statements in English appear to be here... http://bydit.com/doce/investor/BasicInformation/ http://bydit.com/doce/investor/CorporateReport/AnnualReport/AnnualReport2009/ I also found a link to the 2009 annual report English halfway down this page. http://www.todayir.com/e/showcases_details.php?code=1211#0

Rights arbitrage is still on. Wait till the end of the week and I think you'll start to see some movement, one way or another.

I agree