nodnub

pink sheets stocks can be illiquid. On some days the closing price will not be exactly the same as FFH.TO -- you can look at many other unsponsored ADRs on the pink sheets and see the same thing. If you are not trading in and out it doesn't matter at all. If you want to trade frequently then a low volume environment might not work out very well.

The problem with people following other investors based on their rankings is the same as that faced by investors choosing mutual funds based on their rankings. It would be interesting to look back in 5 or 10 years to look at all the managers on covestor that are currently in the top decile (top 10 percent) each year and see how they perform relative to the managers in other deciles. On average I expect nearly random performance when measured across that entire group. That would mean that only 1/10th of that top ten percent would remain in the top 10% the following year. I think studies on mutual funds have shown this to be the case. Is there a rationale as to why we should assume that this collection of "investment managers" will be any different? I'm sure that some of them will defy the odds, but how do you know in advance which one will beat the long term expected performance of the group?

link is still blocked. try going to google news via this link: http://news.google.ca/news?q=In%20Risky%20Year%2C%20Buffett%20Looked%20%27Into%20the%20Abyss%27&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wn

This link to the blog of a former prosper lender was really interesting. http://fred93blog.blogspot.com/

there was some recent discussion about Kiva.org which allows lending to people in developing nations. http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/kiva-is-not-quite-what-it-seems.php The illusion of choice and control is a powerful psychological motivator for most donors. Although they present the idea that you get to choose the person you lend it to... that is not what happens in practice. I'm not sure if Prosper works the same as Kiva in this regard.

Viking, I was also greedy in March, but not nearly greedy enough. However, the outcome since March 2009 could have been different. A few wrong moves by governments around the world could have restricted credit and trade. Protectionist tariffs could have been introduced and tit-for-tat retaliation set in. It's possible those actions would have led to a much worse outcome. If that had happened, I would be happy that I tempered my greediness with some caution. In hindsight some of those March 2009 prices may have been discounting the worst possible outcomes. In that case, I guess my lesson was that I should always be mentally prepared to take action and to know what I would buy at what price. This is a natural outcome of improving my circle of competence.

that's a great approach Tariq. I thought I would enjoy listening to such recordings and bought a small ipod for this, but I found that I absorb the most from reading the material. Also, in most of my physical activities it is impossible to be listen to anything on headphones at the same time. But, for anyone that runs, goes to the gym, or has a long commute, I can see that it is good idea.

I generally do not to watch any video or listen to any news recordings because the pacing is too slow. If the transcripts are available I can read that much faster than I can watch the video. I also find it much easier to scan through and find the important parts when reading the transcript rather than watching a video, interview, etc.

Sharper, Can you offer any tips on how an interested individual could find such a group of investors (that would welcome a new partner)? Thanks,

thanks richard

when quickly looked for figures, I found this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/household-debt-emerges-as-greatest-risk-to-canadas-financial-system/article1182320/ "Canadians' household debt is about 140 per cent of disposable income, compared with about 150 per cent in Britain and almost 170 per cent in the United States"

I did not know that about relative debt to income ratios... where can I find those statistics? I agree that most people in Canada take mortgages with rates that reset every 5 years. I do not recall seeing 10 year mortgage rates listed in newspaper ads until the last last year or two (my memory could be faulty). Perhaps the banks have historically under-promoted the longer term fixed rate mortgages. Canadian 5 and 10 year fixed rate mortgages are 5.6% and 6.7% at the big Canadian banks right now. The spread between these rates has sometimes been wider--reducing consumer preference to go long. Both rates are quite a bit higher than current US 30 year fixed rates (4.8%). Can anyone tell me why there are no 25 or 30 year fixed rate mortgage products in Canada? Do the banks in Canada consider it too risky on their part? Is the 30 year fixed rate mortgage in the US a recent development or something that has been around for a long time? nodnub

I think Sanjeev was referring to John Gwynn http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?topic=1503.0;topicseen

Ben, The phrase sounds familiar but I was unable to find anything via Google to trace it.

Questrade added this capability almost 2 years ago. Their press release included a FAQ. Here is the last question from that: Why do banks and brokerages do forced currency conversions when trading U.S. securities in registered accounts? The legal ability to hold currencies other than the Canadian dollar in registered accounts came into effect on April 1st, 2006. But that was only one hurdle. The other is the technology available to maintain books and records (clearing capability), which is used by the majority of North American financial institutions, including Questrade, to clear trades. The software was not designed to hold multiple currencies in registered accounts. As a result, there is simply no way for the software to encode U.S. currency, therefore preventing anything but Canadian dollars from being entered as cash in the account. That said, there has been little to no corporate will to solve this problem. It would be a switch‐over on a massive scale and it would eliminate a major revenue stream for brokerages and banks. I want to be clear... I am not recommending Questrade here. I would much rather consolidate everything and deal exclusively with one of the big bank brokerages. Questrade's customer service does not compare favourably to the bank owned brokerages. My personal experience with them has been okay. They have very low commissions and low account opening limits, which attracts a lot of clueless newbies that open an account with $1000 and trade on margin without understanding how anything works. I'm guessing that calls from people like this overwhelm their customer service reps. I have seen a lot of complaints about Questrade on the net from people that are obviously brain-dead morons. But I have seen some valid customer complaints on the net as well. I think Questrade's business would do better if they raised their minimum account size. IMO, people with only $1000 to invest should have it in a bank for a rainy day or in a mutual fund but not directly in individual stocks. I don't think they belong on the phone to customer service arguing about margin rules they can't understand. /nodnub

mranski, I was not clear enough in my post near the beginning of this thread... Questrade is a Canadian broker that does allow you to hold US cash in the RRSP. I maintain a small account there for this purpose. They credit US dividends to my RRSP account without any withholdings or FX fees. You can convert CAD cash to US cash, or vice versa, in your account at will. I have not run into any real functional limitations of this system. The only qualm I have is with the manner in which they do the bookkeeping for your cash entries. Say your cash in the account is $500 USD (from dividends). The USD$500 is listed as an account holding as "US dollars (RSP trustee)" and it is treated like other securities in your account. It seems like a clumsy and somewhat inelegant solution. Obviously, it would be nice if the big banks would get this working at their discount brokerages, but they have no motivation while they continue to earn juicy F/X spreads on each $US transaction.

I am not sure. You could ask a few of them and report back to everyone here. If you like, you can maintain a secondary acct at www.Questrade.com for this purpose. I think TD Waterhouse allows wash trades to mitigate the currency conversions costs with buying and selling USD investments in your RRSP.

Sanjeev, Thanks for posting this. I wonder when the price bottom in those local real estate markets will occur relative to the local peak delinquency rates?

try typing "rogoff" in the search box midway down the right side of the page on the charlierose site. that worked for me. You can also read the transcript here: http://www.charlierose.com/download/transcript/10707

<IV, that is very interesting... thank you for sharing it.

I do think the attendance will continue to rise, as investors want to have their chance to experience "woodstock for capitalists" while charlie and warren are still around. However, I don't think the split will have an impact. If someone didn't have enough capital to buy a single B share before, then I doubt they would have the disposable income to fly or roadtrip to Omaha just for the meeting. Besides, you don't have to be a shareholder to go to AGM. I think Berkshire HQ made passes directly available for $5 to anyone that wanted them just to prevent a secondary market developing where shareholder credentials sell for a premium.

Hey Eric, Do they sell critical illness insurance in the USA? It might be the supercat insurance you are looking for. They have it in Canada... it covers the treatment costs and drugs for major illnesses (defined in insurance contract). I've tried to ascertain if it is worth buying such coverage in Canada... since we do have the basic public coverage to fall back on.

he likely meant 40% of his normal position sizing... rather than 40% of his portfolio.

And as the article says, nobody knows the answer to any of these questions. Really, there is only one actionable piece of intelligence I found in the article (from an investing standpoint) and that is to not invest using too much debt. Other than that, what else can you do except wait it out, whether it takes one year or ten years? I would buy the book for historical perspective. The only other way I can think of to get a similar week-by-week perspective on the great depression is by searching old newspapers. Unfortunately, my local library does not have access to any good newspapers from that era. I loved reading the site http://newsfrom1930.blogspot.com/ which some boardmember posted here... but I would really like a resource that lets me search across the entire period. I think you can learn a lot by reading about the experiences of others; much that can be applicable to your investing approach.

very interesting article. I will probably buy the book--it's available on amazon for anyone that is interested. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Depression-Diary-Benjamin-Roth/dp/158648799X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1