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Eric, I would be surprised if you don't get a phone call from the SEC soon if you keep those returns up. Congrats on a very impressive paper trail.

When you find one, shoot me a PM

FOCIX gets no love. I added the minimums for each of my family & friend accts i manage, including FOCIX.

But people can still pull out. All it means is that there will likely be more outflows than inflows, correct? a closed end fund trades like a stock. the capital is essentially permanent. They'll trade above, at and below nav. I don't think this is what is happening. I think he is closing his funds to new investors. That is different from turning it into a closed end fund. Right. There is a difference. But i think that is the route that eventually will be taken. Speculation of course

I think Fairholme will simply close the funds. Nothing else. A closed-end fund sufficiently serves the purpose of turning the holdings into permanent capital.

Review the video beginning at 26.30 minutes (and listen to section 28.40 min) "We have a few things we are thinking about. It is possible..."

Investors still have time to purchase the funds if they chose to, as the amendment does not become effective until Feb 28th. I recall a recent video interview he did where he was questioned about how he doesn't have permanent capital to work with. I recall Berkowitz being coy and saying something to the effect of, "stay tuned". While it is perfectly understandable to close the Fairholme Fund, t is a bit odd to close the two smaller funds.

I just noticed that Chou has 7% of his CHOEX fund in mbia. Perhaps he is reading the forum as well. Averaging down it has grown into quite a large position for me.

I just watched the clip. Wow. How funny were these two? I think Carl successfully dragged Ackman down to his level of bickering. While Ackman felt the need to defend himself which i can understand, i think it slightly hurt his reputation arguing back at the same level as Icahn. ...and I like the fact the MBIA got a little air time during the dispute.

Agree with your comments but at least he is licensed to hold a concealed weapon and nothing was loaded in the chamber. Probably a slap on the hand and long lineups at the Airports to follow. But, it's certainly the wrong time to make such a mistake. Then again, when you learn the guys story - I can understand why he got his concealed weapon license. If I was Patrick I would have a loaded Glock ,a retired ex Navy Seal and a big old Rotweiler as my constant companions, he has ticked off some really bad people and he is onefearless mutha if you ask me. I have a Glock as well as a Mossberg 500 home defense shotgun. Funny thing is I that I tend to side with the liberals on weapons, yet there are so many wackos out there with them, that i feel the need to have one until other people can't have them. Catch 22.

By the way, if your logo is any indication of where you live your initial consultation should be ~ free and then if they end up drafting a trust for you it would likely be a fairly simple one and end up costing you in the $3,000 -$10,000 range in your area by a reputable firm. I know of one firm in the Hot Springs area that i have dealt with through work and they seem to be well regarded.

There are several options that could probably suit your needs. Of course everyone's circumstances are different, but here are a few options to ponder...An estate planning attorney can structure an irrevocable trust for you that you can most likely tailor to meet your specific circumstances, or an attorney might be able to structure your share as having certain rules attached to your interests. Or you could gift them the majority of your interests yet remain the controlling party with minority interests through a dual voting structure in the partnership. I would consult with a knowledgeable estate planning attorney. This question comes up frequently, especially in farm interests. Of course the lifetime gift tax exclusion is about $5million for 2012, but is due to drop back to around $1 million in 2013 if no congressional/presidential action takes place.

His record at TCW and then Doubleline is very impressive. It is. His ego is even more impressive.

I don’t agree. “We continue to maintain our equity hedges and have cash of approximately 33% ($8.1 billion) in our investment portfolios as we are not being adequately paid to take risks with markets at current levels.” In the meantime, the combined ratio has fallen to 95.4%. While not being adequately paid to take risks with markets at current levels, my own firm is focusing on improving its operations. Staying very defensive with its investments and hoarding up cash. The same is true with FFH, and obviously I like this policy. I don’t judge a quarter by the amount of earnings declared, but by the strategy put in place. giofranchi As Tom mentioned, it was a bit of sarcasm on my part

Terrible Quarter. Everyone should probably sell. ;D B/c i would love to get back into this company again at well under book value.

My fear with Dell is that it is RIMM three years ago. Large governmental and large biz customers with an image that is not what it used to be. That, plus the fact that it has been a terrible acquirer of businesses in the past. But damn, it seems cheap. And the market it is in is stickier than the tablet/phone market (that RIMM is in)...at least for the time being. Ecosystem not quite as important for the laptop desktop market. While not quite as cheap from a TTM perspective, i think HPQ has a much better brand quality in consumer's minds than Dell. Both, DELL & HPQ are on my watch list.

My current asset allocation: 8% Cash & Equivalents 10% Lower rated fixed income investments less than 1.5 effective duration 7% convertible preferreds 5% Fixed Income greater than 1.5 duration 60% Equities (largely US, with ~10% in call options, and ~10% in warrants) 10% Emerging Equities 0% direct commodities 0% in direct hedges/shorts For some reason I'm reviewing my asset allocations today, as opposed to just the usual market price/instrinsic value of individual companies i own. Only contemplating shifts at the moment is allocating more to individual emerging equities, if i can find additional quality companies/valuations.

Thanks for the interview. General board question: Did Fairfax decrease their hedge recently? Watsa noted they are at 90% hedged on the common stock portfolio in this interview. I thought I read a while back that they were net short. For some reason i had in my head that they were around 105% hedged, implying a slight short position as of just a few quarters ago. I could be mistaken.

Thank you for posting. What's the total market in dollars for fast acting insulin in the US and worldwide? That's the billion dollar question.

I don't think it is that far fetched an idea. I do recall a Byrne interivew (couldn't have been that long ago) where he said he doesn't see himself doing this (running overstock) the rest of his life. In other words, I got the impression this is an investment for him, and not so much a passion for him. With the right marketing and mgmt, this company could be much more valuable that it currently is. I think FFH would be a nice fit actually.

Imagine you have $100m that you want to save. What are your alternatives? You don't have FDIC protection (and there is no reasons why bank accounts can't have negative rates), and you can't put that in a safe under your bed. Sure, regular Joe's with $5,000 don't have to accept negative rates, but they aren't the majority of deposits. Not arguing that we will see those rates, but I'm just saying that there is some reason for why T-Bill yields sometimes go negative. It could happen for longer dated issues too. Ben To protect $100m you only need to purchase 400 certificates of deposit -- each one from a different bank. The $250,000 in FDIC protection is only the limit of protection that you have from each individual bank. I use CDARS with my larger clients

who? You might know them better as O.co

Big deal...Overstock.com does these 50%off gift card deals every so often. ;D

A good read...been looking for material on deleveraging cycles. Thanks

A bit of market timing on Fairfax's part: "In time, we will remove our equity hedges as the risks that we see get discounted in common stock prices. The major risks we see are in the next three years, as we expect common stocks to do very well in the next decade." Also, a slight bit contradictory to expect common stocks to do very well over the next decade while also seeing a fair chance of cumulative deflation over the next 10 years.