mhdousa

http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/profile/?u=19

Not an expert by any means but I have tried buying puts (spy) a few times. It has never worked very well. The problem is that it inovolves many facets of market timing and there is no way to get to an estimate ofmintrinsic value. It is much easier and cheaper to let FFH do it with their own hedges, or BRk do it via incoming cash. The FFh hedge has allowed me to buy vast amounts of US financials, and not have to be overly worried about them in a catastrophe situation. If things went totally in the dumper FFH may make hundreds of dollars per share, and have money to invest at the best time. In the meatime we eat a $50 per share non-cash loss but FFh still makes money. Al, what's your FFH:financials ratio?

Interesting. In his US fund, he still owns quite a few BAC warrants. Sanj, any thoughts as to why the difference? Top Holdings As of December 31, 2012 Top 10 Holdings percentage of assets Overstock.com Inc. 30.4% Resolute Forest Products Inc. 15.8% MannKind Corp. 10.5% Sears Holdings Corp. 8.9% Bank of America warrants 8.7% UTStarcom Holdings 7.3% MBIA Inc. 5.7% JPMorgan Chase warrants 5.3% ASTA Funding Inc. 3.6% Wells Fargo warrants 1.9%

I click on this thread because I think I'm going to read interesting thoughts on Fairfax. There are about a thousand other places on the web I can go to read people's thoughts on religion. Please stop.

Interesting - I didn't think of that as an option. I'll look into it.

Hi all - I have a very specific question. My wife works for a certain large consulting company and has to declare her and her spouse's stock and fund holdings. Because it's a large company there are a ton of entities that are considered "restricted", including BAC, AIG, and the Fairholme family of funds, the three of which make up a large % of our net worth. As we all know, the big gains in these are yet to come and so it pains me to consider divesting them, but we have to. Can anyone think of any roundabout ways to invest in the warrants (preferable) or common without either buying stock directly or through holding Fairholme? Thanks. -M

HOLY F**K!

Who are the fewer than five?

Being relatively new to options, I wondered if you wouldn't mind detailing exactly which LEAPs you're buying (i.e. strike and premium). Thanks!

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/11/28/is-stock-picking-just-another-hobby-for-men/

Was coming on here to ask the same question.

Has anyone received an email reply back from Arlington. I've emailed [email protected] twice now and haven't heard back.

After being impressed by a couple interviews I saw with Gaynor, I was surprised when I looked at their equity portfolio and saw that it had over 100 names. That strikes me as glorified index territory.

These guys are gunning for you. We don’t know the market of the nineties. We don’t know the markets of the eighties. What we really know are these markets. And they’re unlike any others. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/college-buckaroos-start-a-hedge-fund.html http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/worlds-most-oblivious-hedge-fund.html

Holy crap, you really are linking to an article written by the guy who LITERALLY swiftboated John Kerry. On a site that pushed the whole birther bullshit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Corsi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldnetdaily

Try this one: http://amzn.to/pnZzt

SouthernYankee, is that you!?!? We missed you!

I'll bite. What happens then?

DCG - I'm as pro-Democrat as they come, but I hate this stat, because I think it's largely a matter of timing. At least in recent history, Clinton took office as the bear of 1990-1991 was receding. Bush took office as the tech bubble was bursting Obama took office right before the market bottomed in 3/09. Going back a little further, FDR took office right after the market bottomed in 1932.

Just bumping my own thread and quoting my own post because, well...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/files/2012/08/Debt-graph-CBPP.jpeg

Anything that defines risk as volatility isn't worth wasting any time on.

They purchased large positions in US banks in 2008/2009. They chose WFC and USB. I think they paid about $20 for WFC. Then in 2011 WFC went as low as $22 and they didn't purchase more, so I reason they are not interested in adding more to that sector yet (US banks). They added Bank of Ireland last year. Mr. Watsa gave a speech a couple of years ago where he described valued investing as purchasing shares when companies run into a "temporary" problem. Then the reiterated the word "temporary". Okay, now I can see where BAC's problem is "temporary" (legacy loans + interest rates), I can see where AIG's problem is temporary (interest rates), but I can't see where RIM's problem is necessarily "temporary" (need to keep inventing in a very competitive space to survive). Eric, are you still close to 100% BAC, or have you branched out at all?

So.....any idea to whom he's referring with the above quote?

Nope...he does send them out to people who attend his meetings, though. Sanj, feel free to pull this if I'm violating any rules by quoting from the letter.