beerbaron

I'm not sure I understand the following: Also, we own 75% of Thomas Cook, 74% of Ridley, which are consolidated in our statements. Unrealized gains on market values as of October 29, 2013, on both these positions is approximately $146 million. Thus, total unrealized gains not reflected on our balance sheet is $490 million. Finally, Euro Properties, an investment we've made in an exceptional Greek REIT with outstanding management, where we have increased our investment through their rights issue, has another unrealized appreciation of $141 million as of October 29, 2013. And that also is not included in our balance sheet. So when you add all of that, we have a total of $631 million of unrealized gains that are not on our balance sheet. So if a company owns control interest under IFRS the equity portion will be fixed at the purchase price and not MTM? I guess then only the proportional interest of the income stream will be shown in the report... BeerBaron

The CPI derivatives must be close to 0 value now... Also why are the bond losses so bad, 10Y treasury moved from what 2.5% to 2.6%. Nothing compared with the first 6 months of the year. BeerBaron

Nice field report thanks. BeerBaron

It's real estate, of course it's about too much leverage! BeerBaron

It would be some kind of motion graphics and video compositing software package... probably something like Adobe After Effects . I'm sure Pabrai will tell us. It's much more intriguing then it's potential 30 bagger. BeerBaron

What does he use to make such nice presentations? BeerBaron

I don't want to speak for T-bone, but I'll add a note. Helium is an extremely important resource; it's used in things like MRI machines to achieve super-conductivity. Unfortunately it's being depleted far too quickly. It's effectively a non-renewable resource and it grows more scarce by the day. I can't predict the future price, but if we have any sense whatsoever the price of helium needs to rise. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9732883/Ban-helium-balloons-this-Christmas-academic-warns.html I tough only hydrogen got out of the earth's atmosphere... BeerBaron

In cold climates, air source heat pump can generate about 20% ROI. They could offer to own the heat pumps at the customer's sites and the customers would pay in instalments. Since the savings would outweight the payments the customers would gain as well. BeerBaron

Isnt' there a window where a shuttle to March can be sent? BeerBaron

I once bough 10 times the amount of Apple options. Took me 3 days to realize that I made a 50% position instead of a 5% position. (made money but it could have been emotionally very hard to sell those shares if the options went down). I bough RIM shares at 40$ and sold at 14$. Before I knew value investing I bough Nortel Stock at 60$ after it went down from 120$. This one became a zero. BeerBaron

So why is it that only Berkshire Hathaway sends their press releases when markets are closed? It's not rocket science that if people can trade on forward information they will take advantage of it... BeerBaron

Also, a RRSP is non-recourse. Maybe it's technically impossible to have non-recourse naked options since by definition it means you are liable. BeerBaron

I think it's the naked options you are not allowed in registered accounts. I think the logic is that a retirement account should not be used for speculative bets. Beerbaron

The noise they make disqualify them for me. Have you found near silent models? I haven't. Not really, although Carrier Infinity Greenspeed has a fully variable compressor and fan speed. Noise becomes lesser of a problem because the heat pump rarely runs at full capacity. I have attached a PDF I got from a salesman (in french) and it does a pretty good explanation of the energy savings. BeerBaron BeerBaron VNA-dealersJuin_2011.pdf

I did the calculations already and in Quebec a Air Source Heat Pump makes more economic sense than geothermal. With geothermal you barely get your cost of capital, air source heat pump can yield you 10%-20%. Energy saving obeys the law of diminishing return. For example: Let's say that a house with no insulation costs 2000$ to heat. Adding one foot of insulation around the house will cost you let's say 10 000$ and your energy bill will go down by 1000$. Adding two feet of insulation around the house will cost you let's say 20 000$ and your energy bill will go down by 1500$ Adding sixteen feet of insulation around the house will cost you let's say 200 000$ and your energy bill will go down by 1937$ BeerBaron

Got stuck in Chicago Airport Wednesday and Thursday all day and although I love the city, the airport sucks. Nothing but delays, not enough seat in the terminal, no free wi-fi and no plugs to charge laptops. Had I know that Parsad was there maybe I would have gone out with you guy. BeerBaron

The cheap hack can damage the environment, which is why detergents today are less powerful than in the golden age of whiter than white. Absolutely true, if the water drains are not treated before being released into the environment. Most major NA cities now treat used waters to reduce phosphates.

Wait, what? What do you mean solar cycles? John Hampson has an excellent site explaining how to invest with solar cycles. Solar cycles coordinate with economic cycles. For instance every solar maximum since 1900 has been followed by a recession within 12 months. Solar maximum was probably last May so the correlation predicts recession by next spring. Generally you buy around solar minimum and sell at solar maximum. Long term trends often last 3 solar cycles. What you do is look at long term demographic peaks and invest about 3 solar cycles previously then average in around solar minimum and average out at solar maximum. The US demographic peak was 1999 so check out the results looking at the chart. I am suggesting to the board to apply the same strategy but with India as it demographic peak is around 2050. So start to average in around solar minimum then average out at solar maximum then repeat for 2 more cycles until the demographic peak in 2050. Some people say that they can't match Buffett's long term returns because Buffett was just lucky to start investing in the 1960s during a long term boom in the right place. I say that anyone who understands the value investing technique applied on this board then uses it in India starting at the next solar minimum has the same opportunity to enjoy the same demographic wind on their backs that Buffett enjoyed investing in the US. http://solarcycles.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/recessions2.png Please provide a cause/effect relationship for the theory? BeerBaron

I have been using TSP for all my hard cleaning jobs. Leaving a pot soak in water and TSP for a night is the most effective scrub free method I have ever used. Never used it in my clothes tough. I like the idea. Also, find yourself a place that sells industrial cleaners. For 10$ you can clean 100 loads of laundry, no bullshit about high efficiency soap. Dry-cleaners always had high efficiency soap because it's cheaper. Got those mineral stains in the shower? Ask your industrial soap guy and he'll provide you with a base 11 product strong enough to eat trought plastic. BeerBaron

greader with the RSS feed... BeerBaron

I was intrigued by his statement about the 20 straight tuesdays up since May. I wondered if it there was a statiscal anomaly in the number of up days VS down days VS equal days. I took straight days, not something like every tuesdays since if one searhces hard enough he can find anomalies in almost anything. Since 1950 the S&P had: Number of up days Number of occurance since 1950 1 1557.00 2 945.00 3 565.00 4 297.00 5 156.00 6 92.00 7 47.00 8 25.00 9 11.00 10 7.00 11 3.00 12 5.00 13 0.00 14 1.00 Number of down days Number of occurance sin 1950 1 1790.00 2 954.00 3 503.00 4 223.00 5 117.00 6 63.00 7 23.00 8 10.00 9 6.00 10 2.00 11 2.00 12 1.00 All in all it seems like a perfect bell curve in both cases. No 30 days up and same thing for down days. If you consider there has been 16 000 days since 1950 and that 14 days straight up days only occured (50/50 chance) once it seems like there are no statistical problems with have 14 days straight up. In conclusion I need a life, as I'm coding VBA in Excel on a saturday night! BeerBaron

28%, I feel like a craved nymphoman on a deserted island... :'( BeerBaron

gas prices are right where they were 2 years ago and the market it way up. not seeing the correlation.... I think he's referring to gas prices being a tax on consumer. I agree with vinvestor2010 that gas prices influences economic growth by probably as much as construction, but I can't say gas prices have a influences on asset prices. Overall economy and stock market have poor correlations... BeerBaron

In the 50's I don't remember which communists state figure said something in the words: "It does not make sense to buy a car if a taxi fare is cheaper than the ownership". And the whole USSR car policy was based on that vision. What they failed to understand was that having a car met being independant. BeerBaron

Have you looked at SolarCity? Of course, it's probably better for you to buy the system outright since you have the capital... But maybe they offer something that could interest you. I'm also wondering if I can get a battery backup system for the house... and then charge it between 12am and 6am for the rate of 9 cents per kWh. Then during the day I can draw that electricity back out of the battery during the hours (10am and 6pm) when I'm getting charged 47 cents per kWh. That's a 5 bagger every day! Solar City sells residential batteries made by Tesla. You'll need a shitload of batteries to store energy for a whole day usage, plus maintenance of batteries and environmental/safety hazard. If I were you I'd go with a solar system and limited batteries. BeerBaron