beerbaron

Isn't it more likely that a breaktrough would come from the academic side? Companies usually direct their energies toward applied research as opposed to universities. A few exceptions come to mind like the White LED by Nichia in the 90s, but even then the inventor was a rogue scientist that continued it's research even when it's boss told him to stop. Batteries have been under INTENSE researches for the last 20 years but so far no breakthrough, just good advances each year. BeerBaron

I wonder why the eInk readers are so expensive? There is almost no computing power needed and it trades at about the same price per square inch then a LCD. I have two theories: -Main patents are still active -Low supply of producers BeerBaron

I recall Biglari was also on your list... good thing he showed it's true colors before your family needed him. BeerBaron

Not if you have a very stable cash flow from these properties.

There are many ways to calculate returns. Accountant will tell you that the only real way is the IRR. Which is partially true, but let's assume the following Scenario. Board member has 10k in his bank personnal account and 20k in his investment account. March 2008 arrives and the board member invests it's 10k into S&P 500. Did the money really arrive in the trading account on March 2008... that leaves place to discussion... Personnally, I like to check my return with IRR and by the simplest calculation wich is (Value Dec 31st)/(Value Jan 1st)-Cash inflows This method discounts all the time value of the added money but it kinds of gets out the problem stated above. I believe real results on a personnal portfolio are somewhere between both results. I'm very happy with the results for both metrics tough :) BeerBaron

95% Above S&P 500... This is an outlier result. I wonder if a Technical analisys board would get the same results... lots of people will say they outperform if they adjust X and Y because of reason Z. BeerBaron

He did not expose it's insurance to WMD, it came with National Indemnity's, he actually yelled at the executives to get rid of the terrorist coverage on the twin tower 6 months before the 9/11. Said it was not a risk he was paid for... BeerBaron

I'm sure Warren would massively buy gold if the price was attractive enough. Didn't he buy like 50% of the silver in the end of the 90's? Everybody is right on Gold, it is a fiat currency but it's also the mother of all fiat currencies. BeerBaron

For Excel, look for the function MSNStockQuote() BeerBaron

I think he was making a point about the quality of an asset. In another Q&A in a university speech he was saying that it's biggest mistake was US Airways preferred. BeerBaron

He can't buy more, so he might as well support the stock now. BeerBaron

Anybody has a few good podcasts or good audio books to suggest about finance/economics? BeerBaron

You do know that you are relying on other's analisys to validate your's right? What if they don't know more then you... BeerBaron

Investing is a very humbling business where the evaluation of risk is very hard. That is why you need a huge margin of safety. I had a nice example of this today as my largest holding, EasyHome declared that an employee comitted fraud for 3.4M or about 15% of their loan book. A checklist is one of the most usefull weapon against mistakes but there will always be some unexpected events. I don't even think it's possible to implement employee fraud into a checklist. I'm still bullish on the stock tough, no long term impairment. BeerBaron

Some what is the process exactly that the FED uses to increase the money supply. Is it only by buying/selling of treasuries, or is there other processes? BeerBaron

Are you telling me all those analyst and traders woke up today baffled by this presentation? I can't believe anybody would buy a stock like JOE without asking the few questions like: -How many acres are in their balance sheet? -What was the historical selling price of this land? -How much of this land can they sell per year? -Is there demand for the land? So far it looks like a lot of highly paid people on wall street are being tough to do their job. It kinda disgusts me to see that, what a clear lack of due diligence. BeerBaron

Do you have a copy of the presentation? BeerBaron

Lol, finally Harry can stop making web pages to enhance an insurance company's value! BeerBaron

Thanks for the link. I was not aware of possible write downs, will do a much more deeper analysis if it reaches TBV. Would anyone consider MFC as too big to fail? My guess is "NO DOUBTS" BeerBaron

Nope, I would add an hedge if it dropped similarly as the last valley. I'm keeping my eye on this one. BeerBaron

What's the ownership for executives with RCH? I tried looking through Sedar, but didn't have much luck. Canadian Insider information is found on www.sedi.ca Attached is a PDF of the shares ownership. I also remember seiing a presentation that shoed that 60% of RCH employees own shares.

Well, it's funny how everybody lets Buffet get away with S&P Puts and think he made a great deal but they shoot MFC for not buying those puts. Obviously if it's good deal for Buffett then it's a bad deal for the others. So by not taking buying any overprices hedges MFC might be doing the right thing. Whos cares if their earnings will be lumpy, what counts is the total return. MFC is a great franchise and it should not trade a Graham prices. As for the debt, they can aford it at the current rates. Again, nobody complained about FFH preferred offering so why would we complain about MFC. BeerBaron

I much prefer to find a great company at a good price then a good company at a great price for two reasons: -I don't have infinite amount of time to spend researching companies. So locking up capital in a great company saves me the reinvestment task. -It saves me a lot of friction costs as well. One the high quality stocks I own besides FFH and BRK, is RCH.TO. It tanked like all others in 2008 but great companies have a way of making money. It's operated by a very talented owner/manager, has no debt, ROE in the 15-20%. It's a great consolidator in a very fragmented market so the growing opportunities are vast. No matter what the quality is, I won't ever pay more then 14 times earnings. I'm currently keeping a close eye on MFC, this is getting close to my spot price. It would be nice to buy this one under TBV. BeerBaron

Anybody here read Adam's Smith "The Money Game"? It sounds familiar and was written in the 60s... BeerBaron

Anybody has the pre-2004 chairman letters. I want to read all their letters from the beginning. BeerBaron