beerbaron

I have got an Annual Report that has just been restated, there are no changes in the consilidated statements but I would still like to know what changed from the original. Where do I find the list of changes? Or how do I retrieve it? BeerBaron

Bonds in insurance companies are usually not market to market under they are classified as held for sale. Someone maintains a excellent spreadsheet of FFH stock investment portfolio. That would be a nice place to start counting. BeerBaron

Very great post. I like the analisys. On the financial side, my favorite question is: Does the company have a history of generating 1$ of market value for every 1$ invested? That answer is definitely no: Over the last 129 months (10Y+9M) the company invested about 13B$ in CapEx and generated about 13B$ in operating profits. On the subjective side my other favorite question is: Does the company have durable a moat? Technologically, yes. But that moat comes at a very high price in CapEx. One thing nobody seems to be aware is that there is physical limits for transistor size. Around 5nm tunneling starts to occur in transistors. So even using the best theorical technologies we can only increase the capacity 7 times from those 34nm wafers. SSD will probably never be as cost efficient as a standard hard drive unless the high grade silicon wafers go down drastically in price. My guess is we will have an hybrid as stated earlier. So Ross, my question to you is: Does this deal with Intel a complete game changer to increase Micron's return on investment? What is the market going to look like in 10 years? BeerBaron

Always good to see that those politicians have the best interests of the public in head. BeerBaron

So after the net worth thread it would be interesting to cross link it with the age of board members. For the ones that want to question how does one calculate it's age I would use the following calculation. Current Date-Birth Date = Age ;)

I calculate my saving rate as Savings/Gross Salary. My mortgage payments are considered as a full expense it simplifies the calculation. A personnal account does not have to be GAAP accounting. For as long as I have enough to retire on I'll be happy. BeerBaron

Aren't your parent complaining about having you in their basement? Lol just kidding... how can you achieve 90% saving rate, I'm at 40% and I don't know anybody that can match me. BeerBaron

I have posted my checklist a few times on the forum. Would be interested to see what others have as well. BeerBaron

I'd be a little surprised if the motive was to pay off existing debt. The preferreds yield 5% after-tax. The before tax equivalent would be roughly 5%/(1-taxrate), or roughly 7.5%. That's more or less the same as the stated interest on most of FFH's existing debt. In addition to that, some of that debt would likely have to be bought back at a premium, so that would be a net income hit in the current year. IMO, the only debt that might be bought back would be ORH debt to permanently eliminate the need to do ORH financials.....however, I seem to recall that FFH has already found a work-around for that. I'm guessing that Prem sees that the price of dry powder is stupidly-low, and the potential returns to being ready (liquid, with lots of equity) for an opportunity may be high, so might as well issue preferreds. That opportunity might be another Zenith type of acquisition, or perhaps it'll be a buyback if the price of FFH shares should tumble for any reason. I remember a time when FFH had little room to maneuver. This is kind of nice to see the potential avenues that can now be taken! SJ Yep, part of the reason I invested with BRK and FFH at the beginning of the year was they both were drowning under cash. I like what I'm seeing sooo much cash! Opportunities arise in a period of post crisis, not in a bubble. BeerBaron

Money Supply took a 60B drop this week what do you think twacowcfa? BeerBaron

He added.

No problem Harry, I was just trying to understand what is a growth valuation. An honest person answer, "I won't answer that questions". And I respect that. BeerBaron

Come on don't be so shy gives us your magic number :)

Harry, at what point do you plan to exit NetFlix? BeerBaron

My guess is traders are getting bored of this sideline market, so they go back to what they know best... invent stories and sell the dream. BeerBaron

SJ, would you care to help me understand how you avoid their 1.5% spread? BeerBaron

My favorite place to fish Banks is Texas banks. Texas had a very nasty real estate crisys in 86-91 where the NOL went up to 7%. As a result they had much stricter lending practices then most of the country. Texas is also closely linked to commodity, which get less impacted by the continuing recession then other markets. My favorite bank there is SBSI, which I was able to acquire around 18$... ridiculously cheap no matter how much deleveraging is expected. In my view it's a high quality asset at a Graham price. If you look at their investor presentations you can see the depth of their management, all of the senior executive have more then 25 years experience for SBSI. They are focused on organic growth which I like much better then acquisitions. Their 5Y Investment Performance is in the top 1% and has always been in the top 30% for as long as I can find this data in their presentations. Their interest spreads have narrowed in the last 2 quarters because they switched the maturities of their MBS, management says the spread should return to more normal levels in Q3. Ah and also, SBSI went trough the 80s real estate crisys without cutting the dividend which tells you a lot about the way these people's lending practices. BeerBaron Texas Real Estate Rules Overview 1. Beginning with the cold hard figures, your entire debt, including the home equity loan cannot exceed 80% of the fair market value for your house. What does this mean? If you bought a home for $100,000 and you’ve paid $75,000 toward the mortgage with $25,000 left to go you could possibly borrow up to $55,000. If you’ve not paid more than 20% of the mortgage, you’re not eligible for a loan. A home at $100,000 with a mortgage of $75,000 still to pay eclipses the 80% fair market value, so mortgaging your home at this time is not permitted. 2. Before acquiring a second home mortgage loan, the first one must be paid in full. 3. Only one loan per year, thank you very much. Even if you pay it off well in advance, you cannot get another loan within the same calendar year by mortgaging your home. 4. If you own property and pay taxes on it as “open space” or “agriculture” you cannot borrow against this property. 5. Only licensed folks can make a home equity loan with two exceptions: a company that sells and provides financing or a relative within the second degree which means anyone who shares at least one quarter of your genes, like an aunt, uncle, grandparent, child, mother, father, etc. 6. Lenders cannot exceed 3% of the principle loan when charging fees outside of interest. 7. A lender cannot insist that additional assets be mortgaged along with the home. 8. There are only three locations where a mortgage may be closed: the company’s office, an attorney’s office, or at the office of a title company. 9. After applying for a mortgage loan, the borrower has twelve days until closing. During this time a notice of borrower’s rights will arrive. 10. An itemized list of the following must be in the hands of the borrower at least one day before closing: Actual fees, points, interests, costs, additional charges. 11. Once the loan is signed, the borrower is allowed three more days to ponder his decision. If he changes his mind and cancels the loan within the three day period, no penalties or charges may be inflicted on the borrower. 12. If a borrower defaults on his loan the lender cannot execute a private foreclosure. All home mortgage foreclosures must be court ordered. Although the borrower may lose his home, the lender cannot sue for money.

Still pretty respectable... I hope that 30% drop does not keep you awake at nights? :) BeerBaron

Al, whats your current take on Rim? Ive never had it on my "investment" radar - just as a piece of interest type thing but see its trading somewhat like a "normal" company as premiums to sales and earnings etc etc but with no debt - WOW! From the little I know I feel they have a bit of market share but this is REALLY out of my area of expertise (I dont even own a blackberry or Iphone HA) I believe there was talk on Rimm in a thread here a while back but I think it was buried in a thread of a different subject? Jim Balsillie has been unloading so many shares in the 80-60$ range it's quite scary. Aren't you affraid when the most knowleadgeable insider sells massively? BeerBaron

ValueCarl, besides the historical valuations what's your take on the subject? It seems to me you like silver because you believe it's an arbitrage situation. BeerBaron

I there any books available that could teach me how to evaluate Chapter 11 reorganization? Don't want to be a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest! BeerBaron

IB does not support registered accounts if I remember correctly?

I would be happy to hear the board's toughs on their Canadian Discount Brooker's. I'm with Questrade and here are my comments: Pricing Minimum comission: 5.95$ Maximum comission: 9.95$ Currency Fees: 1.3-2% Depending on amount in account Options: 9.95$ + 1$ per contract Annual Fees: None in any types of accounts Availability Available accounts: RRSP, TFSA, RESP, Margin Available Markets: USA / Canada Available instruments: Stocks, Options, Gold, Mutual Funds, Bonds Others Not possible to get bond quotes online. Need to call trade desk. Very bad interface, need 4 logins to manage my 3 accounts there Customer service is acceptable They have nice promotions when you switch assets or refer someone Big plus! You can hold USD and CAD in your registered accounts

Index ETF is an incredibly amazing tool for the average Joe. For a management cost under 0.5% they can build a fully diversified portfolio of stock and bonds and get the liquidity. I bang my head every time I hear people tell me they got some kind of mutual fund offered by their bank. When I ask them what's the management fee they says "management what?". People don't seem to realize that 2% management fee over 30 years is a LOT of money. BeerBaron

Buffet would get 50% return because he has 70 years experience in the stock market. I believe Ericopoly on this board had a 20 000% return over the last 10 years (about 70% annualized return). You can ask him how he did it. BeerBaron