Shane

Thank you for everyone who has commented, It helps tremendously. SharperDingaan - Interesting viewpoint, I'll need to take this into consideration.

Yes thank you for your advice. My main motivation for working as an analyst was to better myself by working with someone I hopefully thought was an exceptional manager. One local hedge fund manager told me he thought a few years as an analyst taught him some things that he thought he would not learn without that experience. Similarly he is friends with some unbelievable people through association, his vacation home in canada is adjacent to John Griffin for christ-sake!

It's where my passion lies. I was doing natural science because it's a family business, I do have interest in it but as a career I don't think I would be stimulated. For the past 2 years I have, with the help of a local investor, began to pick my own stocks and find that I really enjoy the learning process. My parent's do not care for investing and do whatever their financial advisor suggests, I never really had exposure until meeting some of my friends parents who run hedge funds. I would much rather do this for a living, if I said the pay wasn't attractive I would be lying... but ultimately I want the independence of knowing that I can successfully pick stocks. An MBA isn't really an option now because I do not have work experience other than summer jobs and part-time, am I wasting my time with the M.S.M.? should I just take a semester to grind out the CFA lvl 1?

Thank you valuecfa

For those members on here who are involved in the investment industry, what are the prospects of landing a job as a junior analyst out of a master's degree? What would be needed for someone from the sciences to move into an entry level job at a value investing firm? I have a B.S. in Environmental Horticulture and am currently getting an M.S. in Environmental Science. I applied to business school (M.S. Management) and was accepted, my currenty major advisor told me I must make a decision whether I go into business school or science. I am seriously considering business school, because I would like to analyze equities and manage my own money one day. An MSF I understand would probably be ideal, but I did not have the pre-requisites for this (Quantitative), I am confident that I would have excelled in the program though. The M.S.M was designed for non-business majors to provide a fundamental business background. I plan to take the CFA exam level 1 after graduation, and am starting to study now. Are there any weaknesses you see in my plan of study that I should address?

Outside of the US and Canada, does FFH hold many foreign equities? I've searched around a little bit, but I can't find anything stating Prem's stance on this. I would expect coming from India he might have some connections there.

I've piggybacked some ideas from managers I know but cannot afford to invest with using sites like gurufocus. Is there a similar site for UK or CA funds, If I cant invest with them maybe I can get some idea's? I've been messing with sedar a little this afternoon and I don't see any listing of holdings like the SEC requires (13F or G), Is this true?

Prem and Mohnish have been buying ICO, which has already appreciated quite a bit. I bought up a very small position at around $3.60 and have been kicking myself to not invest more heavily. Hindsight is 20/20!

Yes I have decided I'm not that impressed with BRUFX, I'm actually having a very difficult time finding a fund I think is truly exceptional. WPOPX (Weitz opportunity) seems like something that might fit the bill, as well as FPACX (FPA crescent), but their fee's are pretty substantial which makes me nervous of their future. When one looks at alpha, would alpha need to be in excess of the fund's fee for there to be a true outperformance? When annualized returns are calculated is that net of fees usually?

Interesting, I checked AIG and they also keep more cash per share than their market value... However, their enterprise value is positive and larger than market value (Which seems to indicate much higher debt). I am not sure I fully understand everything you said there twacowfca, but I'll spend some time trying to figure it out (I dont have a business education, still a student). If I understand this should all be correct: Most insurance companies invest in treasuries or other liquid debt obligations to invest their float, In order to maintain a good credit rating. FFH has chosen to invest in a lot of municiple bonds for higher return as well as stocks, but hedge to maintain a high credit rating, hoping this strategy provides better return than just treasuries. However - It still appears that with a negative enterprise value the stock has little debt and tons of cash available for investment. I guess that maybe FFH has more active policies out than AIG and has to keep more cash on hand to keep a high credit rating and just has very little debt, which means the cash reported isn't available for investment unless they decide to risk losing credit rating? Do I understand this correctly? Do you all typically use P/BV to decide on buy prices for FFH? Just tell me to shut up if I am asking too many questions here haha.

According to yahoo FRFHF.PK (FFH.TO) has $611 cash per share and an enterprise value of -2billion+. I remember a thread in which most members did not consider the current valuation cheap enough. I did a ,25m entity value screen (Is that enterprise value) and the only companies that I found with negative enterprise value either had a negative ROE, ROI, or were EXTREMELY small. How is FFH not cheap given that information? If you want to point me to a book because the answer would be too time consuming I'd be happy to take suggestions...

I follow gurufocus.com a lot for the SEC filings, It's a great source of ideas for me as I am trying to learn from successful managers right now. Is there a similar site for international filings? I ask because FBK is listed on the TSE so I assumed your getting that from canada's equivalent to the edgar filing system?

Does anyone here invest in Bruce Fund, BRUFX? I have been following it for a little while, and its performance is great when looking at 15 year to now. However, some articles I have read on it mention that it trailed very badly in the 90's with only 5% average gain. I can't decide if I find this attractive or not, this was the time when tech stocks were booming and it may mean that he will not fall into stocks he cant understand and therefore missed the boat and avoided a bubble. It is difficult for me to find information on his performance since inception, I'd like to know this his excellent performance in the past was not because of a few good years that sent the fund booming.

That is what I was wondering... Does anyone know why he held pinksheets in the first place? AGM=Annual group meetings?

I've been increasingly happy that I joined this forum, thank you for the information.

Is he no longer required to report FFH holdings because they delisted or has he completely sold out here?

I'm hoping this will get noticed without posting another thread I'm researching funds as we speak, and I'd like to hear where alpha ranks to you when analyzing a fund? Some funds seem to produce consistent (high 15 year return) without much alpha. Do you feel Alpha really is a decent guage of measuring skill in long only portfolio's?

This has been very insightful, thank you everyone. I have quite a bit of homework to do now!

Grenville - Mind sharing why you feel that way?

Thanks for the input, I'll be looking into all of these!

I know that FPA Crescent, Yacktman, and even Fairholm have grown in size considerably over the past few years. Not sure about the others. It brings up concerns because the general trend is that larger funds have more difficulty beating the index than smaller funds. So if these funds get good publicity and increase AUM by billions will they still perform like they did without the AUM? That is I think what was being referred to.

I'm really just fishing for knowledge about some smaller, less well known funds which I can analyze and hopefully invest with for the very long term (15+ years maybe). Any insight is appreciate - I'm eager to learn! StubbleJumper - Yes! I know that common wisdom is to index and "set it and forget it." I've read David Swensen's 'Unconventional Success' and I really enjoyed it. I am currently maxing out my ROTH every year and soon will model it with quarterly rebalancing after his vanguard suggestions. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching stocks and investors, and I just can't bring myself to not try to invest some money with active management and see if I make the correct choice 10-15 years from now! Really this has become interesting to me because I have private fund with an investment manager at a very large firm and I am beginning to doubt if he spend any time on my account at all. So i'm looking for some funds which I have more faith in!

StubbleJumper - I am actually very interested in active management. I have really had a change of heart and no longer really plan on using my degrees. I know several local retired hedge fund managers and have been learning from them about basic investment ideas. I plan on getting an MBA or CFA and trying to land a job with associates of theirs... Are you referring to John Bogle? Does Bogle have a website that you know of?

twacowfca - Whom are the managers of these smaller funds? I know I am young but I may have more to invest than you assume. It might be possible for me to meet the minimum.

Hello, I am a new investor currently in graduate school unrelated to business, and am trying to learn the fundamentals of investing so that I may try my hand at managing my own money in the future. Right now I control maybe 20% of my investments and over time would like to feel comfortable enough to increase this amount. Until then I'm interested to hear of some money managers whom you all would trust your own money with? I'm particularly interested in global or international funds as the majority of my personal stock picks are domestic companies. However if you highly recommend any domestic managers I'd love to hear about them as well. I am a U.S. resident, please don't exclude any b/c of minimum investment. Also - I have a question regarding some funds I already follow... many of you seem very experienced and I'd like to hear what you think of these topics. Wintergreen Fund - I really like reading Mr. Winters letters and I agree with a lot of his basic idea's... However he charges a 1.95% expense ratio which I find high, is his skill worth that price over 10-15 years? Chou America - Very new here, but as I've read very successful and the guy appears to be really moral and fair in the way he runs his fund. He seems to manage quite a few funds now - 4-5 in canada and now 2 in the US. Do you all think he is spreading himself too thin? Can a manager actually manage that many accounts with success, does he have other analysts at his firm? Whats your opinion of his expense ratio? Thanks in advance, Shane Smith