Liberty

AFAIK, it usually refers to capacity. So when all solar panels are converting sunlight at their peak, it's 550mw. Capacity utilisation for a solar farm is much lower than 100%, though (obviously it falls at night and on very cloudy days), but it also times pretty well with hot days, so it can be very useful to handle peak load in places with a lot of air conditioning.

If we could all stay out of consenting adults' bedrooms, the world would be a much better place.

I found a library branch that carries Value Line, so I'm going to go check it out and see if it would be worth it for me to subscribe.

Thanks, I understand your process better now.

Cool. I know a guy form Sutton. Ça semble être un beau coin! :)

As long as US takes immigrants, pop shouldn't decline. update: In fact, a great policy would be to give more visa to entrepreneurs who want to start businesses in the US and invest X amount of capital.

RIM! (just kidding ;) )

Welcome to the board, Québec! I'm not a FBK shareholder, but I can understand your frustration -- I would hate it if one of the companies that I hold was acquired way below what I thought it was worth. I'm close to Ottawa. In what region are your located?

Fair enough, but one question remains in my mind: Why do you feel you have to be in those sectors at all? I see two options: Either you think they'll perform as well (risk/reward) as the stocks you are hand-picking, or you are doing it as a way to diversify broadly. I kind of doubt #1, otherwise why even go to the trouble of picking stocks at all if you can get the same risk/reward with indices. #2 is a personal preference. I'm the exact opposite of diversified. I focus very heavily on the few securities that I feel are the safest and most undervalued and/or have the best potential for growth. I could certainly reduce volatility by diversifying, but I think I would also reduce returns significantly, and not really increase safety much over the long-term. Anyway, I don't want to seem like the spanish inquisition or anything, I just like to understand people's approach to see if they're doing something that I should be doing.

I'd also love to have more details on it. Do you subscribe to the paper or electronic version? How's the paper version? Do you get a small phonebook every week, or just a few pages of highlights? Also, is VL just for US stocks or do they also cover Canadian companies? Is anyone a subscriber to Gurufocus? They seem to also have lots of info and screens and such. I'm only a free user, but I'm wonder if maybe they cover a lot of the same data as VL, maybe at a cheaper price. (no paper version, though)

Great post, mountboney!

You are indeed right. I was talking about their CPI derivatives, but they also have (had?) market hedges. Because of insurance float, FFH is inherently leveraged, and they have more equity exposure than most other insurers, so they have to be careful about the kind of volatility we've been experiencing lately. I think they make more sense when looked at this way -- as a defence mechanism rather than as a pure macro bet.

One thing to consider is that Fairfax's macro bets have traditionally been very asymmetric, so that if they are wrong, they haven't lost that much. When you evaluate Fairfax's investments, make sure to keep the proper perspective on those bets. They aren't betting the farm...

Oddballstocks, it is true that for people who aren't ready to commit all the way and aren't confident in their skills, settling for average returns is the best thing to do; they can probably lose more money trying to outperform than by doing anything else. But something you've written doesn't make much sense to me. You write: If these areas are outside of your circle of competence or if you think they are too efficiently priced to gain an edge, why even own anything in those areas? Isn't it diworsification? Why not concentrate where you think you have an edge? If someone put a gun to my head and said that I had to own something in some industry or country that is outside of my circle of competence, I'd buy an index. But I don't have to own anything I don't really want... So I'm just wondering why you feel you need to own something in those areas? Thanks.

I certainly didn't see that one coming ???

I'm guessing those annual reports aren't available anywhere except for investors in your fund(s)..? :'( That's a gift I'd like to get this xmas :)

Here you go: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q08YE2ZO That's everything I have from the screenshot that I posted above. Doesn't include the new archive that he posts as far as I know, but there might be a couple duplicates...

Great post, once again, and it just reinforces my point... I don't think a good book on value investing has to have much that is new to be good. I don't know about others, but personally I've reached the 'diminishing returns' point of new information acquired through reading books about value investing a while ago (the core principles are fairly simple), but I keep reading because it helps keep me on the right track, makes maintaining discipline easier and gives motivation when times are tough. There aren't that many truly great books on value investing, but a lot of times when I read your posts I get the same feeling that I do when reading those; it helps me stay on the right paths, keeps things in perspective (what's really important and what isn't) and refreshes my memory as to what the truly important core principles are. That's why I'd love to have a Parsad on Investing book (even if it's just a PDF e-book) :) I'm sure you've had an interesting investing life with lots of insightful anecdotes and learning events.. In any case, just a suggestion. It's easier to ask someone to write a book than to actually write one!

Parsad, have you ever thought about writing a book? Your take on 'Margin of Safety', more or less. I'd read that! :)

Most people here probably already know it, but this is another great compilation of quotes, mostly from annual meetings: http://buffettfaq.com/

He's a gentleman and a scholar! Me, I'm just a individual investor who would love to someday live off my capital gains and dividends...

Let's take EBIX, which I know has been buying back tons of stock from the secondary market in the past few quarters. If I look them up on the SEC's site, I see all kinds of filings but nothing about those buybacks. Is it possible to see individual buybacks there in the same way that on CanadianInsider.com I can see that ALS* bought back 5,000 shares on a specific day? And if so, where is that information? Thanks. *If you go here: http://canadianinsider.com/node/7?menu_tickersearch=als You can see day by day how much stock the company has been buying back. That's what I'd love to be able to see for US companies -- company buybacks, not management purchases.

I see it gives you insider transactions, but I don't see anything about buybacks by the company. Am I missing something?

Is there a way to track stock buybacks in the US markets (NYSE, NASDAQ) in the same way that it is possible to do it in Canada with a site like CanadianInsider? I know that corps report their buybacks in their 10Q and Ks, but I'd love to be able to do it on an almost daily basis, if a way exists. Maybe there's something obvious out there, but for some reason I'm drawing a blank.

I'd guess that iTunes was actually pointing to files hosted somewhere else (Geoff's site, or another hosting site) and that they have been taken off from there. If there is interest, I can upload any of the podcasts I have listed above to a hosting site and make the available for general download. Let me know which episodes you want. Cheers!