Buckeye

Hopefully, in the annual letter Prem will write, "FFH owned BB for 10 years and was able to exit its position with a considerable profit. Given the time that FFH held the shares, the gains were not outstanding, but it is nonetheless a profitable exit. In the future, we endeavour to focus more intently on risk management, particularly as it relates to our management team's circle of competence and to better consider the importance of position-sizing when we select our investments. BB will not go down as an epic success for FFH, but it has been a valuable learning experience." SJ Very well said Prem! ;D

Who do you think is going to make more money over the next 5 years? Someone buying Berkshire today or Fairfax today? When Fairfax hit four times book in 1998...if someone didn't sell, that's their foolishness. Just like investors not taking advantage of discounts over the long-term. If you are a value investor, you never fall in love with any stock...no matter who the manager is. At some point, you sell and move to other discounted investments. Cheers! Someone buying Markel. ;D

I understand that Mr. Parsad has made the argument that by having a separate category to discuss politics it will keep these “discussions” from happening within the investment sections of the forum. However, could having a Politics section be encouraging and proliferating these types of “discussions” which end up sucking up most of the air in the room on a forum founded and designed for the discussion of investments? Could the argument be made that by eliminating this category, the forum members who frequent the Politics category will find other forums more focused on politics? Wouldn’t everyone agree that the threads in the politics section never seem to change anyone’s minds/viewpoints and instead act more like an echo chamber to reinforce our already held beliefs? The other argument that has been made for having the politics section is that forum members are given a better view of which members may or may not have better insight within the investment section. For instance, “Holy crap, that member has made some crazy ass comments in the politics section, I am not so sure I should agree with them on XYZ company.” Or “Well that member posts tens or hundreds of comments per day in the Politics section so they clearly don’t spend much time researching companies.” While I agree with both of these sentiments, the argument could be made that weighing the value of a member’s posts should be made solely on their analysis of a company/investment. It is obvious to expect that if the politics category were to be eliminated the occasional topic of politics will still find their way into the investment category. However, wouldn’t it seem that those investment threads will have a good chance of getting back onto the topic in the title as the title itself will continue to attract the members and posts focused on that specific investment being discussed. Can we assume that those threads will “right” themselves? It seems that those discussions will have a better chance of getting back and staying on topic versus the politics thread that are on big downward spiral. Anyone agree? Or should I go back into my hole?:(

We have crappy diets, resulting in first world problems like high blood pressure, diabetes etc. In rural China and rural Africa, people have 110/70 blood pressure well into their old age. In the western world, with processed foods and high salt and high sugar, we have extremely high blood pressure and diabetes rates very early in life. Our bodies don't fight off viruses as well as healthy people. My view is it's largely diet based. All, the above and second and third world countries also have reporting issues, plus the epidemic has not run its. course yet. There are reports of bad situations in Ecuador (Quito) and Brazil but numbers are hard to come by. While these and other points mentioned above are all valid, I highly doubt they can fully explain the huge discrepancy between the developed and the developing countries. And especially considering the big factor that should make situations worse in developing countries -- their lack of good healthcare systems. I do wonder whether how some countries do not care much about this virus and this is being reflected in recognizing/reporting the COVID death numbers. My wife's coworker (they work in healthcare), who has families in Bangladesh, told her yesterday that while COVID is spreading there, people are more worried about going hungry than the virus. Suppose your people, media, and government do not really recognize this virus as anything novel or serious... In such countries, even if people die due to COVID or related illness, they might not warrant much attention and won't be tracked like some doomsday counter. In that sense, is COVID another "first world problem"? Yup. I think this is on the money. Media coverage and fear mongering have made this what it is. Its now widely recognized that this was here much earlier than some people thought, and guess what? Life was totally normal and folks got on with their normal business and the economy was humming along just fine. So yes, its a shame we manufactured a horror story and certainly did impair parts of the economy, probably unnecessarily. But, in other news. Shanghai Disney tickets sold out. RCL is reporting normal booking volume for 2021, guess not everyone is living under a table in their basement. Just so that it is clear, Disney Shanghai did sell out, but limited their capacity to only 30% of previous limits.

This is smart. With Covid-19, you probably don't want your top three guys in the same room together.

This seems to be a point lost on many investors - especially younger investors - who have been riding a decade-long bull market. Downward price action does not make something "cheaper." Downward price action only makes something cheaper if the fundamentals persist or improve. And as you note, the fundamentals are getting worse with each passing day. What happens when more and more companies start including "going concern" warnings in their public filings? But but but...stocks look cheap on a forward P/E basis when I set 2021 EPS = 2019 EPS... After an incredibly agonizing 2 weeks, the bear market clearly ended on March 24, 2020. Plus, the Fed said the recession is cancelled. What a trying time it was for all of us. Glad I got to experience a full blown recession in my life--and one of the worst on record: the Great Recession of March 2020. Another notch in my belt! If Warren didn't buy, it must be because he's senile and outmoded! Bring one of those hedge fund managers who crushed the last 10 years in...you know that guy. What's his name? Dalal, I have very much appreciated many of your posts in this forum. Thank you for your contribution. One day we’ll get rid of the senile old man and have someone in charge who really knows how to pick stocks like the pros. He can call into CNBC and have a complete meltdown and tell all of the viewers that the world is ending. Then, a few days later let us all know that everything is actually going to be fine and that he made a bunch of money shorting the market. :)

This thread is funny. Basically the gist of the of article is that you have one the best/sharpest business leaders/investors in the world saying “Nobody in America’s ever seen anything like this. This thing is different. Everybody talks as if they know what’s going to happen, and nobody knows what’s going to happen.” Then you have a few anonymous posters on an internet forum trying to convince us that they know exactly what’s going to happen and what should be done with Berkshire’s money. :o To those posters I say, let us know when Jason Zweig calls to interview you for WSJ’s Intelligent Investor so when can all read up ;D

Link below. Sorry if this has already been posted. Buckeye https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fwpt19/im_ray_dalio_founder_of_bridgewater_associates/?sort=top

Wow, thank you all so much for the amazing feedback. The twitter post seemed a little sensationalist to me, but mostly because I didn't really understand the specifics. Thank you again for your thoughtful and detailed responses!

Hello All, I'd be interested to hear your opinions as to the validity of this Twitter string in which the poster claims that with the lowering of interest rates, leading to an increase in pension liabilities that the Big Banks should raise equity soon. Thanks!

Check out the links below. It's to a website for the film Mile...Mile and a Half. The film is about a group of video, film and sound people hiking the John Muir Trail and documenting it. It's actually a great movie/ documentary (we found it on Netflix a couple of weeks ago) and the scenery is amazing! Through the website, you may be able to find other blogs, journals or forums that can help hikers interested in doing what you want to do. http://themuirproject.com/ http://themuirproject.com/mmah/film/

Biglari's Hookers? Wow, this was such a great thread until I derailed it. I will go back to just reading the posts:(

Weird, you're right. It must have something to do with that Maxim purchase:) I was referring to the search bar within the Google finance page.

Alright..please hold your tomatoes...BH (Biglari Holdings)? One advantage it has is its 700M market cap. (I can't believe I beat Gio to this guess. He must be working or to busy to post.) On a side note, has anyone ever noticed when you type BH in to the Google Finance search bar it brings up Berkshire? I have to go back an actually type in Biglari before it will find Biglari Holdings. I miss SNS:(

This article below seems like a good mix of links, speeches and books pertaining to investing and business valuation. http://www.gurufocus.com/news/251391/if-i-ran-a-value-investing-business-school

Hi Undervalued: Check out the link below. This may also be useful for the poster who started this thread. I just found it yesterday but it seems to have a good mix of the "biggest hits" pertaining to investing. http://www.gurufocus.com/news/251391/if-i-ran-a-value-investing-business-school

Hey bobp- Look at the last paragraph of the article you posted: The bottom line is this: If you don’t have a $2,000 emergency fund, your life is going to be miserable because every single financial contretemps is going to make you scared instead of just annoyed. A $2,000 emergency fund is $1 a day for less than three years. If you’ve been working at some kind of job for three years and haven’t been able to scrape together a dollar a day, go over your budget with a fine-tooth comb. It’s just not that much money. Find a way to do it. Your blood pressure will thank you. I think this sums it all up. A $2,000 emergency fund is $1 a day for less than three years? Most Americans are just bad at math! :)

I just finished reading "How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading" of all things and there was one point that really stood out to me. Apparently if you are reading complicated material or new material it has been shown that you comprehend the material much better and are able obviously able to read faster if you read through any areas you don't understand. So reading faster and more pages has been shown to be more beneficial than slowing down and really drilling into specifics. Evidently you will pick up some of the concepts later in the reading. Maybe there is something to trying to read a lot of pages per week that pushes you through certain roadblocks that can cause people to get hung up on new terms or concepts.

This is a funny story! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/woman-called-slut-bank-america-credit-card-offer-065835744.html

It has been something I have been meaning to do for a while. I like how Buffett has been saying from the 70's that the returns are likely to shrink in the future. Here it is 40 years later and he is still saying it.

Canadian Munger- It is interesting that you bought this up. I am reading the letters through Max Olson's book and came across this last night: From the beginning of the 1990 report, Buffett says: "For information on Wesco's business, I urge you to read Charlie Munger's letter, which starts on page 56. His letter also contains the clearest and most insightful discussion of the banking industry that I have seen." That's quite an endorsement! I know this isn't what you are looking for here, but thought it might be something that you or others may be interested in reading. I have not yet read it but look forward to reading it. Buckeye

Wow. Nice Find. I hope it is made available after the event as well. Thanks for posting.

Ok, so I was wrong about the Einstein book having any forms. However, Peter Cundhill's book does have their "Net net worksheet" that he designed in 1975 and used throughout his entire career. For Graham, there is a little book titled "The Interpretation of Financial Statements" The classic 1937 edition by Graham and Meredith that starting on page 81 has an 8 page worksheet process of applying his certain ratios and calculations. LMK if you find what you are looking for.

Hi Mat- I think it may included in the back of the "Einstein of Money", which contrary to other reviews, I thought to be a pretty good book. I will check my books tonight. I also feel like there may be a sample worksheet in the back of "There's Always something to Do," and if so may be worth looking at. I will check that for you tonight also. Buckeye

It's Twitter IPO! We all should have known ;)