Bart

Thanks - now I just have to find a way to buy this with a EU broker (IB is not offering it). I have contacted ISE about this, I'll post an update here if I find out useful information.

Indeed a very interesting concept - however, as far as I know, there is no ETF available (yet), and the mutual fund by Virtus is only for US based investors. Does anyone know a way to invest in the wealth index for European investors?

Will do, thanks!

Ross, thanks very much for this. I've indeed read quite a few of those papers. So what you're basically saying is that to reduce exposure to the importance of companies with high market cap on the total index returns, it might be a better approach to diversify away to small cap, EM, etc ETFs? My current portfolio has a large overlap with the companies you hold, thinking of setting up 'rules' to buy more, eg. 13x earnings for bidvest, 1.2 book for MKL, 1.25 for BRK etc. I'd think that over the long term, it is difficult to go wrong with that kind of approach.

Thanks for the feedback. James - what do you mean with 'Tilt your index funds/ETFs?'

Hi all, the more I become aware of my own limitations, the more I become drawn towards the idea of a setting up a lazy portfolio: i.e. a portfolio that is almost guaranteed to beat the market with 1-3%, so generating long term (10+ years) returns of 8-12%, instead of trying to swing for the fences (15%+ returns) the whole time with only very mediocre results. The approach I was thinking of: - 50% in index funds/ETF, to just track the market - e.g. Vanguard VTI. Does anyone know good low cost ETFs that capitalise dividends, and thus do not pay dividends, as dividend leakage is a significant cost for a European (Belgian) investor? - 50% in good owner/operator companies: BRK, MKL, LMCA, FRMO, CKI, ... Any other names along these lines would be very welcome for further research. Thanks, Bart

Can anyone tell me how to change from the 'old' design on a mobile to the new smf4mobile plugin? I changed back to the old design, but don't know how to revert back. Thanks in advance!

Gio, would you mind sharing the 10 owner-operators you've found worthy of investment? From your insightful posts, I'm sure LRE, BRK, GLRE, FFH are four of them, but I'd certainly be curious for the others, just to study them. Also, do you know of any good European owner-operators, besides Brindle? thanks! Bart

Fan, maybe I'll have to start agreeing with you on this dilution issue with energold: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/energold-announces-20-million-bought-deal-financing-tsx-venture-egd-1628119.htm Unbelievable - even though the money will go to rigs that should normally be very accretive, they literally give away about 10% of the company at a price that is probably about 5-7 x PE - there must be better/cheaper ways to raise money...

Fan, thanks very much for the reply, and you can be sure, your quality posts always get my attention. Congratulations on your Jumbo Interactive call by the way, has been pretty good for you this year ;-) Also closely monitored your Delticom investment, and even bought tires from them not so long ago ;-) Indeed hard to predict the possible impact of the new CEO on SMT Scharf, but I indeed perfectly understand that the previous one might have gotten better offers, after what he already achieved at Scharf. Haven't bought in, and might well regret it in a few years, but mostly because I have a significant portion of my portfolio invested in EGD. The only way I can see this not being a homerun over the next few years is if the price of gold would drop like a rock, but always looking for counterarguments as I'm cautious to become too optimistic. Did you buy any EGD in in the end?

Packer, Thanks for the ideas. I've been looking at WOLF for a few hours, a few thoughts; - it is very cheap on a MV/EBITDA basis (~ 1.6), but the debt is enormous (D/E ~ 4), meaning they have to assign a large portion of their cash flows to servicing this debt (last year 47 Mio interest expense on an EBITDA of 83 Mio). - They have been strenghtening their balance sheet over the past years, but there is still a lot of work to do. No debt maturities till 2014. - EBITDA expected to grow ~ 5-10% this year. So, I agree that if consumer spending increases and this company continues to delever a huge amount of value can be delivered to shareholders. However, I don't really see the huge growth going forward - can you give some pointers? Thanks! Bart

Anyone out there has a good primer on options, warrants, leaps etc? Eric maybe? Quite keen to learn more on this topic...

Hi Fan, I was digging into your SMT Scharf investment, and it looks like your thesis is already starting to play out, with EBIT margins and profit increasing nicely. Any thoughts on the fact that the CEO left the company? Do you think this will impact the growth story?

EGD - Energold drilling. See write ups on aboveaverageodds / adventuresincapitalism, and somewhere else on this forum.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/energold-announces-strong-revenues-across-all-business-divisions-for-third-quarter-2011-2011-11-28?reflink=MW_news_stmp Very impressive results...