Onefoothurdles

You’re right — sometimes violence really is senseless and random. George Harrison’s stabbing was exactly that: a tragic encounter with a mentally ill intruder, not a political act. And we don’t even need to look that far back — Charlotte reminded us just days ago how random, senseless violence still happens. When someone is killed under horrific but non-political circumstances (like Iryna in Charlotte), the response is sadness and anger — not people saying “they deserved it” because of their opinions. That’s why Charlie Kirk’s death sits in a different category. When people openly celebrate it as “street justice,” it shows they don’t see it as random. And sitting here in Australia, where much of the political sphere and media lean left, the reactions feel especially unhinged. The fact that his death is being celebrated because of his views shows we’ve stepped into a very different and troubling moral space.

My thoughts on Kirk: Yes, there are many who didn’t agree with him — that’s part of what makes a nation. But he certainly didn’t deserve to die for his views. While there’s been a lot of shock and sadness at the news, what’s also sad is to see the level of celebration happening on social media. So many seem relieved, even calling it “street justice,” as if a man’s life can be settled like that. It raises two questions for me. First: what made his views so “dangerous” that someone felt he needed to be killed? He wasn’t unique in holding strong or controversial opinions, but his platform was large, his words cut sharply, and he carried influence that opponents saw as a real threat to their vision of society. In that sense, it wasn’t the truth or falsity of his words that put him at risk, but the reach and impact they had. Second: how many documented cases do we actually have of people being assassinated simply for “spinning lies”? If you look through history, the record is clear: truth-tellers, reformers, and dissidents are the ones who get silenced — from prophets to journalists to civil rights leaders. Liars usually get ignored, mocked, or discredited. Assassination almost never comes because someone was “spreading lies”; it comes because their voice was seen as too powerful, too disruptive, too dangerous to those who opposed them.

SBI Holdings (8473.JP) - runs one of Japan's top neobank and brokerage platforms - at the forefront of digital assets and tokenized securities in Japan - trades ~1 x bv, single digit P/E - most direct public market exposure to Ripple and XRP - Owns ~9% of Ripple - worth $2.3bn at last mark - Post Ripple's case dismissal with the SEC, XRP is now positioned as the only US crypto with explicit legal clarity - If Ripple IPOs, it could be historic in size - possibly larger than Saudi Aramco's $298b raise

Bought more LULU, 8473.T and 9022.T

Reduced DFIN and NTDOY being my larger positions and have had a decent run of late, to free up some cash.

PRNG

Just returned from our family trip to Japan. 3 weeks, very satisfied, would go there again. Favourite moments: - The satisfaction of finally being able to sit down after a long day of walking/shuffling/standing with a hot bowl of Ramen and an ice cold pint of Asahi was the best thing ever. Men have simple needs! - The chimes of the approaching trains and closing doors as well as the pedestrian signal tweets - 'why cant we have this here!' - Japanese convenience stores live up to the word 'Convenience' in every sense. If Im ever going to suffer from post-travel blues its probably going to be when I walk into my local 7-11 in Sydney - Visiting Mt. Fuji area - I underestimated how visually striking Mt. Fuji is. Lots of folks go there for day trips from Tokyo and depending on weather its usually a hit and miss when it comes to seeing the mountain, we instead hired a car, and stayed in Hakone and Fuji area for 3 days. Having the car added another level of convenience and pace to our trip. Next time, we'll commit a week there, that's how much we loved the area. - Stayed at a Ryokan in Hakone with a private onsen in our room and traditional japanese breakfast and dinner - Certainly stretched the holiday budget by a bit - but totally worth it We arrived in Tokyo just after Golden Week and certainly well past the cherry blossom season - so you could consider this as Japan's 'less busy' period - I didnt mind the crowds but I certainly felt cities like Osaka and Kyoto had caught a serious case of over-tourism - observed more pushing, shoving, outlash behavior with locals in these cities than in Tokyo. Regardless, wherever we went, we enjoyed, but a small part of us also wondered "Gee, I bet this place wouldve been so much cooler a couple of years ago when it was less discovered" LOL! Where to next? We'll certainly do a Japan 2.0 at some point. But I'd like to do South Korea next.

From a friend who attended the meeting: "After the long standing ovation he received after announcing his exit as CEO, Buffett said: "The enthusiasm show by that response can be interpreted in two ways, but I'll take it" "

So I have been sitting in 40% cash coming into this sell-off (I am usually always fully invested and have no sense of timing, so just call me lucky) which I think began in February. In hindsight I may have bought too aggressively early on with names like DFIN, which sold off early but didn't anticipate how much cheaper it could go. Towards the end of March, I was sitting with 15% cash, was able to add to Nintendo, Kyoto Financial Group, ACFN and Fairfax. Overall, pleased to be able to pick up some quality names at decent prices. But yeah my coffers are empty now. So I'll just be window shopping from here on lol!

Added to Nintendo and Kyoto Financial Corp.

Used last week's weakness in Canadian stocks to Buy FFH and add to FIH and ELF.

Bought some E-L Financial, added to FIH and ACFN

Directly via IBKR

Bought more DFIN, ACFN and 5844.T

Sold half of my DFIN position last week only to buy it all back today

Thanks for the tips villainx - I've marked them all down Edit: awesome recommendations - I had Tokyo Metropolitan Building down but had no idea about the cafeteria - will definitely check that out.

13, 10 and 7

Its our first trip to Japan, and with kids so we’ll be hitting the usual touristy spots for sure. Although in Hakone we’ll have a car for 3 days where we’ll have the opportunity to explore the surrounding areas and Izu peninsula.

Had the best chai in Udaipur. Generally, find North India's chai game is the best, while kaapi (coffee) is better in the South. I've always felt that India's posture towards foreign tourism as being indifferent at best, it doesnt help that they restrict visa on arrival eligibility only to the countries that reciprocate with them which is like a handful of countries with tiny populations (Seychelles, Maldives, Jordan etc...). Having said that, their local tourism is massive - didnt come across a single airport, club, hotel, restaurant that wasn't full during my 5 week stay there. Dubai gets the numbers because they're incentivized to do so, they are like the Singapore of the middle east and are massively dependent on foreign labor, trade, FX and tourism - Emirates and Etihad is quite prevalent as airlines so you are in all likelihood to make a stopover at some point while travelling to other major cities. Separately, I'm planning a trip to Japan in May and just blown away by the tourism stats on Japan recently. In 2024, they surpassed their pre-covid numbers of 37m tourists per year. My understanding is that their government has made a concerted marketing effort post covid to build their tourism industry, even sponsoring many youtubers with hotel stays, itineraries etc.. to build awareness and content. Add to that the prevalence of Anime culture in the west, including Pokémon and Nintendo-sphere... Its working well for them!

Xerxes, brilliant post. I had done something similar in 2023. My original itinerary was from Ahmedabad -> Jodhpur -> Jaipur -> Udaipur -> Ranthambore -> Fatehpur Sikri -> Agra -> Delhi; ultimately, we had to cut short our trip from Udaipur onwards in favor of further travels down south to Tamil Nadu, Bangalore and Kerala (and yes we very much go to see that airport too!). There were 7 of us including elderly folks and young kids so we opted for comfort and booked a 12-seater bus where the driver picked us up from Ahmedabad and drove us all through Rajasthan. Absolutely surreal, we were also travelling during October/November festivities. Udaipur was my favourite stop.

No congratulations warranted here, I haven't profited much on this. My cost is around the 2022/23 levels and I didn't have the confidence to load up meaningfully in 2024.

Took my gains on a number of positions late last week Closed out of BTI Reduced PX and DFIN Sitting on a bit of cash, while I wait for opportunities to redeploy

Gents, Ive invested in some good quality Indian single malts and contributed towards FIH.U profitability as well.

41 year old banker. Been on this board since 2011-2012… so in my early 30s / late 20s but lost my original login details and never bothered trying to retrieve it. Prior to joining COBF, I had a fairly basic understanding of investing from a practical perspective - which was largely shaped by the big investors i followed, the books i read, my formal studies (CFA etc) and my own investing experience. All in all a very institutional approach to investing. There were a number of COBF threads that had a huge impact on me in shedding some of that ‘institutional’ indoctrination - Packers thread, Ericopoly and some stuff by Dazel - how they thought about risk and return, portfolio sizing, options etc was truly invaluable - those threads need to be pinned somewhere as required reading! Key takeaway for me was, as a retail investor, you have this tremendous flexibility and freedom in your investing toolbox when compared to major institutional investors who have mandates, small cap restrictions, overheads, liquidity/ redemptions, reinvestment risks, career risk, admin, all other hang ups when managing institutional money Its understanding those strengths and applying it in an intelligent and thoughtful way through your investment journey thats made the difference for me. Truly grateful to this board and its members

Up ~255% this year as a significant portion of my PA was in an Indian company called Websolar Energy System which ~10xed through 2024.