Portfolio 2026

[73 Reds]

10 minutes ago, Milu said:

Viking could be the world's foremost expert on Fairfax, and some other poster could be the same for some other stock. Doesn't mean that following their lead is the best decision for every other investor on the board. You could be the world's greatest analyst on JP Morgan, but if I don't personally like to invest in banking stocks then I should stick to my personal approach. Many ways to skin a cat as they say.

Yeah, but I want to hear from that some other poster about that some other stock.

[Gregmal]

16 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

OK.  But anyone here who feels like they have a better handle on their picks than Viking has on Fairfax, please share your picks and thoughts.

One of the most useful skills Ive been able to develop over the years is simply being able to identify, rather quickly, people whom have a special skillset in specific arenas, and then rather quickly being able to assess if what they're pitching makes sense. Its allowed me to invest in areas I otherwise wouldnt be comfortable with, or areas that woulda taken me wayyyy tooo looooong to do proper diligence on. 

[coffeecaninvestor]

18 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

OK.  But anyone here who feels like they have a better handle on their picks than Viking has on Fairfax, please share your picks and thoughts.

Not sure how many people have read “Think and Grow Rich”, but having a master mind group is high valuable to highly successful people. As someone who has always relied on himself it is hard to come around to the idea of relying on other’s knowledge, but over the past 2 years of being on this forum it has made me realize it is a very valuable asset. Especially not doing investing full time with a day job and family.

[Milu]

5 minutes ago, Gregmal said:

One of the most useful skills Ive been able to develop over the years is simply being able to identify, rather quickly, people whom have a special skillset in specific arenas, and then rather quickly being able to assess if what they're pitching makes sense. Its allowed me to invest in areas I otherwise wouldnt be comfortable with, or areas that woulda taken me wayyyy tooo looooong to do proper diligence on. 

It's a good skill to have alright, I've just never been able to do this, no matter how convincing and knowledgeable the person who pitched the idea is. A limitation on my part no doubt.

[73 Reds]

1 minute ago, Milu said:

It's a good skill to have alright, I've just never been able to do this, no matter how convincing and knowledgeable the person who pitched the idea is. A limitation on my part no doubt.

Its not an "either/or" thing of course, we can rely on others and do our own thinking at the same time.  Comfort is purely subjective and not necessarily financially lucrative.  

[brobro777]

I for one always look for guys who have good ideas/expertise/knowledge, backed by track record, in anything, not just investments. It comes from the fact that I'm really lazy and personally think it's so awesome to make money without having to work so hard - massive bonus if you end up making more money than the guy whose idea you were free-riding on. I mean who wants to sit there and read boring annual reports and industry reports like some value investor nerd? That's boring baby

 

haha

 

 

[Libs]

42 minutes ago, Gregmal said:

 So when I got into the work force, and began cold calling for a senior broker

 

 

Was it like this?

 

 

[SharperDingaan]

We have been prototyping a different approach to investing, for use once I have 'retired'; we refer to it as 'context' investing, have built a few tools to go with it, but will not share them for another decade or so. It is essentially the common sense 'sniff test' applied to investment narratives, and is especially effective in today's connected world; what used to be the tail ends of both technical and fundamental analysis, expanded into its own field of analysis.

 

Key to everything is ability to think for yourself, apply relevant techniques, and comfortably give up control;  ... essential skills for the people manager in every company, as you only have two hands, and a limited number of hours per day. Hard for the control freak ... until you have kids  The takeaway is trust but verify, if the source passes the ongoing sniff tests, you can place some reliance on the analysis. No different to managing employees, but the ultimate responsibility is the managers.

 

Most managers are not good at it, as are most investors!

 

SD

Edited December 22, 2025 by SharperDingaan

[Gregmal]

8 minutes ago, Libs said:

 

Was it like this?

 

 

Wasnt terribly different. Talk about a biz where people still daydream about the glory days....It felt like it was the 1990s. 

[LC]

19 hours ago, SharperDingaan said:

 

Your group did well, but you need to compare yourself to a relevant benchmark ... the TSX 2025 YTD return is 29.09%. The real value of COBF will be revealed when you compare your return to the TSX return in a down year  https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/stock-market

 

SD

 

Humility appears to be a familial trait:

Spoke to my mother over coffee this morning who revealed she bought 4000 shares of PLTR at $25 last Feb* and promptly forgot about it. What the hell am I even doing!?

 

*Feb'24

Edited December 22, 2025 by LC

[cubsfan]

6 minutes ago, LC said:

 

Humility appears to be a familial trait:

Spoke to my mother over coffee this morning who revealed she bought 4000 shares of PLTR at $25 last Feb* and promptly forgot about it. What the hell am I even doing!?

 

*Feb'24

 

Damn @LC - please get your mom on this board!

[John Hjorth]

1 hour ago, Libs said:

Was it like this?

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Gregmal said:

Wasnt terribly different. Talk about a biz where people still daydream about the glory days....It felt like it was the 1990s. 

 

46 minutes ago, LC said:

Humility appears to be a familial trait:

Spoke to my mother over coffee this morning who revealed she bought 4000 shares of PLTR at $25 last Feb* and promptly forgot about it. What the hell am I even doing!?

 

*Feb'24

 

1 hour ago, brobro777 said:

I for one always look for guys who have good ideas/expertise/knowledge, backed by track record, in anything, not just investments. It comes from the fact that I'm really lazy and personally think it's so awesome to make money without having to work so hard - massive bonus if you end up making more money than the guy whose idea you were free-riding on. I mean who wants to sit there and read boring annual reports and industry reports like some value investor nerd? That's boring baby

 

haha

 

*chukles* The humor here on CofB&F  is simply put second to none!

Edited December 22, 2025 by John Hjorth

[Marco Van Basten]

1 hour ago, SharperDingaan said:

We have been prototyping a different approach to investing, for use once I have 'retired'; we refer to it as 'context' investing, have built a few tools to go with it, but will not share them for another decade or so. It is essentially the common sense 'sniff test' applied to investment narratives, and is especially effective in today's connected world; what used to be the tail ends of both technical and fundamental analysis, expanded into its own field of analysis.

 

Key to everything is ability to think for yourself, apply relevant techniques, and comfortably give up control;  ... essential skills for the people manager in every company, as you only have two hands, and a limited number of hours per day. Hard for the control freak ... until you have kids  The takeaway is trust but verify, if the source passes the ongoing sniff tests, you can place some reliance on the analysis. No different to managing employees, but the ultimate responsibility is the managers.

 

Most managers are not good at it, as are most investors!

 

SD

Have you looked at Sintana Energy?  If so, would you mind sharing your views and why?  Thank you.

[Longnose]

3 hours ago, Gregmal said:

One of the most useful skills Ive been able to develop over the years is simply being able to identify, rather quickly, people whom have a special skillset in specific arenas, and then rather quickly being able to assess if what they're pitching makes sense. Its allowed me to invest in areas I otherwise wouldnt be comfortable with, or areas that woulda taken me wayyyy tooo looooong to do proper diligence on. 

I would say this is very similar to myself. Being able to collect a group of people whom I can loosely trust that know certain industries better than i ever will. And then having the ability to back of the napkin math a similar thesis and having the stones to put money behind those investments has been very good to me.  I have plenty of ideas I've generated on my own. But I've collected a group of sites & sources (COBF, Seeking Alpha, Dataroma, & Yahoo finance when i dredging the bottom of the barrel) and then follow certain people on those sites to narrow down my decision making has makes the processes so much quicker. 

 

 

[ValueNation]

FFH 34%/FIH 1.5%

ARE.TO 15%

AAPL 10%

BN/BAM 3.5%

BRK.B 3%

FOM 2%

AMRZ 2%

BNTX 2%

CRSPR 2%

SCR/GFR/CJ 2%

MKO 2%

 

Rest is in various ETFs including VCN, QQQ, XSP, VGRO, etc.

 

Agree with the comments about the help from others with skillsets different from my own, particularly on CoBF. I would definitely not have had the confidence to size up positions such as FFH and ARE without the in-depth analysis and discussions on this site over the years. Thanks to all contributors for their insights!

 

Also agree that it is tricky to find ways to discuss these issues with family and friends who are not in the same investment mindsets. Its always helpful to bounce ideas off people, but have to be careful to take into account people's perceptions as well. This is particularly important with impressionable kids who may get the wrong ideas.

 

[Santayana]

3 hours ago, Gregmal said:

One of the most useful skills Ive been able to develop over the years is simply being able to identify, rather quickly, people whom have a special skillset in specific arenas, and then rather quickly being able to assess if what they're pitching makes sense. Its allowed me to invest in areas I otherwise wouldnt be comfortable with, or areas that woulda taken me wayyyy tooo looooong to do proper diligence on. 

This is the skill that @ERICOPOLY has said was the most important to him.

[brobro777]

While I try to free ride off other people's good ideas/analysis, I also try to keep a track of guys who are consistently wrong and bet the opposite. It's uncanny how some of these guys are wrong on a consistent basis - and it differs by area or industry or whatever, but you can count on these guys to be wrong over and over again. I found betting the opposite of these guys have been pretty profitable over the years

 

In the end, what I want is money for nothing and chicks for free

 

 

[Longnose]

4 minutes ago, brobro777 said:

While I try to free ride off other people's good ideas/analysis, I also try to keep a track of guys who are consistently wrong and bet the opposite. It's uncanny how some of these guys are wrong on a consistent basis - and it differs by area or industry or whatever, but you can count on these guys to be wrong over and over again. I found betting the opposite of these guys have been pretty profitable over the years

 

In the end, what I want is money for nothing and chicks for free

 

 

 

In the other frame of mind. I like reviewing the people i highly respect and are often not wrong or carry a similar longer term mindset. and seeing what did they get wrong or maybe they were just too early. Then can I replicate their thesis and buy in at a better price?

 

 

[brobro777]

3 minutes ago, Longnose said:

 

In the other frame of mind. I like reviewing the people i highly respect and are often not wrong or carry a similar longer term mindset. and seeing what did they get wrong or maybe they were just too early. Then can I replicate their thesis and buy in at a better price?

 

 

 

Yea I think that's probably a good idea. I think I did a bit of that with Buffett and IBM years ago, analyzing where he might have went wrong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpOHc7EQH_8). 

 

But I'd much rather get money for nothing without having to read or think

 

 

 

[UK]

1 hour ago, Santayana said:

This is the skill that @ERICOPOLY has said was the most important to him.

 

I also had such epiphany years ago. Before I was litteraly trying to do such things as to read the whole Munich RE report, in order to understand what Buffett had seen in them:). Needless to say, this did not really worked for me. I like to read, very much, but not such things or in a such way. Also doing all these DCF models (because I was doing them proffesionally at the time)...oh boy:)). Back then I saved a random funny quote on this from the internet:

 

"I ruined my life trying to copy Warren Buffett. Be exactly like him. Now I want to be Gordon Gekko. It is too late. Warning: Before you think you want to be just like Warren Buffett do this. Read the entire AIG 10-K. Every single page. If you hate it, you are not even remotely like Warren Buffett. Be honest. Do you really want to be like Warren Buffett or only as rich a Warren Buffett? For me, the truth was. And is. I just want a billion and then to indulge every single bad instinct in my brain. Like Elvis, but better taste."

 

It is really important to understand what works for you as early as possible and there could be lots of different answers for different persons.

[SharperDingaan]

20 hours ago, Marco Van Basten said:

Have you looked at Sintana Energy?  If so, would you mind sharing your views and why?  Thank you.

 

Our expertise is in the WCSB, not the off shore; but even with just a quick once over .... walk away.

 

Worthless promises. $100, 10 yrs out, discounted at 25%/yr is $10.74. But over those 10 yrs ... to maintain the leases the company will need to dilute, and dilute again; today's 500M shares becoming 2,000M; that $10.74 becoming $2.68 split over today's 500M shares. All hat, no cattle.

 

Smell. A venture exchange company couldn't meet the TSX listing requirements, and is low quality. It would appear that this one is of such low quality that it couldn't even maintain its Canadian listing, hence the new AIM listing starting Jan 2026. Not really surprising as their leases are in some of the most corrupt places in the world, the Uruguay leases are disputed, and this company very much looks like an influencer monetising their influence via a share listing.    

 

Liquidity. One would need at least 150,000 shares to make it worthwhile, and it would be near impossible to exit the position; without paying a deep discount. At best, a major might make an offer for the entire company, but they would pay no more than 50% of the NAV (write-offs, allowance for wind-up costs, etc), and do so primarily to 'own' the influencer. Today's 45c/share is the high, it's really worth maybe 23c at best.

 

Sharecount. 500M+ shares screams either a 10:1 share consolidation, or a privatisation and relisting under a new ticker. The typical experience for a junior company, immediately post cost consolidation, is a 30-40% drop in the share price. Sell today in quantity, and close out at < 30c as soon as it moves to the AIM market; you and the stock promoters controlling the box, rushing to the door.

 

Comparables. There are a lot of low cost, higher quality alternatives on the TSX, that would pay back a lot more, and a lot sooner than this would. There is no reason for retail to own this; even a Helios (former Fairfax Africa) would balk at it.

 

SD

Edited December 23, 2025 by SharperDingaan

[thowed]

55 minutes ago, UK said:

"I ruined my life trying to copy Warren Buffett. Be exactly like him. Now I want to be Gordon Gekko. It is too late. Warning: Before you think you want to be just like Warren Buffett do this. Read the entire AIG 10-K. Every single page. If you hate it, you are not even remotely like Warren Buffett. Be honest. Do you really want to be like Warren Buffett or only as rich a Warren Buffett? For me, the truth was. And is. I just want a billion and then to indulge every single bad instinct in my brain. Like Elvis, but better taste."

 

This is Great!  Thanks!

 

Also, your Feathers McGraw avatar still cracks me upl

[UK]

10 minutes ago, thowed said:

 

This is Great!  Thanks!

 

Also, your Feathers McGraw avatar still cracks me upl

 

Thanks! I am a big fan of Aardman:). 

[WayWardCloud]

33%   All World Stocks ETF

20%   Alphabet

  8%   US Corporate Bonds ETF

  6%   Mercado Libre

  6%   Constellation Software

  5%   Arthur J. Gallagher

  4%   Brown & Brown

  4%   Amazon

  4%   Microsoft

  4%   Global-E

  4%   Patria

  3%   Liberty Broadband

[Hsmpanl]

Interesting experiment in social psychology with how similar/clustered alot of the portfolios posted here tend to be... I'm clearly highly influenceable and the group think from this forum has been a major positive so far!

ETFs FRFHF	27.50% 13.65%
Cash	9.89%
BRK.B	9.28%
JOE	9.02%
LULU	3.93%
AMZN	3.72%
GOOGL	3.71%
BTI	3.37%
FFXDF	3.30%
META	2.62%