Fairfax 2026

[yesman182]

5 minutes ago, SafetyinNumbers said:

BRK keeps duration close to zero by rule, MKL keeps it matching claims duration by rule and FFH does whatever makes the most sense at the time. More optionality should be worth more but not how the market looks at things.

What do you mean BRK keeps duration to zero by rule? In the current environment they are, but I am aware of no much spoken rule, other than always wanting 30-50bn cash (not sure what the limit was up to). That money I suspect will always be in tbills. The rest is just sitting ready to be invested. Fairfax and Markel have invested their money, Berkshire is looking for something. So I think Berkshire has the most optionality with 300+ billion of dry powder, you think Fairfax? 

[SafetyinNumbers]

5 minutes ago, yesman182 said:

What do you mean BRK keeps duration to zero by rule? In the current environment they are, but I am aware of no much spoken rule, other than always wanting 30-50bn cash (not sure what the limit was up to). That money I suspect will always be in tbills. The rest is just sitting ready to be invested. Fairfax and Markel have invested their money, Berkshire is looking for something. So I think Berkshire has the most optionality with 300+ billion of dry powder, you think Fairfax? 

I think BRK keep the float in cash or near cash by rule. I haven’t studied it that closely but when is the last time they extended duration? The excess cash presumably have ready for equity investments including their own stock. The excess cash as a percentage of shareholder’s equity is probably not that different from Fairfax which owns more bonds than its float so presumably could reallocate up to $6b more to equities if the opportunity presented itself. 

[Crip1]

10 hours ago, Maverick47 said:

She did treat me to a great dinner or two over the years!
 

 But to be fair, she also had the temperament to leave her portfolio alone even when things may not always have looked as though they were trending steadily upwards and to the right.

 

For the first couple of years before Valeant imploded, her spouse second guessed the decision to dispose of Valeant, as it continued to outperform the replacements.  And even her Fairfax investment was underwater about seven years after it was first purchased (right around the time that Prem signaled how undervalued he thought it was by purchasing $150 million for his own account).  She didn’t give me any grief when we sold some other names and purchased more Fairfax around the same time.

 

I am glad I never got involved with short selling, as I would have discovered with regard to Valeant the truism that “ the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”

First, I've not said this but I (and likely many others) really appreciate your contributions to the forum. The insurance-industry experience gives a very useful perspective to the discussion. Thank you for that.

 

Second, you point out temperament above, and it really is hugely important. When I first heard Buffett talk about it, I really did not comprehend HOW important it is. My son, 26, started his investment journey a couple years ago. Technically, he's not a brilliant stock-picker, but his decision process is rational and long-term oriented. He's not going to break records with his returns, but he's gonna do better than most, solely because of his temperament.

 

-Crip

[Jaygo]

Sleep Country is one step closer to Sleep Continent. They have made an offer for Sleep number USA who is in bankruptcy.

[Maverick47]

3 hours ago, Crip1 said:

First, I've not said this but I (and likely many others) really appreciate your contributions to the forum. The insurance-industry experience gives a very useful perspective to the discussion. Thank you for that.

 

Second, you point out temperament above, and it really is hugely important. When I first heard Buffett talk about it, I really did not comprehend HOW important it is. My son, 26, started his investment journey a couple years ago. Technically, he's not a brilliant stock-picker, but his decision process is rational and long-term oriented. He's not going to break records with his returns, but he's gonna do better than most, solely because of his temperament.

 

-Crip

Kind words Crip — thank you!
 

In my corner of the world, I just haven’t found many folks, either among family or friends, who seem to enjoy investing as much as I do.  I do come across a good number of folks who enjoy speculation, but that’s a whole different kind of person I refuse to “learn” from….

 

I’d been a longtime lurker on this forum, but joining it shortly after I retired has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.   Some of the most powerful lessons I glean here are those that reinforce the appropriate, measured response a value investor ought to have after viewing seemingly irrational market pricing of the businesses we own part of.

 

This online community helps me maintain a steady approach in the face of market volatility.  Glad to hear your son is approaching things the same way…it’s an impressive lesson to learn at such an age!

[Hamburg Investor]

15 hours ago, Maverick47 said:

In my corner of the world, I just haven’t found many folks, either among family or friends, who seem to enjoy investing as much as I do.  I do come across a good number of folks who enjoy speculation, but that’s a whole different kind of person I refuse to “learn” from….

 

I’d been a longtime lurker on this forum, but joining it shortly after I retired has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.   Some of the most powerful lessons I glean here are those that reinforce the appropriate, measured response a value investor ought to have after viewing seemingly irrational market pricing of the businesses we own part of.

Those words of you resonate a much with me. It mirrors my situation a lot; being located in Germany I never (!) met someone live being interested in Value Investing. We have a lot of speculators here, and all the more, when the markets are up and when daily news writes about it. I got asked two weeks ago about SpaceX and if I would invest into it. I didn't even know about it and said that frankly... People know I am interested in stocks, and if it gets to stocks (which is not very often as no-one is taking time to read about; you just don't learn about stock investing in school, not from your grandparents or fathers... It's just no-one is invested longtime) always ask me for Bitcoin and Tech. That's so typical for Germany. Investing is on noones radar; speculation is. They all want to get rich quickly and when they ask for Tech, I tell them "I don't know about that stock. Only thing I know is, that Tech is not among the best sectors to invest, if history is any guide; the last 20 years are an exception from the rule".

I really like reading your stuff too, @Maverick47. Thanks! Where are you from?  

 

 

[Hamburg Investor]

On 6/11/2026 at 7:56 PM, Viking said:

Thorndike's framework was designed to identify exceptional capital allocators.

Thank you, @Viking! Great post!

I was aware about a lot of the aspects, but I wasn't aware, that Thorndike put that into such a nice book; I will read it! Thanks!

With FFH, BRK, MKL, BN, BAM being at the core of my portfolio, I am heavily invested into longterm compounders where the CEOs have aspects of that way of thinking.

Your article was a starting point for me regarding checking my own investments and lookin for new and smaller ones. This was not done systematically - but maybe someone is interested in the results, that Perplexity found in that process. Please find attached!

Some companies just don't fit really and a lot of criticism could be done, but I think it works as a starting point for further investments; at least for me.

Would be interesting to learn, in which of those others here in the forum are invested.

I am invested into Protektor (10% of my portfolio; I sold some FFH shares two years ago as it just became over 50% of my portfolio and that felt too big for me; and invested the proceeds into Protektor, which doubled since than), FFH, MKL, BRK, BN, BAM, DHR and Rational (just a small fraction; they build cooking systems for a la card and Franchise restaurants; world leader in that sentiment; too expensive for me to invest big). 

outsider_investments_table_en_colored.html

[Maverick47]

1 hour ago, Hamburg Investor said:

Those words of you resonate a much with me. It mirrors my situation a lot; being located in Germany I never (!) met someone live being interested in Value Investing. We have a lot of speculators here, and all the more, when the markets are up and when daily news writes about it. I got asked two weeks ago about SpaceX and if I would invest into it. I didn't even know about it and said that frankly... People know I am interested in stocks, and if it gets to stocks (which is not very often as no-one is taking time to read about; you just don't learn about stock investing in school, not from your grandparents or fathers... It's just no-one is invested longtime) always ask me for Bitcoin and Tech. That's so typical for Germany. Investing is on noones radar; speculation is. They all want to get rich quickly and when they ask for Tech, I tell them "I don't know about that stock. Only thing I know is, that Tech is not among the best sectors to invest, if history is any guide; the last 20 years are an exception from the rule".

I really like reading your stuff too, @Maverick47. Thanks! Where are you from?  

 

 

Where am I from?  Currently I live in Seattle in the US.  However, originally my ancestors came from your part of the world, in Northwestern Germany, arriving in the US sometime in the late 1800’s.  
 

Grandparents on both sides of my family could still speak German, but my own parents could not, nor can I.

 

Here in Seattle, the folks I encounter who are interested in talking about investing are focused almost exclusively on Tesla, or Nvidia, or Bitcoin, or electric plane manufacturers or small pharmaceutical companies that may win the lottery with the next blockbuster drug, none of which I know anything about.   They may have heard of Warren Buffett and know a bit about Berkshire Hathaway, but even when I worked in the insurance industry, it was rare to come across someone who had even heard of Fairfax or Markel or Charlie Munger and Benjamin Graham.

 

And my experience here in the US was the same as yours, with no opportunity to learn about investing in school.  I presume the same is likely true in much of the world, and I admire the efforts of folks like @Viking for his work in setting up an educational website on investing, targeted at young folks in Canada.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Maverick47