Prem Watsa was once called the savviest value investor you will never know. He is also known as the Canadian Buffett. In fact, his investing approach is uncannily similar. He heads Fairfax which owns multiple insurance companies. He generally buys companies in whole and mostly when they are in trouble (Blackberry being a recent example). … Read more
This year marks 50 years of Buffett and Munger running Berkshire Hathaway. Since 1977, Buffett has been writing an annual letter to his shareholders. A compilation of these letters was also published as a book. This year the letter has its details on business performance, plus the now regular interesting insights and wisdom as usual, … Read more
I found this wonderful talk – both in style and substance, in numbers and stories – as he mentions – delivered by Prof Aswath Damodaran (of New York University) at Google posted on Youtube over this weekend. Here are some notes/ statements from this talk to takeaway: “Accounting is not valuation” “Goodwill is the most … Read more
This weekend was memorable for a number of events. While at a personal level, it was memorable for my son getting his Karate Black Belt, for many it was memorable probably due to another famous Indian victory over Pakistan at the World Cup, and for some it was memorable due to Valentine Day. But the … Read more
So 2014 saw a total of 75 NFOs (New Fund Offers by Mutual Funds) compared to 18 in 2013. In 2012, there were 8 and in 2011 there were 11 NFOs. Last we saw anywhere close to so many NFOs was 41 in 2008 and 48 in 2007. And incidentally many of these 75 NFOs … Read more
It is difficult to make predictions, specially about the future said somebody famous. And now that I got the attention due to the headline, let me clarify that this post is not about predictions for the Sensex. I just thought it may be interesting to present a set of figures on long term returns from … Read more
It has been a while since I posted to the blog. The reason being I had nothing much to say. So while I find something to say, there is always a lot of interesting stuff to read. While the message remains the same like all the basics of investing, it is not a bad time … Read more
“Expect a Surprise” said my broker friend Jigneshbhai as we ordered a fresh new flavored cold coffee this time, when we met over the last weekend. “Is it a surprise or should I expect it?” asked a confused Swami. “If I expect it, it is no longer a surprise, and if it is a surprise, … Read more
“Thank God for the Supreme Court – now the government has to catch all the black money holders with Swiss Bank accounts” exclaimed my friend Swami while we were having our coffee this week. My broker friend Jigneshbhai was unmoved and kept sipping his coffee waiting for Swami to continue. As usual, nothing irritates Swami … Read more