Liberty

YES!!!! Honest question: And after that, what would have happened..?

[amazonsearch]Thinking, Fast and Slow[/amazonsearch] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/opinion/brooks-who-you-are.html?_r=1 Coming out soon. His research into cognitive biases and heuristics is very helpful to any value investor who tries to have an edge by being more rational than the market. I also recommend: [amazonsearch]Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases[/amazonsearch] [amazonsearch]Heuristics Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment[/amazonsearch]

VAL was talking about EK circa 1996. If you go back to that period and the 10 years prior to it, I'd say that EK was in a leadership position or close to one (at least based on what I know of the company, which isn't that much).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204618704576644632834963512.html

Guys, please. You can sell for a million reasons - buying a boat, diversifying into other things, divorce, etc. But usually when you buy, it's because you think it's going to be worth more. That's what I said. I didn't say that insiders were always right or that it meant you could disregard all other metrics and signs about the company, or look at it out of context, just that insider buying is usually a signal that contains less noise than insider selling -- in fact, I feel it's pretty safe to totally ignore insider selling unless the quantity is way above average. It's by looking at the whole picture that you can increase your degree of certitude about the prospects of the business, and by looking at the whole picture that you can tell if the insider buying is misguided, delusional, manipulative, etc.. On its own, it's not enough. But it sure is more useful as a signal than insider selling. So if the business is doing badly on fundamentals and management seems untrustworthy and there are a bunch of other red flags, insider buying isn't worth much. But if the business has good fundamentals and management seems trustworthy and rational, insider buying certainly is a good sign (though of course not the only sign).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-20/jobs-regretted-not-getting-cancer-surgery-sooner-biographer-isaacson-says.html

http://www.altiusminerals.com/files/PR1011-%20AGM.pdf

I think it's generally accepted that insider sales are almost meaningless (there can be a thousand reasons for selling), while insider buys can only mean one thing.

The way I look at it, there are three levers you can pull to increase your net worth. 1) Increase income/revenue 2) Decrease expenses 3) Make good capital allocation decisions It seems obvious that a combination of the three will give better results than just pulling one or two.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/buffett-returns-to-cartoonland-joined-by-jay-z/

FTP hit a 52wk low 2 months ago. Since then it is up 87.8%. Not a bad rebound!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/markel-announces-acquisition-of-weldship-132138293.html

Thanks for posting, I appreciate it!

I guess that in the end, all of this depends on the "why" you want to have money. If it's to have a nice car and party all night and buy nice things, then don't wait too long, do it now and enjoy life. But for me, I wouldn't live much differently if I had a few millions. I'd have a nice house and a few more electronic gadgets, but that's not why I do it. I do it for the security. To know that I can do whatever I want, and it's ok. I can work on my projects all day and read my books and listen to my music and explore whatever piques my interest and never be forced to do stuff I don't want to do just for money. That's the end goal for me. So being a bit frugal doesn't feel like a sacrifice to me because saving the money is helping me get something that is worth so much more. I don't want a ferrari or a yacht, I want personal independence.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111018007046/en/RLI-Reports-Quarter-Results

People looking for tips to save money should check out: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Tightwad-Gazette-Amy-Dacyczyn/dp/0375752250/ It's from the early 90s, so some of it is dated. But there's so much stuff that even if you use only 5% of the tips, you'll probably end up paying for the book dozens of times over. That book, please a few blogs that I read for a while, have no doubt saved me thousands of dollars at not real cost to me life enjoyment. But more importantly, they helped change my mindset a bit, and after a while I didn't need any reinforcement to stick to it. None of it feels like a sacrifice, it feels like finding bargains, and that's fun!

Agreed. I'd rather enjoy life. He's the only one who can decide if what he does gives him more satisfaction than what he's giving up, in the same way that Buffett's frugal ways are obviously giving him more satisfaction than he would get out of a bigger house and all kinds of bling. There's a lot of things that I want but I delay getting them because to me it's better to own a few more shares of the businesses that I like, and it's better to be financially independent a bit sooner, etc. There's such a thing as going too far - ie. if Buffett didn't buy the coke and burgers that he loves so much to save money - but it's up to each person to decide what that is for themselves. I'm saying this because people tend to project their tastes and needs and limits on other people way too much, and that's a flaw in their mental models, as Munger would say.

Financial independence is a huge turn on, don't you know? ;) 8)

Looks like he has the discipline to achieve his goals. Hopefully he has the same discipline on the investment side as on the saving side :)

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/10/apple-and-android-the-slow-pall-bearers-to-rims-eventual-demise.ars

Short video interviews with Chad in the G&M: 1. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/success-stories/video-printing-and-protecting-money-big-business-for-fortress-paper/article2203819/ 2. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/success-stories/video-fortress-paper-chief-turns-tired-mill-into-multimillion-dollar-venture/article2203818/ 3. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/success-stories/video-entrepreneurial-paper-chief-explains-contrarian-investing-strategy/article2203820/

Thanks AZ, you beat me to it! :)

[amazonsearch]Quality of Earnings[/amazonsearch] Anyone has read this one? would you recommend it? In confidence Game, Bill Ackman sends a box of books to someone else, and out of the 5, I have read 4. This is the fifth one, so I'm thinking of getting it.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011101614244373

Hey. I was wondering if there's a more high-tech alternative to SEDAR.com to get filings from Canadian companies. SEC.gov has a RSS feed for each company page so that you can easily track new filings. Anything equivalent for Canada, either on SEDAR or on another site? SEDAR.com looks like it was made in 1996 and never updated...