David Dreman’s book “Contrarian Investment Strategies” was one of the keys to formulating my investment methodology.  In the book and the updated versions that have followed, Dreman outlines extensive statistical analysis pointing to the follies of the Efficient Market Theory.  The statistics demonstrated that stocks with low p/b, p/cf, and p/e tend to outperform over...Read More

Today we had some big news with the Federal Reserve announcing the results of the dramatic stress tests.  As a whole the US banking industry did quite well, which is to be expected considering they have double the capital that they had three years ago. I was somewhat surprised to see Citigroup, which has one...Read More

While value investing is practiced by a small minority of market participants, even fewer understand, or have the patience to see it through.  Many people think it is as simple as buying a stock that is cheap, and then it goes up from there, typically within a few months to a year.  Sometimes investments do...Read More

Today I was able to read over the most recent shareholder’s letter from Prem Watsa, CEO of Fairfax Financial.  This is a company that is often under the radar for many U.S. investors, but Watsa is known as “The Warren Buffett of Canada.”  Watsa operates a similar business where he invests using insurance float and...Read More

This morning I finally had the opportunity to read the most recent Chairman’s letter from Samuel Palmisano, who had been the CEO of IBM before stepping down recently.  He has done a remarkable job of converting a business that was focused both on the Enterprise and the Consumer, to a business that is at the...Read More

As most of you know I’m a huge fan of Bruce Berkowitz of Fairholme funds, and we have a lot of similar positions in our TTCM portfolios.  Last year was a horrible year for many value investors, and the main takeaway is how quickly somebody can be torn down in the investment management industry.  What...Read More

The idea that the Federal Reserve can accurately forecast the financial results and capital ratios for these massive banks assuming an 8% decline in GDP, a 50% decrease in stocks, a 20% decrease in housing prices, and an unemployment rate of 13% is truly laughable.  There are just far too many inputs and projections to...Read More

Today the Wall Street Journal posted an article outlining some of the technological steps that Sears is taking to improve their retail performance.  While I think these programs are good I am still not really optimistic as to their future as a retailer in their current form.  I think Sears has tremendously valuable brands and...Read More

About Tim Travis Chief Executive Officer and Founder Tim Travis is a veteran deep value investor and money manager.  Travis has extensive experience in traditional investments such as stocks and bonds, in addition to having a unique methodology of combining options and distressed investing with value investing to generate income, reduce risk, and to add...Read More

UnionBanCal Corp announced today that they are acquiring Pacific Capital Bancorp PCBC for $46 a share.  This valuation is in excess of 2 times book value.  While PCBC regional footprint is attractive, it is interesting to note that the huge US Banks, BAC, C, JPM, MS, GS are trading below book value, and in many...Read More