We have seen some very encouraging insider buying at AIG that I believe warrants attention.  AIG is one of the most misunderstood large cap companies that we see.  Most analysts and market participants are blinded by their recent history of liquidity failure, as opposed to the century long history of becoming one of the most...Read More

I thought you might enjoy this insight into the investment practices of Seth Klarman.  Klarman is a low key value investor with an amazing track record, and is one of three men that Warren Buffett mentioned he would recommend as a money manager to people.  His investments are unorthodox in many cases and his book...Read More

One of our favorite stocks (AGO) today announced the doubling of their quarterly dividend.  Their earnings come out on the 28th and I also expect them to have also bought back stock at attractive prices.  At the end of 2011 all we heard about in the news was that investors should buy high yield defensive...Read More

Today Larry Fink the CEO of Blackrock, recommended that most investors put 100% of their investments in stocks.  While the article mentions that this is against the advice of most money managers who recommend a 60/40 stock/bond allocation, I at least applaud that he isn’t afraid to show his conviction when the relative value of...Read More

Today there is a very interesting article on http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-30/longest-s-p-500-valuation-slump-since-nixon-discounting-record-u-s-profit.html showing the immense pessimism priced into US equities, exhibited by the extremely low price/earnings ratios.  Markets go from periods of pessimism to periods of exuberance, but what is striking about the last several years is that at no point has the market rallied to a point...Read More

The general consensus is that the recovery in housing will be slow and will take several years before you see substantial price appreciation.  It is also understood that there is a large shadow inventory which will bog down prices delaying the recovery.  While we have certainly gone through the worst housing crisis since World War...Read More

While all the news lately has been bad for Sears, I found it quite interesting that the CEO who owns 60% of SHLD in his Hedge Fund just bought a huge amount of stock.  Sears has never been an investment based on confidence in its retailing operations and I think that purchases like this speak...Read More

While the market has been performing adequately over the last couple of months we are seeing really impressive performance out of our more contrarian investments such as Assured Guaranty (AGO).  Even after a 54% gain it still trades at only about 70% of book value, and its adjusted book value is actually around $50 per...Read More

There was a significant court ruling that will be a big help to what has been one of our largest positions AGO.  MBIA which is a competitor to AGO in the same line of business one a ruling versus Bank of America about what they need to prove to show losses from fraudulent reps and...Read More

With 2011 coming to a close I think it is very important to lay out our views going into 2012, and how that will affect our investment strategies.  2011 was a very difficult year that saw some of the most successful investors Warren Buffett, Bill Gross, Bruce Berkowitz, John Paulson, Martin Whitman, among many others...Read More