Author: Gísli Eyland

There are just too many interesting things going on

Nugget: Francis Chou on Investing in Debt Securities

From Francis Chou´s Letter of the Manager from the Annual Report  2010: Before we invest in troubled companies we always ask questions and base our decisions on some of the criteria outlined below. It is impossible to list all the criteria but these are the main ones we look for: 1) Where does the debt … Continue reading Nugget: Francis Chou on Investing in Debt Securities →

Francis Chou | Deep Value Investor

Francis Chou is a Canadian value investor and principal of Chou Associates Management Inc. In 1981, together with six fellow telephone repairmen, Francis Chou started an investment club with $51,000. He left Bell Canada in 1984 and became a retail analyst at GW Asset Management. He turned the investment club into Chou Associates Fund in 1986. … Continue reading Francis Chou | Deep Value Investor →

Nugget: Damodaran on simulations, sensitivity analysis and decision trees

Damodaran on probabilistic approaches to risk assessments in finance: • In the most extreme form of scenario analysis, you look at the value in the best case and worst case scenarios and contrast them with the expected value. In its more general form, you estimate the value under a small number of likely scenarios, ranging … Continue reading Nugget: Damodaran on simulations, sensitivity analysis and decision trees →

Nugget: Madison Square Garden Valuation

From Brian Griffin´s article "Madison Square Garden Seems Significantly Undervalued" : Valuation: I will keep it relatively simple as I've always felt that the more numbers you need, the less likely it is that you have a real winner. You can add up the low end of my estimates and come up with 800 + … Continue reading Nugget: Madison Square Garden Valuation →

Warren Buffett on the Borsheim Business Model

Borsheim's Fine Jewelry is an Omaha-based jewellery store that in 1989 was acquired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. From the 1988 Berkshire Hathaway Letter to Shareholders You won’t be surprised to learn that this family brings to the jewelry business precisely the same approach that the Blumkins bring to the furniture business.  The cornerstone for … Continue reading Warren Buffett on the Borsheim Business Model →

Fairfax Financial Holdings

Investment Competence How would you describe the investment style of Hamblin Watsa? Our investment philosophy at Hamblin Watsa rests on the principles of value investing championed by Ben Graham and practiced by Warren Buffett and John Templeton. We have a long term value oriented approach to managing money, which results in our viewing the risk of capital … Continue reading Fairfax Financial Holdings →

Mental Model: Ecological Systems

A mental model is an explanation of a thought process about how something works in the real world. Mental models help shape our behaviour and define our approach to solving problems (akin to a personal algorithm) and carrying out tasks. Mental models have been studied by cognitive scientists as part of efforts to understand how … Continue reading Mental Model: Ecological Systems →

Nugget: In praise of Vagueness

Excerpt from "In Praise of Vagueness; Malleability of Vague Information as a Performance Booster" by Himanshu Mishra, Arul Mishra and Baba Shiv "In the domains of goal setting and selfpresentation, research has found that people strategically distort vague information to perceive themselves as at an advantage. For instance, athletes were more likely to exaggerate their … Continue reading Nugget: In praise of Vagueness →