Someone pointed out that the $859 million GLD position was in the form of call options; I missed that (don’t go through filings late at night!) So the increase in the 13F portfolio from $1 billion to $2.2 billion is largely not ‘real’; just an increase due to the reporting of the notional amount of the…
Duquesne Family Office: Druckenmiller Likes Gold
This is not a blog that tracks the buys and sells of hedge funds or anything like that, but I just stumbled on this so I thought I’d post it. (Of course, a hedge fund manager liking gold is hardly breaking news, but…) We all know Stanley Druckenmiller; he needs no introduction (if you do,…
CNA: One-of-the-Parts (of Loews)
Loews (L) has been, for years, a popular sum-of-the-parts play by value investors and it seems that’s it’s always trading at a discount. I suppose that’s normal for a conglomerate. I am a big fan of L and have a lot of confidence in the Tisch family but one thing has always been nagging me about…
CKH: Seacor Holdings Inc. Annual Report 2011
So this annual report recently came in the mail. It’s another great read; a no-nonsense manager that has a great long term track record etc… But then as I was reading this, I realized it sits on a common thread of this blog recently (inflation, too much debt, dollar destined to go down, manage capital…
Deconstructing Sony: Some-of-the-Parts Have Value
OK, so this is a company I really, really would love to love. I grew up with their products and thought they were great. But things haven’t gone well there. I’ve been short this stock for a while, but without too much research. It was just a short on Japan in general and Sony’s (SNE) total…
Einhorn’s Macro Trades
We know that Einhorn has taken a view on some sovereign credit, Japanese yen and gold etc. So I thought I’d take a quick look at his macro positions. First of all, for reference, at the end of the first quarter total investments were $1.18 billion and shareholders’ equity was $869 million. Positions This is…
Greenlight Re Investor Meeting Notes 2012
I attended this event today and here are some notes. As usual, this is not intended to be a comprehensive summary at all so I won’t get into every detail. Also, there may be mistakes. Reading through the many Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting notes, we know that many people can hear the same thing and…
SEB: Seaboard Corporation
Not to get too caught up with Leucadia and what the smart folks there say, but this “wind at your back” and “protein” talk reminded me of a nice little company that may also be a protein play. LUK bought National Beef partly because it’s a play on the rising consumption of beef around the…
JCP: Johnson Premium Gone
So JCP tanked this week on bad earnings; it closed the week at $26.29/share. I think this is an interesting situation but haven’t done anything here yet, but things are getting interesting at this price. The Situation I assume most people in the market knows what’s going on here. Bill Ackman of Pershing Square along…
National Beef
This is just some housekeeping stuff for LUK. National Beef is a major purchase and it may be at the center of LUK’s plan to turn it into a fortress entity; a cash flow producing going concern that will generate cash even in bad times and less emphasis on deal-making to create wealth. This is…