The Fairfax Financial (FFH/NYSE) blowout results have created something of a media frenzy of press reports on the company and top guy Prem Watsa.
When I first started blogging -- and recommending -- Fairfax in 2005 (I bought it several years earlier, before launching this site), my posts were met with silence. Or disdain. I got several emails chastising me for holding the stock.
But, look, if my stock picks meet with universal acclaim I'm probably not being successful in my attempt to find unloved companies, right? (And I'm not perfect by a long shot. See my Japanese consumer lenders!)
Anyway, the reasons for reading blogs such as Controlled Greed.com is to get views and/or news you don't get from the mainstream business press.
And if an idea presented here does work out -- then there's plenty of press stories to link to.
Such is the case currently with Fairfax -- and this fine story from the Globe and Mail:
Inside his boardroom, Prem Watsa keeps an unusual artifact: a bronze
bust of Sir John Templeton, the 95-year-old legend of value investing.
The item was a 50th birthday gift for the chairman of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., but also serves as a source of inspiration. The Templeton principles,
after all, underpin much of Fairfax's investment philosophy: Be
flexible; search around the world for the best bargains; and above all
else, go against the crowd – buy when others are pessimistic, and sell
when optimism rules.
There's more. Be sure to read the whole thing as time permits.
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