Margin of Safety » Prem Watsa http://amarginofsafety.com "...to distill the secret of sound investment into three words..." Fri, 26 Jun 2020 18:44:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 Prem Watsa, CFA http://amarginofsafety.com/2011/09/10/prem-watsa-cfa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prem-watsa-cfa http://amarginofsafety.com/2011/09/10/prem-watsa-cfa/#comments Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:15:12 +0000 Ray Galkowski, CFA http://amarginofsafety.com/?p=868 Continue reading →]]> I used to own Fairfax Financial, which smartly shorted financial stocks and bonds–to the tune of several billion dollars–before they blew up. Here is an enjoyable interview of its CEO–Prem Watsa, CFA–who is a value investor who is sometimes referred to as the Warren Buffett of Canada. The interview was found in CFA Magazine.

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/d1f7adef#/d1f7adef/36

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]]> http://amarginofsafety.com/2011/09/10/prem-watsa-cfa/feed/ 0 Prem Watsa’s Thoughts on Current Macro Conditions http://amarginofsafety.com/2011/07/21/prem-watsas-thoughts-on-current-macro-conditions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prem-watsas-thoughts-on-current-macro-conditions http://amarginofsafety.com/2011/07/21/prem-watsas-thoughts-on-current-macro-conditions/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:56:47 +0000 Ray Galkowski, CFA http://amarginofsafety.com/?p=819 Continue reading →]]> Prem Watsa is Chairman of Fairfax Financial, a Canadian P&C firm in the mold of Berkshire Hathaway. Prem is sometimes called Canada’s Warren Buffett. We held a profitable position in Fairfax for a while, but no longer hold any interest in the firm.

Like Klarman, Prem focuses on managing the downside and lets his value-investing philosophy and process take care of the upside. Prem had opened large short positions and bought Credit Default Swaps in the known bad guys–Bear, Lehman, Fannie, Freddie, etc–before the financial crisis and his investors profited handsomely. Here are some of his thoughts about current macro conditions:

First and foremost, we take a long-term, value-oriented view. That said, we currently believe that most markets are overpriced and we are not being adequately paid for risk. As a result, we have taken a number of steps to hedge our portfolios.

Amen, brother.

Source: CFA Magazine: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/d42aa7ee#/d42aa7ee/25

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