Updates
5 Dec 2011 - The NAV for November 2011 was $1169.427, down 1.2%.
Do take the time to read Bloomberg Market's report on the Secret Fed Loans given out in 2008/2009. It doesn't seem to have got much press coverage thus far. It's hard to take anybody at face value these days....More Charts here.
Steve Waldman of interfluidity on a similar topic.
And one more for the conspiracy theorists.
11 Nov 2011 - The NAV for October 2011 was $1184.128, an increase of 4.1%.
13 Oct 2011 - The 3Q11 letter is out.
5 Oct 2011 - The NAV for September 2011 was $1137.432, a decrease of 5.1%.
It seems that Anonymous is now in the business of exposing corrupt companies. They've put up a report on Chaoda Modern Agriculture that is an interesting read. Very detailed and comprehensive work which I found informative. Readers should naturally keep in mind that the writers have an agenda and take the report with a pinch of salt.
7 Sep 2011 - The NAV for August 2011 fell 5.3% to $1198.600
31 Aug 2011 - I've introduced a performance chart on the Reports page. As with all free things in life (Thanks Google), there are some caveats. You will need a Standards based browser to view it properly. Eg IE9, Firefox 4/5/6, Google Chrome, Safari, etc.
6 Aug 2011 - The NAV for July 2011 was $1265.412, a decrease of 0.3%.
I have not been posting as much as I would have liked. First off, Jeremy Grantham has posted another great article about resource shortages. His argument is that the real shortage is fertile soil. I had always thought water was the critical shortage but he makes a convincing case.
Another article that aroused my interest is that BNY Mellon has decided to charge a fee for excess deposits. Imagine having to pay to put your money in the bank. It is a strange world we live in. One possible extrapolation: What if people decide to just go into cash for the long term? The withdrawal of funds from bonds and equity into cash would have a devastating effect on the market.
18 Jul 2011 - The 2Q11 letter is out.
11 Jul 2011 - The NAV for June 2011 was $1268.745, up 7.4%.
12 Jun 2011 - May 2011's NAV was $1180.904, an increase of 1.5%. With all the delistings and privatizations going on in Singapore, I found this article to be pertinent.
12 May 2011 - The NAV for April 2011 was $1163.502. The fund was down 0.6% for the month. I went on a visit to China and Tibet. The amount of construction is simply astounding. For the less intrepid, there's a St Regis in Lhasa; a Shangri-la is also being constructed.
8 Apr 2011 - The NAV for Mar 2011 rose 2.6% for the month and 4.1% for the quarter. The 1Q11 letter has also been posted.
4 Mar 2011 - The NAV for Feb 2011 fell 1% to $1141.166.
12 Feb 2011 - The NAV for Jan 2011 was $1152.801. The fund was up 2.5% for the month.
6 Feb 2011 - It turns out that Hotmail sends emails to the webserver before trying the email server. If the webserver accepts email then it does not poll for the email server's address. This is not following web standards; Hotmail should be polling for the email server and not the web server. We've implemented a workaround and it seems to be working. If you get an error message, please resend the message. If not, please use a non hotmail address. Apologies for the inconvenience. Hotmail has known about this problem for some time but refuses to resolve the bug.
On a separate note, I'd like to wish everybody a Happy Chinese New Year. Welcome to the Year of the Metal Rabbit!
1 Feb 2011 - We upgraded our DNS servers recently and it seems that some emails are not getting through. Hotmail and MSN users are getting a bounced message. If I have not been replying emails and you are a hotmail user, would it be possible to try to use another email? We are working on a temporary bypass but I'm made to understand that Hotmail does not like Google Apps email for some reason.
1 Feb 2011 - January's NAV will be published later than usual due to the Chinese New Year Holidays. Apologies for the delay.
Jeremy Grantham has an interesting article in his latest newsletter that advices Graham and Dodders not to ignore bubbles. To do so would be at their own peril. In my opinion, it is worth thinking about. Classical value investors traditionally focus on stock picking only while ignoring the macro picture. It's clear that many famous value investors were hit in 2008. Perhaps this might be worth a rethink in strategy? Food for thought.
31 Jan 2011 - The 4Q10 letter is out.
13 Jan 2011 - The NAV for Dec 2010 was $1125.026. The fund was up 3.7% for the month and 10.5% for the year.