valueinvesting101

What kind of insurance is he referencing to exactly? Is it P&C?

I think it will end up higher than price of BRK/A by end of the day.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dividendchannel/2013/04/08/berkshire-hathaway-moves-up-in-market-cap-rank-passing-google/

Any books which can help me understand banking industry and how to read and interpret their financial statement? I understand their might not be just one book. Good way would be to understand industry and learn accounting seperately to apply to it. I am looking for more of things to consider or different facets of the business and its balance sheet. Just wanted to hear thoughts about board members as there is lot of discussion about banking sector on this board yet someone like WEB is still able to spot amortization charge on WFC income statement which he claimed no one talks about including analysts.

How is the tax treatment in this case? Does BRK need to pay any tax on gain or do they pay tax only when they sell their shares?

The Innovation Project™ 2013 Reinventing the Conversation about Innovation in Payments http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/commerce-3-0/the-innovation-project-2013/warren-buffett-video/

To declare early or not that's the question: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/banks-said-to-weigh-defying-fed-with-dividend-disclosures.html Sure these things will leak. Plus it will be difficult find out insider trading as many people taking position might well be trading in these stocks for some time and huge volume this event is expected to create.

Where did they make that statement?

Does this link has all the video? I think it missing some of the content as it was supposed to be 3 hour interview.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130122/MONEY/701239991/1685 Any runners here? I know lot of hedgies are in to endurance sport big time.

You can see Warren prefers WFC and USB over lot of other banks available in US. You can start by studying their business model and reports. Banking is general is very huge sector and understanding all facets of it is quite difficult. Also you can look at other banks like JPM, BAC, GS, MS to understand how to they are earning money differently. Banks have been termed as cyclical but I find that hard to digest. They are not exactly cyclical as commodities might be. Worth studying why banks blow up to understand how banking works. Munger quote and speech compilation posted here had some good insights about banking.

On further digging I found that Yahoo finance does have warrants. BAC-WTA, AIG-WT, JPM-WT etc. But their UI seems cluncky. Still need to figure out how to add sell trade data as well as old transactions. I am also looking for web based solution which is platform agnostic.

I am looking for suggestions for online portfolio tracking tools. I would like to use google finance but it does not support option positions and TARP warrants. I have account at TradeKing and Scottrade. But I want to use one tool consistently to track my performance.

Fairfax bought 4.975 mln SD shares at prices ranging from $6.10-6.24 between 12/21-12/26. The purchases totaled ~$30.8 mln

I am looking for ETF which is heavily invested in undervalued stocks in Financial sector(BAC, JPM, WFC, C etc.) and some of the favorite insurance companies on this board such as BRK, FFH, MKL, LRN etc. Fidelity Select Insurance (FSPCX) has 17% in berkshire but no exposure to Financial. RevenueShares Financials Sector (RWW) has custom weight formula and I like their allocation a lot. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hl?s=RWW+Holdings Any comments about similar funds/ETF or above funds? FAIRX is another choice.

I want to open Self Directed Brokerage Account under my 401K plan. My employer has tie up with JP Morgan Securities. Does any have any experience with them? Currently plan allows investments only in Mutual funds and ETF. I want to invest using SDBA as I want to invest in financial sector ETF. This is currently not offered as part of funds offered under 401K plan. I understand this can be risky move but I feel good enough conviction about better performance from financials. Any good recommendation for ETF tracking financial sector? Are leveraged ETF too poor at tracking index performance or just too costly? I can get this information online as well but I would get perspective from board members.

Any website which shows total return for particular stock? I would like to see how much coke has paid out in dividend since 1989. This needs to take into account splitting of of shares as well.

Here is the link for agreement: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000119312511232422/dex11.htm Checkout 13. Adjustments and Other Rights. Page 7 onwards. Yeah those warrrants can build very big position in BAC for Berkshire. 700 million warrants but at strike of 7.14( $7.142857 to be precise) with dividend adjustments expiring in 2021. WEB really killed it.

How are these warrants valued on Berkshire's balance sheet? I think they might have been marked at zero considering conservative approach. Will any of these be will be converted to common? GS and GE are expiring in less than year. Long time to go for BAC and considering dividend adjustment I hardly doubt WEB will convert BAC warrants into common as yet.

What exactly Berkshire getting in return? No article mentions expected cash Berkshire is expected to receive or liability they are taking on. I am sure WEB has done good deal for Berk but I want to understand what is going on.

won't there be buyback at PB of 1.1?

Looks like Jan 2015 series has started trading for some companies such as Apple, WFC but not for other such as BAC, JPM, BRK. Is there any calendar listing when these option start trading for different companies? I remember some people were/are waiting for this series to open.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-23/greece-may-sell-islands-as-juncker-urges-asset-sales-drive.html Just as companies/people declaring bankruptcies lose their assets, isn't it logical for Countries to follow the same rules?

Looks like Jan 2014 series started trading around 10/17/2011. That was third Monday of October.

Seems to be trading very close or may be below 1.1x book value.