boilermaker75

There is another story I recall, and since you are currently reading the book you can correct anything I get wrong. At the start when there were just a couple of them they had rented space that was two rooms side-by-side. The minicomputer was in one room and the terminals were in another. Ellison came in and everyone was sitting around doing nothing because the cables were too short to run out one door and in the other to connect the terminals to the computer. Ellison left, came back a few minutes later with a hammer, pounded a hole through the wall and said run your cables through there.

Sounds like something that would attract Ponzi wantabees! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

BeerBaron, My biggest mistake also involved Nortel (NT). I owned Clarify (CLFY) and it was doing very well. Then NT bought CLFY. My mistake was not selling at that point. I watched NT go up, and then back down below where it was when my CLFY was converted to NT. I didn't loose money, but I watched a 10-bagger turn into a 3-bagger before I sold.

ACN

I just thought of something with IB that I don't recall anyone mentioning lately. If you are short an option and it is in-the-money and exercised, you are not charged a commission for the stock transaction. I am charged for the stock transaction at Schwab and I would guess that is the case at other brokers as well.

I also have accounts at Schwab, so I have no need for any of the IB add-ons. I have also noticed the fills at IB are better than the fills at Schwab. So for the same trade I get paid to make the trade at IB versus charged to make the trade at Schwab. Note I do like Schwab and if you have a large enough account, or trade often, you can negotiate commissions. Schwab charges me $4.95 per trade. I am thinking about moving from fido to IB as well. The only concern is that IB doesn't have integration with turbo tax, which makes filing tax each year to be painful. Yes I should have mentioned that. I think that is the only negative I have encountered with IB. It is very painful for me because I do a lot of put writing and I have over 100 trades at IB every year that I have to manually enter.

I also have accounts at Schwab, so I have no need for any of the IB add-ons. I have also noticed the fills at IB are better than the fills at Schwab. So for the same trade I get paid to make the trade at IB versus charged to make the trade at Schwab. Note I do like Schwab and if you have a large enough account, or trade often, you can negotiate commissions. Schwab charges me $4.95 per trade.

That was the first thing I noticed when I started to read them yesterday.

Buckeye, I just started reading Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders on my kindle today. It was only $3.99 so as a value investor I could not pass it up! Boiler

Parsad, Yes make like Carl Icahn and tell us what you are buying LOL!

What a tease!

These are dismal graduation rates. But it might speak more to these schools not being able to attract students who are capable of college. Graduation rate is a good metric, but only if there is a way to check how these graduate rates are achieved. If the college starts making all classes A, B, or C, with no D or Fs, then the increase in graduate rate will not mean anything. I did my Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Purdue. I had a fellow grad student who took a professor position at another prestigious private university in the same state. Every semester he would give some Ds and Fs. He would be called in to see his department head and the dean of engineering and be told they did not have D and F students in their university. He would tell them they would be getting Ds and Fs if they were at Purdue. He did not get tenured. Edit: Here is a related link that might be of interest, http://www.gradeinflation.com/

I use both IB and Schwab. My IRA and my wife's IRA are at Schwab. I like them both. If you do enough business with Schwab, you can negotiate lower rates. Schwab lowered their commissions to $4.95 for all our six accounts.

Very nice, Thanks!

The 2000-2002 decline was not too far from the 2008 decline. Assuming the average time between these events is 10 years doesn't they will always be separated by something close to 10 years. You could have 5 years between events following by 20 years between events. It is probabilistic, just like IV! I'm kidding, I'm kidding I don't want to restart the IV discussion!

If anyone watched the Jon Stewart show around the time of the financial crisis, Cramer was on the show and Stewart had him wriggling and writhing so much that he looked like the guy who is just about to be convicted and jailed! The joke was on him for that one time! You can see that Jon Stewart show at this link http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-12-2009/jim-cramer-pt--1 There are three parts

My story is, East Chicago, IN > Highland, IN > West Lafayette, IN > Santa Clara, CA > West Lafayette, IN > Dallas, TX > West Lafayette, IN and starting out in IN I never thought I would end up in IN, but maybe someday I will escape for good!

What do you mean ensure the trade will go through? If you use limit orders and sell at the bid and buy at the ask it should go through, unless the bid and/or ask change in the time it takes you to submit your order. You could use a market order and it should go through near the bid for the buy and the ask for the sell. Besides commissions, you will lose the spread between the buy and ask for BRK, which should be no more than 2 to 4 cents per share. Of course there might be a slight change in the bid and ask in the time it takes you to switch between accounts and submit the trades.

I'll second that!

Here is an episode of National Geographic's show Brain Games on memory. If I remember correctly, LOL, it includes someone memorizing cards and how he does it. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq2gon_national-geographic-test-your-brain-episode-3-memory_shortfilms

Down on earnings, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/national-oilwell-2q-net-income-133610387.html Thinking about writing the September 67.5-strike puts.

Found this one posted by Globalfinancepartners on the Chucks Angels board, http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/122_136/berkshire-hathaway-gives-insurance-pledge-on-higher-valued-detroit-debt-1053778-1.html

Hey GFP, Thanks, Boiler PS I think this year is the Saint's year again! Geaux Saints!

Is anyone a subscriber to Insurance Insider, have read the following article, and can give us a synopsis? http://www.insuranceinsider.com/berkshire-already-making-inroads-in-lloyd-s-e-and-s-business TIA, Boiler

I don't live in CA, so the CA sales tax you paid does me no good! ;) Actually, my daughter lives in West Hollywood, so it is helping her. I'm old enough to remember when IN first adopted a 2% state sales tax. Our current rate is 7%. I know from visiting my daughter you have it worse. If your daughter: has a job; has a significant other with a job; and/or lives off of invested capital earning a return; then CA taxes are most certainly not helping her. She has a job and owns property. So she is paying CA income tax, CA real estate tax, and whenever she buys anything CA sales tax of 9% in her area. So yes just her CA taxes are a significant amount. I often joke to my wife after we return from a trip to visit our daughter and buy something that the sales tax in CA would have been more than the item, or service, cost here in IN.