John Hjorth

Mr. Bloomstran obviously prefers the strength of Berkshires oufit and setup compared to that of Fairfax. SAI 2023 Client Letter, p. 125 : I have no idea of his level of insight to or interest in Fairfax, all stated while I think what has been going on at Fairfax might have skipped the attention of the general investment community, while the pocket and odd corner of that called CoBF might be a strong exemption to that.

@Luke, I do not disagree with you, nor am I trying to change your mind, but I try to stay a bit more openminded and forthcoming towards reasoning and arguments from persons with other approaches or stances than mine, that is like a hardcore anal cheapskate attitude towards fees and commisions of all kinds! [To get the notes, you have to collect and hoard the coins!]

@Luke , Somewhere else, - in the 'BerKshire / Buffett - General News' topic, a short time ago Charlie [ @dealraker ] mentioned his personal considerations in that respect, that to me actually might make some sense, while I still think [speculate] the majority of the members of CoBF are on a personal level wired totally different than that [ Link ] : All stated by me based on that I don't know anything about Semper Augustus' modus operandi of client services and handling except from knowing the contents of the public available client letters. Client services and handling may contain things we aren't aware of.

@Luke , The man, who raised me professionally, he had a saying, that only came from him under verbal overflow, when he was frustrated about something : 'John, please remember, if we did not have all these clients, we would not have any problems at all!' [<- Huh?, try to think about it!]. He passed away much too early, twelve years ago [his heart decided to call it a day], three years into his retirement, he never really got to enjoy the good times without demanding work and with enough money in his purse and on his bank account. Think Munger about billing clients when he was practising law. One have to be mentally wired in a very special way to have fun chasing the combination of AUM and returns, in stead of returns alone, I think. To this day I still think that Buffett using Berkshire as a permanent capital vehicle to buy NICO was not a mistake. I would argue, that the world does not necessarily fall apart, if we don't have any of these light blue things : Ferrari, car colour matching sports shoes, pool. But each to their own, of course.

Yeah, @charlieruane , For my part, Monish Pabrai is in his very own separate and individiual leage here, but for me based on personal and subjective evaluations and assessments about his motives and actions about and why he is doing what. He has been giving up basically about everything he earns - and have done so for many years now, by giving it to Dakshana Foundation. And I would say say, with tremendous success, simply keep the ball rolling and creating opportunities for young people with a technical background, who want to proceed and succeed in life. He is simply the catalyst to make good things happpen, for other people than himself, which is amazing. Nobody can paint a picture to something similar about Mr. Bloomstran or Mr. Spier, compared to Mr. Paprai's doings so far.

Hereby personally bought at par .

I'll give you that, @charlieruane, it appears true. However Mr. Spier is also - like Mr. Bloomstran - one of those money managers, who charge fees against limited partners for doing nothing with a material position in Berkshire, in stead of politely asking those limited partners buying Berkshire directly themselves for own personal account for their personal very best [EOP 2024H1 : ~29 %, USD 75.563 M]. [It's to me so unbelieable [and material] easy money, that it should not be considered a service of value at all]. I have a hard time understanding somebody may be so dumb with material sums of capital without even thinking about it, but that may just be me. Anyway, it does not dress Mr. Bloomstran, nor Mr. Spier, well, despite each to their own, and that none of us are set on this this planet to solve all its problems.

Charlie [ @dealraker ], Detailed information about fees are actually for everyone to study on the last page of the latest Client Letter. There appear to be after fee-performance available. The funny thing about it is I get so much data thrown my way from the page, that I'm not even sure I understand it correctly. To me, it looks like a CAGR 1 percent fee drag included in net performance compared to gross, however I'm not sure of it. Berkshire cost of delegation of capital allocation [including access to non-listed investments, you can't buy your self in the market] : Holdco costs 2023 : USD 244 M. Average equity 2023 : USD [[473,424 M + USD 561,273]/2] = USD 517,349 M, meaning, thus : HoldCo costs at : 244 / 517,349 ~ 0,05 %. Why on earth are people representing and owning Berkshire shares for a market value at EOP 2024H1 of USD 175 M [174,809,000, to be exact] [Semper Augustus's position [A + B] , as per Dataroma] paying USD 1.75 M [1 %] in fees [in aggregate] in stead of buying and holding the damn thing themselves?

Posted by Charlie [ @dealraker ] in the 'Berkshire/Buffett - General News' topic today, related to Semper Augustus and Chris Bloomstran separately from Berkshire, thus by copying and pasting grabbed and continued here : Link to Charlies post. Based on that, I looked at Dataroma : That does not exactly look like fun, being ~38% down from EOP 2024H1 to to date on a at then ~10 % position in this general market. 'We can't win them all' and 'There are no called strikes in this game' and all that. 'Itch to act' [as alternative to 'just' being promotional]?

@Xerxes, Yes, that's actually valid points. If his points were formulated and phrased in a more polite and balanced way, his response might have had a chance for getting printed. And with regard to your quote above from the tweet post [<- Google is my friend] on X, there is just to say that bying the index compared to buying Berkshire are two totally different investments, plain and simple, which is also the very reason and cause for the eternal onging discussion of it, ref. Mr. Bloomstrans use of 'better'. Its all about subjective [personal] perceived judgements about expected returns and assumed risks forward looking. I personally think his points are correct, ref. his great and voluminous work publised during the years [, which I actually really appreciate, and I am thankful for free access to it], but the form in this situation reminds me of that of a very protective terrier.

Yeah, YouTube : (Explained) The Things You Own End Up Owning You... - Especially, like in the first comment : 'Don't buy shit. Steal it!' [Which is actually what we aim at ... ]

SWR explained, thanks for bringing this concept into the discussion, James [ @james22 ].

Yeah, it's really bad, but such excessive and extremely long term investment horizons, such as 30 days, aren't really of relevance while investing in the Mag7, at least we should be careful with such, right? Mind you, also, that Gretha Tunberg got arrested today. Add to that, crane flies are now all over the place. So, proceed with extreme caution is certainly advised.

@Luke , Please add source by editing to your last post above for the readers understanding of content and context, thank you.

Thank you, @UK , I'm sorry for bothering you with these questions twice ... - your factual replies adds up - by logic - to a great extent to what you have posted in this topic - at least to me, that is.

Scribbles by Schumpeter on The Economist yesterday : The Economist - Business [September 3rd 2024] : Has Warren Buffett lost his touch? Assessing Berkshire Hathaway’s recent performance. And [naturally and of course, I'm tempted to express], a bit later, 'da man from St. Louis, who ain't hard to find' [and who has nitpicked [dressed in boxing gloves] Berkshires track record from front, from behind, in the left ear and last the right ear] almost explodes on X with a call to all subscribers of The Economist to cancel their subscriptions! Damn, it's good entertainment! - Also the cartoon above [Likely a KAL thingy] ! - - - o 0 o - - - The Berkshire track record is what it is, and has already been nitpicked in all aspects and nuances - over and over again. That horse has alreday been beaten to death, I would say.

This! This reads very simple /simplified, but it is never the less the true reality [not sure of the existence of a false or distorted reality]. The economic side of it is pretty simple math/algebra, actually, to do the basic calculations. It naturally also gets more complicated if you try include risks and margins of safety to your calculations. If you can't make the ends of the calculations ends meet, just continue working, and update your calculations, from time to time] It is a very efficient tool to get cost concious in the household. One dollar saved is one dollar earned and all that. There is, visible to everyone reading this topic, already a good deal af survivorship bias in the posts answering the question asked by sharing own doings and experiences, where we only read the successful stories. In short it's a business venture, if you're considering going full time investing, by dropping a job, full time, or part time. This also implies one should think about and define / set up criterions for success, and the opposite, especially in relation to when to call it a day, and not including only matters. This I think should include partner, fianceé, spouse, especially if you have kids, so that you have some kind of feeling and control of that you aren't on an unsustainable path to ruin your private and personal life, by building up fundamental, substantial and insurmountable disagreements, if you are married.

Yes, Blake [ @Blake Hampton ], But isen't it also about 'those americans' also 'all' [<- not all, but generally speaking] are chasing the same stocks and thereby driving them up, leaving places and spaces, - somewhere - , where there is still something to do for people like us?

To understand your line of posting in this topic, I hope you woulden't mind to share a little about what's in your backpack by your history and where you live today. It's pretty darn impossible to relate to your postings in this topic without this information. The above hereby posted based on that I've personally never felt that I've lost any part of my privacy by posting here on CoBF, that I'm a Dane, living in Denmark. Thank you, no matter how you may prefer to reply. It is - after all - just about clarity.

Well, wasen't that my line, - not yours, @UK?

Both Putin and the good professor on SkyNews have misunderstood - What is going on in Kursk is 'just' an Ukrainian Special Military Operation. <Sorry, I coulden't help it>

Damn! [in a positive way, -not kidding!], I personally appreciate very much all the input I get almost every day in this topic about this calamity, and how to at least try to think about it, and about how to bring the warfare activities to an end. For my personal part, it actually occupies quite a bit of my mind on a daily basis these days, likely because I live relatively close by. This also includes keeping the ongoing dialogue and discussion civil on an ongoing basis. [I'm by the way pretty sure this topic would suffer the death with a sudden [and silent] *poof* if it was not so - it is like the topic is and exist here on 'tolerated stay', like some most wanted terrorist on a real vacation somewhere, without getting recognized. - - - o 0 o - - - Thank you.

Thank you, @gfp ! I'll buy that explanation about the drop in the trading volume of the A share at par! Nice story, by the way.

Luke [ @Luke ], Are you posting the above from the Mearshiemer substack because it represents your own personal view?, - and in that case, to which degree does it that?

Based on the interesting discussion above about what's been going on in the market with regard Berkshire B shares and A shares I did a lookup today on the NYSE website to get an overall perception of daily trading volumes within the last few months. For the A shares, there appear to be an abrupt change in trading volumes between June 6th and June 7th - trading volumes appear reduced - give or take - on June 7th with about five sixth or so - in one huge one-time drop [<-!, ?]. Please see NYSE website, page for BRK.A, volume column - scroll down to June 2024 data rows . Does anybody here on CoBF have any idea, guess or personal speculation about what this may be about?