John Hjorth

This topic makes absolutely no sense to me. Why aren't people buying the heck out of their best ideas these days?

valuefinder, BRK is a quite complicated group of companies, so it takes a lot of time to study up on the different parts of it, to get some kind of feeling of it as an investment. Personally, I would suggest to start reading the financial statements available at the BRK website, including the yearly shareholder letters written by Mr. Buffett himself. It's very informative, but also an entertaining read, though quite time consuming. Max Olson [Max Program on this board] has created a compilation of the shareholder letters since 1965, the first one issued in 2013, a 50 years edition i 2015, and a later reprint available here : http://www.lulu.com/shop/warren-buffett/berkshire-hathaway-letters-to-shareholders/hardcover/product-22445483.html - Enjoy! :-)

Also: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/FINAL_BRKLivestreamRelease.pdf .

Svenska Handelsbanken comes to mind. But personally I wouldn't touch a bank in a NIRP environment. Nor would I touch WFC because I think the risk of NIRP in the US is significant. Much as I love Wells. Yes, I would also mention Svenska Handelsbanken here, if any, not totally sure about it. Please note that history of Swedish banks is quite special. Basicly the whole Swedish banking sector was in dire straits back in the beginning of the '90s. Then, The Swedish State stepped in with decisiveness, and cleaned up the mess. The Swedish banking sector therefore is much less fragmented now, compared to ie. the Danish banking sector, if I remember correctly [haven't checked the exact numbers here], but it is something like about 15 - 20 Swedish existing banks right now, compared to approximately 115 Danish banks. The aftermath of the 08/09 FC here in Denmark was a bloody mess, which changed the national banking landscape totally, quite some [for Denmark] middle size regional banks were totally wiped out, together with a large number of small institutions. Basicly the method for cleaning up here was quite US-like. Basicly, the customers in the surviving banks "got the bill for the party". The Swedish banks did not suffer in the same way under the 08/09 FC, I suppose based on the recapitalisation that took place many years before that, likely also based other things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_banking_rescue

I'll never understand making anything 1% of a portfolio. I'm building positions over time. Most likely I'll buy more of this thing later.

Just for info here: I just checked up on the Web and on the SAN webpage several places I thought could be relevant to look. Conclusion : So far SAN has been mute.

I have no understanding of the strategy implemented here by 17M. I can't relate to it. But I can relate to position sizing. Position sizing - to me - is not only about cash vs MTM values of positions measured against investment ideas at a certain point in time, to me it's also about cash vs capital already allocated to a certain investment idea [down a lot or not, or the opposite], measured as an absolute cap, measured in percent. For every idea, to which I commit capital, while taking the initial investment, I also put on a cap [in percent] of total portfolio, to which is the max the position is to grow [,or to what I'm going to loose, if I'm totally dead wrong], based on my conviction on the idea. I may reconsider along the way on positions, but the tresholds met both downwards [max capital allocation] and upwards forces me to actually think about it. That way of doing things makes me avoid blowing up totally. I may mess up my pants, but I walk away with messed up pants, nothing more. I don't blow up, by continuing allocating further capital to my "best idea" actually beeing my worst, like shoveling capital into a black hole. The last part of the last 17M Blog entry seems to me like the last moves in a Chess game of a looser, ref. above.

DB News - not in the Investor Relations section : https://www.db.com/newsroom_news/2016/ghp/a-message-from-marcus-schenck-deutsche-bank-s-additional-tier-1-at1-capital-en-11386.htm https://www.db.com/newsroom_news/2016/ghp/a-message-from-john-cryan-to-deutsche-bank-employees-0902-en-11392.htm To me, we are approaching "VRX IR quality level" here [throwing out internal e-mails instead of doing some serious work, thereby providing some [more] - perhaps a lot of - facts relevant for the situation. - Panic?

Petec, I'm not entitled to reply on behalf of SharperDingaan - he is certainly capable of doing that for himself. I'll just mention here, that personally I read SharperDingaan's last post in this topic as a reference to the terms of the bonds, that DB is rumored to be buying back at the moment [most likely at a loss for the sellers], compared to buying DB preferred - at an earlier moment. Oh so did I and I agree with everything he wrote. My point (poorly expressed perhaps) is that I see the extraordinary reaching for yield that drives demand for these daft securities (what SD referred to as desperation) as being purely down to some incredibly poor government/central bank policy. And yes, before anyone asks, that does mean I think we need to take some deflationary (in the broad bubble sense, not the broad CPI sense) pain and central banks need to allow that. Petec, Thanks for elaboration, I understand your position on this now.

Added today to my "probe" of LUND B.ST [L E Lundberg Företagen AB ser. B, Sweden] from the beginning of November '15 [about six fold], so that it is now about 1,2% of total portfolio.

Their clients are going to start referring to them as Goldman Sucks. Boilermaker, You just made my day!

Petec, I'm not entitled to reply on behalf of SharperDingaan - he is certainly capable of doing that for himself. I'll just mention here, that personally I read SharperDingaan's last post in this topic as a reference to the terms of the bonds, that DB is rumored to be buying back at the moment [most likely at a loss for the sellers], compared to buying DB preferred - at an earlier moment.

Deutsche Bundesbank : Europe at the crossroads Guest contribution by François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France, and Jens Weidmann, President of the Bundesbank published in Le Monde and in Süddeutschen Zeitung on 8 February 2016 : https://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/EN/Standardartikel/Press/Contributions/2016_02_08_weidmann_galhau.html?startpageId=Startseite-EN&startpageAreaId=Teaserbereich&startpageLinkName=2016_02_08_weidmann_galhau+361962

Ohh, well! : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/12146421/Credit-Suisse-boss-asks-board-to-cut-his-bonus-after-big-loss.html

This board is about making money by value investing, and cooperation by discussion to get better at it [making money by value investing]. Personally and right now, I consider it a better trade off to move on without reading your personal [at least to me: biased] comments like the above. It's about not knowing all positions of fellow active and contributing board members, and respect. Recent posts in ZINCK-topic comes to mind about concluding, with mutual respect - We are all humans here on board. Likely I will miss out on some good comments and considerations from you. I will live with that, to avoid what I don't like in your posts recently. Recently I read a post on this board from a member on this board "taking pleasure" in things going wrong for Ackman. I don't understand that line of posting on this board, nor do I have the will to try [ref. what I wrote above what this board is about]. Specifically I asked ni-co to start this topic, because ni-co is short SAN [from what I have read so far from ni-co - reasons, that I can't turn down right now [likely not at all], and that makes an impression], and I'm long SAN [a lot]. This is what this board is about : Getting better by discussion and related reasoning. Actually, I hold ni-co's starting post very high, he might be helping me as a short, while I'm long right now. Disclosure : 5 largest positions right now, calculated based on Friday close : Cash : 36,4%, BRK : 12,1%, SAN : 7.9%, Novo Nordisk A/S [NOVO. CPH] [uS ADR : NVO] : 6.0%, MKL : 5.0%. Time to get to work on this. I will wait for the disclosure of the full financial statements for SAN 2015 at the end of February 2016, and I will tear it apart to atoms [exactly a bean counter job], and I will report back here on board.

Thank you. Done. See this thread. Thank you for the topic split, ni-co. I think it's important [- at least for me].

ni-co, Thank you for a very good post here. Actually, I think investing in European banks nowadays could deserve it's own separate topic in the General Discussion forum, so I suggest that you repost your last post above as a starting post in a separate topic.

Please don't slap me while I'll continue - week by week - going forward, in small drips, one by one - to buy what I consider quality stuff, in the aim of getting [still] a lot of cash to work. I knew there was someone raising prices on the stuff I wanted to buy. Jurgis, I'm not even trying to be arrogant, [trying to out]smart [you], nor even trying to be patronizing here: Quite a few of your posts on here lately does not make much sense [at last to me], ref. your plan to start indexing. If you suffer from burnout [ref. one of your own posts lately], personally I would take a break from this [investing][again: I'm not trying to patronize you here].

Please don't slap me while I'll continue - week by week - going forward, in small drips, one by one - to buy what I consider quality stuff, in the aim of getting [still] a lot of cash to work. Darth Wader is not my God.

Added to Novo Nordisk A/S [NOVO.CPH] this morning [uS ADR: NVO]. It dropped about 5 percent on the disclosure of results for FY 2015.

Ref. : "Hang in there" : The [not so] poor Norwegian people getting less rich by every second right now : The algorithm at the website for Statens Pensionsfond Utland is very busy right now adjusting the total portfolio value downwards : www.nbim.no

Would you mind sharing your rationale for buying Sampo (not that it is a large position for you)? From valuation perspective, trades at a premium to it's part even if you are quote generous on the values of IF and Mandatum. Unless they get same kind of rabbit out of their hat as they did with Danske Bank, I don't see the risk/reward as very good at these levels. So I'm curious as to what made you increase the position, if you don't mind sharing. Ps. Just to correct a typo, ticker is SAMAS, not HAMAS :) Thanks for the note about the ticker! - now fixed in the original post. Yes, certainly not cheap at these levels, I just wanted to get a bit more of it, after buying a bit a few years ago, before the runup. I really regret not buying a lot more at that moment, and judged now was the time for it, after the minor drop. Bjørn Wahlroos basicly hasen't done any material transactions for long now, I expect to get surprised - in a postive way - at some time in the future. He seems quite opportunistic to me, if one reads up about what he has done so far. Sampo will eventually end up with +50% going to 100% ownership of Topdanmark A/S [TOP.CPH] - one way or another - because TOP is returning capital to shareholders only by share buybacks. [As a TOP shareholder also I'm quite desperate about that fact in the long run]. This is an ultra term position for the family. I can't right now imagine what would provoke a decision to sell. Most likely the position will end up at third generation alive right now at some time in the future.

The deal announced completed on January 29th 2016: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/JAN2916.pdf .

Added today to a small position in Sampo Plc A [sAMAS.HE] [up approx. 30%, from 0.82% to 1.07%] [Edit : Fixed ticker, ref. post by 60°North Investments]

Surely, good old Uncle Warren wouldn't abuse his position to keep rooftop solar from spreading? Don't you know he only invests in businesses with durable competitive advantages, so that just couldn't be what's happening. Well, I guess that running a highly regulated business just means that lobbying is part of managing and running the business. Mr. Buffett has several times in his shareholder letters written about a "social contract" with society in which the company operates. BRK has so far commited about USD 25B to wind power and solar power. Just take a look at the german energy companies E.ON and RWE to see what happens "when a social contract is not any longer needed". [it's about nuclear power in the first place [after the Japaneese TEPCO incident], and now also coal powered plants].