John Hjorth

Joel, please say hi to Jeffrey from me, and tell him that he is now officially an exporter to Denmark. If he had a hardcover, I would go with that, I had to settle with the paperback. This is exactly the kind of book, that I would like to read in the near future. I really look forward to the read.

Valuehalla, Here we don't share interest, because I have started adding again, in drips, most likely for 3 - 4 years, perhaps 5, if we - all of us - until then - do not hit a recession.

Thanks for sharing, Ballinvarosig Investors, Now it makes quite more sense to me after reading the article. STO must have had a project pipeline with good prospects that it could not lift because of lack of capital, or it could speed up on execution on the project pipeline. Buy and build.

I haven't looked at the FANGs today, Valuehalla, but I see BRK relatively stable at closing compared to yesterdays closing measured in USD, while at the same today down relatively much on the monitor measured in DKK. DKK/EUR relative rate stable. USD/EUR down about 1.23% for the day. I don't know why, I'm not a macro guy. I call it the "pleasure" [sarcasm intended] of owning BRK and having a functional currency related to a country on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. It always make me think about all those T-bills and cash in BRK basically pulling only a pittance. The best I can do now with free cash is 0.85% basically risk free without making it a time deposit at an account in Bank Norwegian, up in Oslo - nominated in DKK - but an overseas account - with extra tax reporting hassle. Oh well.

It's even more striking that of the taxable income of USD 592, USD 364 was income from the paper routes, and he had interest income and dividends of USD 228.50, meaning 38.6 per cent of his taxable income was income on capital. I have read somewhere recently, that he was actually running the paper routes as a real business, with some of the boys in the nabourhood delivering the papers on the major part of the routes, while taking care of the rest of the routes him self. I think it's in Snowball. The text on the tax return at least partly supports it: "Washington Post paper routes as an independent merchant". So I see it as he was selfemployed in paper routes and at the same time having an investment arm, where he was pouring the cash generated by the paper routes into stocks in the investment arm to get the ball rolling. I'm puzzled by the fact that the tax return is filled by the use a typewriter. Perhaps it was his fathers.

The real question here is, what is Mr. Buffett actually doing here? I simply don't get it. Any kind of sharing thoughts with my fellow board members about this investment in this topic would be much appreciated - thank you in advance.

Added a bit today to BRK.B. Added to C today, so it's now a 3 per cent position.

NICO has invested USD 377 M in Store Capital.

Reuters: Italy winds up Veneto banks at cost of up to 17 billion Euros. Finally, Italy has started doing something. - - - o 0 o - - - I was stunned over the cost related to my MILs funeral earlier this year, despite it was modest, however a nice one - I mean, if a funeral even can be nice. It does appear to be no better in Italy, so the advice must be not to have ones funeral there, despite I consider it a real nice place in general.

I received the book from Amazon today. I look forward to the entertainment! :- P

I'm kind of confused or did i misunderstand what you meant by the below statement in the SBLK thread? To clarify I think the industry is very competitive and there is little moat if any -- I was being sarcastic. Also I looked up when I purchased SBLK and it was May 24th. Less than a month later I am complaining on a message board... My underlying reason to buy never changed so I never sold. I like having the message board records to hold myself accountable and observe the absurdity of my emotional spectrum. It's a self experiment that may be short lived -- worst case I pay for a life lesson and just invest in Berkshire and find a new hobby. jeffswaldron, Please don't give up here. Giving up on investing will most likely be your biggest miss-out in your life. It is just soo fascinating, and it will change your line of thinking, thereby change your way of making decisions - changing you - and your life as such! - - - o 0 o o - - - - And welcome to CoBF!

Right now, I'm about 2 thirds through the book. Despite my comments earlier in this topic, I have come to like it a lot. My reading method has lately been reading it chapter by chapter, from the beginning to the end, skipping those chapters that I have already read, while I started jumping around in the chapters, when I started on reading the book. It's like getting dragged into it - like something getting dragged into a black hole - it's difficult to leave it again when you have started reading. I have been really tired a couple of days within the last two weeks, because I started continuing reading it late in the evening - and just kept on reading till the early morning, where the birds outside started singing - telling me that it's time to go to bed! Personally, I find the chapters about the young Mr. Buffett in his partnership days exciting and fascinating - what a start on long track record!

Personally, I think this is true. This is what makes this essay valueable and worth reading , and rereading - at least to me.

The essay was really only directed to the portion of your portfolio you want invested long-term in stocks. Asset allocation based on life situation is just an entirely different question than I was after. Really, this all boils down to, it's really hard to time the market. In retrospect, not a surprising outcome, just one that I wanted to verify. Exactly. As Joel already has posted, it is about being sharp focused on the framework used in the essay, mentioned both in the beginning and the conclusion of the essay.

During the years, our active fellow CoBF board member Racemize [Joel Stevens] has been so kind to share his essays here on the board on a continuing basis, based on some Dropbox links by Joel. Personally, I have read them all - and, actually, I hold them high. I suppose we all have our favorites and "anchors" with regard to reading. Personally, I define an "anchor" as a "piece" [book, essay, article, whatever] that I go back to, to set myself self straight, to get back on the track with my line of thinking, when my thoughts starts straying, and I end up more or less confused and unable to think straight. To succeed, you first have to finish. You have to have a perception of where you are, and where you are headed going forward, to cross the finish line with a good result - the finish line, that is always moving away from you in the horizon relative to your own position - just like a rainbow. To navigate, you need to have perception of where you are, otherwise you "grab the anchor". It's like turning on the GPS in your car to get it to find your actual location before you tell it where you are headed, after which the GPS is guiding you, if you are on a route not yet known and familiar, or if you have got lost somewhere. Recently, I needed to go back to one of Joels essays, and I found out that I have not downloaded it from here [Dropbox link by Joel]. I managed to find it anyway on the Net. After the worst panic evaporated after getting that particular essay anyway, I did send send a CoBF PM to Joel to express my appreciation for sharing the work. It turned out, that Joel actually really appreciated the positive feedback from me, because Joel actually does not get much feedback on his writings. I also mentioned the dead Dropbox links for Joel. Joel wrote to me, that his Dropbox account got banned, because some [dumb] Twitter user linked to the Dropbox link [on Twitter] - so much thanks for sharing! Anyway, for all my fellow board members ex. Joel, here is a link to Joels essays, now that the Dropbox links on this board are dead. - - - o 0 o - - - To Joel: A sincere thank you for sharing you work! To all other board members than Joel: Enjoy! - If you do not already have them and have read them. Furthermore, perhaps it would not harm to post a couple of lines in this topic, if you like them ... -Perhaps we then get access to more work by Joel going forward! - - - o 0 o - - - Disclosure: No skin in the game at the fund Joel is running - I just happen to like and appreciate Joels essays.

Just bought my first Fairfax shares also. Are we suppose to get a free t-shit or something? :D lol! - It's good with some humor! At least you get a "Welcome to the Club!" from me, also for kab60! - I hope both of you do well with Fairfax! [-Out of pure self interest also, that is ...].

Started a small position in C today. - - - o 0 o - - - I'm soo bored right now. The figures on my monitors right now tell me I'm good at investing - which I know I'm not. The cash is burning in my left pocket - so instead of just moving it to the right pocket I bought some C and moved the residual to the right. I - simply put - hate this bank, based on hindsight bias. I looked at it the first time back in 2013 [just after I joined CoBF], and I just got so appalled about what I saw then. Enormous salaries and bonuses to the then management for basically running the bank into the ditch under [before?] the GFC. Then, I bought some BAC instead, that I still own. In the spring of 2014, I looked at C again, ended up still holding my nose. I ended up buying some WFC shares instead, that I still own. I get dizzy reading about the ongoing litigation against the bank, and it's still nagging me, if the loan book is actually cleaned up now, meaning: No more sceletons to come out of the closet. For me, there will be no averaging down in this stock - perhaps I will even in the near future put a stop-loss on it, and just walk away from it, if it goes south, licking my wounds afterwards. I'm just trying to learn something about my self here, and trying to get some kind of return on some cash that is actually pulling zero otherwise, based on a personal and subjective judgement of the facts right now with regard to the overall situation of the bank and its prospects going forward, posted by Viking in the investment forum in the C topic. - - - o 0 o - - - Thank you to Viking for sharing recent thoughts about C here on CoBF.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with a past and present perspective here, rb. It is very much appreciated. In that perspective, it makes a least some kind of sense. - - - o 0 o - - - I read this board every day, thus I learn something every day!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/berkshire-dealerships-and-rv-maker-broke-texas-law-regulator-says-1497379828?mod=nwsrl_heard_on_the_street There is no way in hell this will happen but the hole fiasco around it is kind of insane. nobody wants them to stop selling cars in Texas so why even bother with all the legal stuff ? just mail them "Hi, you broke the law but it ok, here is your permit to do so, have a good day Warren" and finish with it. I really hope Warren will not accept the stupid penalty and tell them he will close those dealerships and layoff 4,200 workers and that Texas will lose 220m a year of taxes. We will see how firm are they on those penalties. If it comes to that extreme eventually, Berkshire will just sell those Texas dealerships again, like what happened with about 2 km railroad at BNSF a few years ago.

Yes Cigarbutt, At that time [1971], Berkshire was "mixed bolts": A really crappy textile business [in clear hindsight], NICO bought about 4 years earlier at about USD 8.6 M [better than gold in clear hindsight, statutory policy holders' surplus at end of september 2016 USD 92,147,890,603 - why does that page not get a quarterly update? - I suppose the figure is so large, that nobody bother to update it any longer?], and a bank, that later got spun off. Mr. Buffett was actually levering up, using that mortgage to get more skin in his own game.

Valuehalla, Why are you charting this? - and why are you posting about that here?

You need to keep in mind the context of this action from Mr. Buffett. This was about a recreacional house. What was his net worth at time? Back to now: Please read from page 34 and onwards.

It's actually good with some humor on the board at these market levels! : - )

That to me crosses every line; ethical, fairness, whatever. To think this book would pass off as a biography of sorts, of a person who is still living is insane. While she makes money off of it, the only reason for the money being made is the name "Buffett" in the title! Shameful. I was happy to watch the other movie about his life. Thank you, longinvestor. +1. Exactly: plain shameful. I know there are lot a good persons on this board, one can actually sense it, after reading the board over the years. It's comforting, that you step up. Ms. Schroeder was actually one of the very few persons at the time of the publishing of the book, that knew all details of those events, and also knew what this did to Mr. Buffett at that time. I can imagine what it would do to him reading book, thereby experiencing the whole thing again, and at the same time knowing, that now this would be available to all, who would pay for the book. Mr. Buffets mourning at that time is the mere confirmation that he married the right person for him. The personal feeling of the loss is the positive confirmation of, that the person has lost something very valuable to the person, here the end of a relationship to a person very near and dear. Mourning is a process of inverting. The Golden Rule comes to mind here. I sure understand that Mr. Buffett has put Ms. Schroeder on ice. If I had known that I would read such kind of stuff in the book, I would have got it at the local library, and delivered it back after reading. That's sure.

I have now read some of the chapters in this book in the weekend. I've been "jumping around" in the book, because I think every chapter can be read separately, as a "separate, tiny book/story". Ms. Schroeder is to me a very good writer. She goes much more in depth on some stories & themes about Berkshire and Mr. Buffett, that I have read about before, but not for me other places described in such depth before. Naturally this is the outcome of having direct access to the man that the book is about. - - - o 0 o - - - On a more personal - and thereby subjective - note from me [perhaps this has some cultural dimension also, I don't know]: To me, this book contains information about some events involving Mr. Buffett's first wife and what happened to her in her last years before her death, that to me do not belong in a book - not even a biography - about Mr. Buffett. Those descriptions - I have duly noted - are mostly without notes and sources [elsewhere, the book is filled with a lot of notes and sources], and I was thinking while readin it: "How did Ms. Schroeder get this information?" - and more important: "Why did she publish it as it as written in the book?".