CorpRaider

Yeah at the time a lot of people thought he might be exiting but since he filed a 13 with no more sales. Would have been better to exit in the 50's of course.

Yeah, it seems like he either dumped Wells or JPM (or a lot of both). Sold 2% of JPM as of last 13F, so could be continuation of that. I think JPM basis is $6 billion and some change. The Wells would have triggered like a billion realized gain this quarter, I think if he closed out the position. The special dispensation he sometimes gets from SEC to defer reporting on positions under accumulation would not apply to the Q would it? Wells issued like 2 billion shares incident to the GFC (versus almost 8 billion from BAC).

Yeah if they had sales of $13.6 billion - $6.5 billion for the airlines; So the sales couldn't be the whole WFC stake (in the quarter), could it? Not sure what else it could be besides Wells. Let's see, he sold 3% of JPM in prior quarter (one of the few big banks where he was nowhere near the 10% mark). If he sold all of that and BK (I mean he was buying that while Scharf was the CEO) that would get near the 7 billion in sales but no idea about the basis.

Yikes. I could see the WFC dropping out of the "big 5" based on stock price movements (his stake would only be worth ~$8 billion without any sales so just another of several holdings in the size range) but the basis reporting....

Mild form of mental illness is the most likely reason. Charitable explanation: same reasons Buffett is buying BAC except I'm unfettered by public perception and/or a huge commercial banking relationship with Wells leading to additional regulatory hurdles. I also think it has better franchises (or at least mix of businesses) and more hidden earnings power (like BAC in 2012, but maybe even more).

WFC

Man I've been thinking about buying a beach house on the east coast, but based on my lazy due diligence it seems like they don't really cash flow typically. I suppose that makes sense with the non-economic buyers who just want to own a beach house and have the costs defrayed and/or are banking on appreciation. Take rates for property managers seem to be quite high. Like 20- 30% from what I gather, but I suppose they have to do a lot more work turning basically a hotel versus a long term rental.

My (casual/tourist to the space) understanding is that EQR is perceived as more exposed to the urban flight risk/covid impacts and MAA is more exposed to second and third tier cities in the sun-belt which are perceived to be increasing in desirability if remote work truly comes to pass. I haven't yet figured out who, if anyone, is in control/behind MAA. I don't love rolling with organizations controlled by hired hand, sales guys. I agree with the general sentiment in the thread that the sector ain't cheap enough now. In my opinion, this covid, remote work, protests combo could really touch of a feedback loop of urban flight (maybe like in the 70's); this could include clobbered state and local budgets and ham handed (or otherwise) attempts to fix that with taxes combined with "eating the rich." The covid thing and protests are almost worst case scenario for cities...like almost every reason to live there is moot right now, but we will just have to see if it touches off a little (or big) feedback loop. All that said, I guess I'm saying I could see it being an "intermediate term" problem; but I wouldn't bet against the power of the network effects of cities long term. Can you imagine how awesome they could be with real live-work-play design and no commuter car infrastructure? Oh yeah, sort of like Europe, but bigger and more functional.

Man if you think about the requirements for these 40 act mutual funds, combined with the tax inefficiency, and the negative institutional factors (such as the need to report activity and talk about your "ideas" and demonstrate your intelligence and worth so often and related costs), I don't see how any of them beat the market. I would much rather just buy like VTV or VIG if I'm going to stray from the cap weighted index but do something so diversified.

I've searched the Investment Ideas forum, and TD does not pop up in my searches. Why is it so? [i remember posts from CorpRaider and Uccmal about Canadian banks here on CoBF.] Good question. If I ever buy any I will post. Canadian banks and rails sure are fine bidnesses.

It was cheap back then, remember they weren't able to innovate anymore and had just had an iPhone that underwhelmed. Einhorn even had a pretty big position, but I think he exited his holdings after it ran back to moderate levels following the services and wearables narrative/reality starting to take hold; Buffett rode the tail as he does.

I was/am of the same opinion about the superior business mix/deposit base (following the Wells comparison) and agree they have done a good job simplifying and resisting questions about di"worsifying" into other businesses and continental Europe (so far). I was mulling it over last year and listened to an appearance by the CEO and maybe it was the language barrier, but I was really turned off. I think he was also really hawking insurance and/or investment management alliance? I just put it in the no basket and now I can't exactly remember why. I see he is stepping down so maybe time to take another look, but IDK; looks like new CEO is coming from Centerview Partners? Yikes. Not sure what that means for the clean, simple banking business mix.

I agree. My impression reading the article was, "yeah BRK is really hurt by raising capital that is subordinated to the preferred in this environment." ::)

Good find. Al Marshall got them to buy Sees! He was like a friend who was unemployed and worked with Munger on his real estate as the sales guy. I'm not sure I get how the artillery thing translates. Maybe in the early days when they were doing some activist stuff?

Either that, or rapidly kill the site because you lose critical mass and attrition isn't replaced by new blood. Pretty big gamble. Making something more exclusive and expensive doesn't automatically make it better. All the good contributions of the past on this site were done by people who just joined for free. I think the funk that this site is in is as I described in the other thread here: https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/not-an-investment-board/msg422378/#msg422378 If traditional value starts doing well again and there's a bunch of opportunities in that area, I expect the posting on this board to become quite valuable. In the meantime, it's just resting a bit. I agree. In my few years on the board, I have noticed activity spikes when people are more excited about opportunities they are seeing. Looking forward to the new site.

This sheet doesn't have the cash/t-bills right? Just making sure I didn't miss a cell.

I think BAC got to like 40% of TBV in 2011 (the good times when they were stroking all those settlement checks), so we could get some more pain (probably when they cut the dividend next week), but what can you do?

Bot some more wells gotdamnit.

Munger has commented on a similar way of approaching the question a number of times. I noted one time he mentioned this maybe a week ago when I was watching an annual meeting on the cnbc archive. I think I tweeted about what year it was. I will see if I can find it. He also has said before (essentially), "It used to be like shooting fish in a barrel, you could buy Berkshire below the book price of the marketable securities and get the insurance and the other wholly owned subs for free." Yes - would be interested in seeing this ... Thx He briefly mentioned it in the 1999 meeting in response to a question about how to value berkshire. I think the other time I am rememebering was at a DJCO meeting, maybe a year or two ago, where he was kind of discussing why he's rich and you are not (haha) and he was really kind of like "duh, you could get BRK for less than securities portfolio and get operating businesses and negative cost float for free."

Munger has commented on a similar way of approaching the question a number of times. I noted one time he mentioned this maybe a week ago when I was watching an annual meeting on the cnbc archive. I think I tweeted about what year it was. I will see if I can find it. He also has said before (essentially), "It used to be like shooting fish in a barrel, you could buy Berkshire below the book price of the marketable securities and get the insurance and the other wholly owned subs for free."

People are tripping. BRK didn't announce the BNSF acquisition until like 6 months after the bottom in 2009. Pretty much every reputable voice acknowledges a high probability of another round of covid in the fall not even counting the continued blossoming in the South of the U.S.

Feeling better about this now. ;D

Based on their -20% and my own freaking whipsaws in an account where I try and implement a TF strategy....they might just be trend followers.

My man.

What's the twist? Why hasn't IVAL done this?