AzCactus

I know it's cheesy and perhaps a little short sighted but it's the holidays so what the heck! My pick is LUK. I think that the company is headed in the right direction and making some smart moves. Probably not the sexiest pick around.

How does a company "transition" from iced tea to blockchain? Can someone let me know what I am missing? This would be like KO transitioning into BA lol

Debt-lots of this with auto loans---higher interest rates/longer terms/not enough due diligence and higher default rates. It's hard for most people to get to work without a car.

Hm, I would be careful about this. IIRC, Rick Guerin did something similar, and he ended up selling his Berkshire shares to Buffett @ $40 a piece to satisfy a margin call. Works until BRK falls 50% as it has done 2 or 3 times. Leverage always works....until it doesn't. Or as Buffett says regarding leverage---"if you are smart you don't need it and if you are dumb you have no business using it."

Let me start with I am not a Pabrai hater or anything but doesn't the below somewhat indicate performance hasn't been too stellar until relatively recently: - Will receive his first incentive fee in 10.25 years...somewhere around $13M! Not trying to be harsh just figure he wouldn't wait 10 years for an incentive fee unless there was a reason.

Ross, can I ask how you stablished that Valueact paid an average around $118? I'm just curious here because my crude estimate would be a lot higher than that $118.

DNOW.

+1. He's obviously helped a lot of kids go to school and that's admirable---but what he says and what he does don't necessarily align in my judgment.

Best of luck Packer.

Live in Phoenix, AZ From Los Angeles Goal is to retire in La Jolla, CA

It would be interesting to cross reference this with age as well.

Charlie Sleeping ? Not sure if this is common but thought it was funny.

Interesting take on things by someone I know we all have respect for: http://www.oakmark.com/News/Maybe-US-Stocks-Arent-Overvalued.htm

Incentives are very powerful :)

Thanks...Any idea what his returns have been.

IBKR and added AN

That is a little surprising even for a natural born skeptic like myself.

Anyone else having issues downloading the link?

I think reducing or returning fees during periods of under-performance is a very admirable trait. Additionally, being in business since 1987 (30 years) is an awesome accomplishment by itself. With that said calculating the returns based on if you had acquired units in his worst years can start to sound a little like trying to time things. His return is what is---good years are factored in and bad years are factored in---they all matter.

His returns were better in the partnership days. That's not to say he was a "better" investor as he probably couldn't have deployed tens of billions of dollars in that strategy, but none of us have that problem. His early days are probably the best one for aspiring managers to emulate and leave the Berkshire model as the road map to corporate investments. His strategy had to fundamentally change. If memory serves during the partnership days he categorized holdings into three categories: generals, control situations and arbitrage. My guess is he changed the % of each based on the environment he was in. However at this point, the overwhelming majority of holdings are subsidiaries with some generals. At this point arbitrage is probably no longer a relevant part of Berkshire's strategy.

I am quickly realizing that based on the preliminary research I am doing that using IBKR makes more sense then either option. They appear to be like 75% cheaper. Please advise if I am missing the obvious here.

Per Reuters article http://www.reuters.com/article/us-berkshire-buffett-failure-idUSN2921504820080301 this was 1.6% of Berkshire if I understand correctly. I don't think 1.6% is anything near a blow up. The guys who lost in SHLD, VRX and ZINC oftentimes made it a larger or their largest position.

I think I heard it was something like either 1/15 or a flat 2.25% or something.

Jurgis, unless you are kicking the bucket soon you will see more than one :)

well we all know that nearly two decades ago (early 2000's) stocks didn't do very well. In may seem that as Americans get more optimistic the expected return goes down. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-28/american-household-optimism-about-stocks-at-17-year-high-chart