Kapitalust

After the removal of the buyback announcement and Buffett essentially saying the stock is cheap, I increased the entire portfolio's weighting to 60% Berkshire.

Or that Apple was going to be a mistake, a la IBM... yet the stock price has doubled since the first batches they started accumulating over 2 years ago...

ScottHall for President! 8) You heard it here first Seconded. People take things way too seriously and have difficulties reading between the lines...

I'm with RBC Direct and all you have to do on this platform is buy an interlisted stock on the Canadian side and then immediately sell it on the US side, or vice versa. Been doing it for many years now. Once everything settles, you have paid $9.95 for buying and then $9.95 for selling, and whatever spread occurred in the 15 seconds or so when you hit buy and then hit sell. I use RY as it's got tons of volume on both the TSX and NYSE. Easy peasy.

I tried to read Collapse but I just couldn't get into it for some reason. Tons of details in The World Until Yesterday, but I sort of like that, makes me feel it's more empirical and I can sort of draw my own conclusions The Easter Island case study was the most fascinating one for me as an example of societal collapse due to ecological damage. It's actually the only one that I can remember off the top of my head after more than a decade since I read Collapse last.

I loved Guns, Germs, and Steel, although a lot of that love may have been due to being 18 years old when I first read it. After that, read Collapse and The Third Chimpanzee. Guns, Germs, and Steel has always been my favourite of those 3. I slogged through The World Until Yesterday last year. It is very interesting although I found it quite drawn out. I think it is worth a skim: skip through areas that bore you and read in-depth in areas that capture your fascination.

What ratios do you look at to determine value? I mainly use P/E (price / earlier price) but more suggestions would be appreciated. I take a more technical approach: chartin... er, technical analysis. It's easy to predict where support is with the long history of data available, and I like to trade in and out as the momentum swings. It's akin to picking up pennies in front of a steamroller!

The part of me that wants to believe in aliens found all the recent stuff super fascinating.

As much as I would love to believe that aliens with super-advanced vehicles are visiting the earth and jacking off navy pilots... extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And I don't believe for a second that any of the recent stuff constitutes extraordinary evidence. I'll pull a John McAfee right now and proclaim that I will eat my own dick if this turns out to actually be aliens, as in advanced, intelligent beings from outer space.

I read a lot of Chomsky in late-high-school-and-early-into-university and my greatest takeaway from him was to always question those in positions of power: what they say, what they claim, what they decree. Very clearly a genius. However, I think Munger's comment that ideology can turn your brain a bit mushy is somewhat applicable to Chomsky. That radical side of Chomsky was somewhat appealing as a teenager but not anymore.

2017 Q2 is out: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/aug0417.pdf $99.7 billion in cash by the end of June :o Berkshire's cash pile represents 5.4% of Corporate America's total cash pile (https://www.ft.com/content/2cbc02d4-e0bf-3ece-9f5d-b9b063561e2b)

Maybe... but I'm hoping someone from our glorious west coast can explain to me how someone can qualify for a 1.5 million mortgage at 5% once B20 takes effect without being a serious 1%er Not us and we are in the lower end of the upper middle class in terms of income. I would never liquidate the majority of our stock, bond, REIT, and cash assets to sink into a house, only to end up with a house and no other asset.

I recall Buffett saying he would never trust himself to write an honest autobiography, thus hiring Schroeder and giving her the golden keys to the kingdom. She explicitly had his permission to talk to any and everyone on all subject matters, a fact that even surprised a lot of long time friends and associates. The personal aspects are the best things about the book, in my opinion; you can read about the financial stuff everywhere else. I was intrigued by how much he loved his wife Susie but loved money more, and thus allocated his limited time to money and neglected Susie - thus leading to their drifting apart, with her singing career, moving to California, etc. It was very tragic from what I gathered of how much they really did love each other.

Agree that I don't come here to read up on politics - plenty of other websites, blogs, forums, avenues for that. I think a compromise solution could be that there is a separate section of the board dedicated to off topic, "water cooler" topics that is only viewable and accessible to members. You can throw all the random, hot topic issues in there like politics, climate change, diet, favourite celebrities, etc, etc.

We are but the inanimate universe that has become animate, wondering such questions; we are but the dust of dead stars that gaze upon burning stars, pondering such questions... Terrible philosophical poetry aside, I'd like to add to the point that meeting your partner - the one who you truly were meant to be with - is insanely, unimaginably soaked in luck. When I think about how unlikely the series of events (and events that could have transpired to thwart our paths crossing) that led to my wife and I coming together, I am left speechless. However, it takes enormous amounts of hard work and skill to maintain and grow that partnership once you have found it.

When I finished The Snowball, the biggest takeaway was that you need to really, truly understand what/who it is you love and give your energy, devotion, and attention to that. Buffett had 2 great loves in his life - money and his wife Susie - and he neglected, to a large extent, the one that mattered, in my opinion, most to him (i.e. not the money). I found that tragic.

I concur with Morgan that it shows a glimpse into what it takes, the bounces that have to go your way, and the sheer willpower you need to channel into your idea/business for it to succeed. Thought it was a fun, quick read. Blasted through the book in a couple of days. It read more like a fiction novel than a non-fiction autobiography. I highly recommend this to friends, even if they have no interest in business/finance/investing.

I've always felt time and temperament are the only edges I possess. I don't kid myself in thinking I have informational edge.

I'd say much depends on his stomach for risk and if he is willing to accept high risk/high payout type investments or something with a mundanely boring yet acceptable risk-adjusted holding. As boring as this pick is, I'd add something like PG along with JNJ as something that would be an acceptable risk-adjusted 1 stock pick for the next 10-15 years.

yes

This thread reminded me of a question I had regarding a line on a Statement of Shareholders' Equity that I recently was looking at. I don't mean to hijack this thread from thinleyw- I feel like the original question was answered and I don't want to go about making more threads on the General board on questions regarding financial statements so I thought I'd just plop in my question here. In the red square, what do you make of the amount spent on stock-based compensation and repurchases of common stock being the same dollar amount? My first thought is that this effectively cancels out any dilution or any impact of repurchases, but my gut tells me that this is incorrect.

Reminds me of the Buffett quote from 1974:

What do you think of the 25% foreign tax withholding on the dividend? I don't like it, esp since I bought it in tax free accounts. If you buy the Belgian common the tax is only 15%. Not sure if one can get the reduced 15% rate on the ADR. But basically if I buy it in a non tax-free account I'd pay more than 25% tax on the div. So obviously not an ideal situation, but not the end of the world either. I also bought it in tax free accounts. I read that if you do buy it in taxable account and if you qualify to itemize your deduction, you can get tax credit on your 1040. I'm in Canada so things are a bit more different. But I'd still pay more more tax in a taxable account even though i get the tax reclaim. Still I'd like it more if it was US listed and i had to pay no tax whatsoever. From the horse's mouth: Although it isn't very clear if 15% is the automatic withholding tax across various accounts like regular, TFSA, RRSP, etc or if it's only applicable in certain accounts with the proper tax form filings.

The Maggi noodle crisis in India only cost Nestle $500 million (who knows how much in terms of loss of consumer trust and confidence in its brand) because management weren't complete idiots. I imagine if Nestle were actually run by ham sandwiches, the damage would have been immense. Yes, Nestle is a fabulous business that offers great risk-adjusted return potential, but it still needs whip-smart management in place to deal with crisis that pop up and innovate their products to keep them relevant in a changing world. Preview from the article linked above:

Don't like this at all. D@&n, are T&T not going to learn from others' mistakes? Whatever happened to vicarious learning (Munger)? http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/berkshire-hathaway/bruce-greenwald-buffett-has-lost-his-mind/ rb had a great counterpoint to this in the Buffett/Berkshire - general news thread: