backtothebeach

Thanks to whoever wrote here "You don't buy oil, you rent oil" and "Please god give me just one more oil bull market." This time I finally got the message and got rid of most oil stocks when it seemed like the only way was up. Not at the very top, but close enough.

Last 3 quarters of cash + short term treasuries: $ billion 130.6 -> 147.4 -> 157.2 Repurchased 1115 A shares in September at an average of $550,814 (=$367.21 in B shares). That's the highest repurchase price on record.

Some takeaways: *Warren doesn’t like retail. *Munger doesn’t even look at the auto industry for investment, BYD was an exception. *Still believes in China, sees having roughly 18% of the Munger portfolio at risk in China as justified. About predicting the future of companies: “You can’t confidentally say what is going to happen. Cause you may get some guy like Iger in, who just wants to push everything …” “Warren still cares more about the safety of his Berkshire shareholders, than he cares about anything else.” Q: Charlie, you turn 100 … on January 1st of next year. Do you have any plans? Charlie: “I’m gonna party!”

Is there no thread for WR Berkley? WRB up 8% today on Q3 earnings: https://seekingalpha.com/news/4023074-wr-berkley-q3-earnings-climb-on-better-investment-results-premium-growth A template for Fairfax?

Seems like Tammy will make THE TURN before it reaches the US.

What's your motivation of looking to get a better understanding of investing? (a) Just putting money that you have coming in to work somehow? (b) Do you think you might love the process and might want to spend a lot of time on it? (c) Possible professional interest, working in finance? Active investing can be an ungrateful activity, and success is not guaranteed. If your motivation is only (a) I'd say it is hard to beat DCA'ing into a mix of index ETFs and possibly Berkshire/Fairfax.

A 0.5 liter bottle of water at Cancun airport is 6-7 dollars at every shop, and of course no water fountain. It”s a mafia.

Haha, LOL’d at this. You’re a funny guy…

Sentiment on China for sure is at an extreme low. In the fall of 2018 I sold out of a small basket of Chinese stocks that I had: BILI, BZUN, HUYA, IQ, and SOGO. I had gotten sucked in by a China hype at the time lol. After almost 5 years BILI and SOGO are up 10-20% (it appears SOGO was taken over by someone), the other 3 are down 80-90%. HUYA, while the business seems in decline, and will probably decline further, has more cash than it's market cap. What could change the sentiment on China? 1. political change: change in leadership and/or strong, provable shift in policy. 2. actions by companies that indicate that they are actually run for their shareholders, including foreign shareholders (i.e. large buybacks with all that cash lying around, large (special) dividends. 3. strong growth of Chinese economy, and companies' metrics. 4. rising trend in stock prices. Without two out of points 1. to 3., I don't see how 4. will happen.

Sold some VSCO October 15 puts @0.36. IV is ~70%. Return is 30%+ annualized on max risk. Sorry @LearningMachine if VSCO tanks before October 20th it's my fault lol.

Tried to sell 1 October box at the bid ($2.67), unsurprisingly wasn't filled as a spread trade. Don't feel like legging in. Also, the short $95 put would likely be assigned early, which is a lot of margin for making $17 before commissions.

Interesting. I might try a few contracts just for fun.

Sold a bunch of ATVI October 90 puts. Pennies and steamrollers, I know…

Maybe you can open a Yuan account in Argentina and transfer it there. Just kiddin'... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-29/argentina-s-central-bank-allows-banks-to-open-accounts-in-yuan

You can see almost any paywalled content via this page: https://archive.ph/ Just paste the link in the blue box. When you paste, skip the part of the URL behind the ? (if any), which is just session info from the OP. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-29/buffett-s-bet-on-mild-florida-storm-season-faces-test-in-idalia

Michael Clark is definitely more pleasant to listen to. Look up Robotyne, a village of 5 streets, on Google maps. Kind of puts into perspective what they are talking about. How many men died on both sides over this tiny patch? Depressing. (Hint: From the middle of the image, look west-south-west, there is a small red outline).

This. Frankly, I find the guy in the video that Spek posted distasteful. From the thumbnail to selling his war merch in the middle of the video.

It's like bunch of thugs banding together to rob a bank, and secretly each of them is planning to kill all the others and keep the booty for themselves.

Actually, if the deal falls apart and the stock does not drop like a rock, you'd be sitting on short naked calls with the stock not too far from the strike price. Unlikely, but could be an uncomfortable 6 weeks in this scenario.

Nice one!

I think the puts are getting bid up by arbitrage. If you buy the stock and the Oct $90 puts for example, you basically have zero downside - if the deal falls through you are protected below $90, volatility should go through the roof for a few days and the puts should retain all or most of their extrinsic value. Sure you only make $1.35 instead of $3.70 per share if the deal does go through, but that's is still a good, almost risk free return if you assume 1 month or less until everything closes.

…and also sold MU 20% of portfolio. MU - Micron Technology Inc. Sell 100.00% 6,826,079

Is anyone here using the Mayo or Cleveland clinic executive health program, and what is your experience? As I understand, it is yearly or bi-yearly comprehensive checkups tailored to your needs. I wonder how customized it is really beyond the standard tests like blood panel, cardio etc.

LOL, looks like Fairfax.

You're right, not sure why I thought equal weight would be comparable.