gfp

Not sure poached is the right word. Wasn't he retired for two years before being approached by Ackman to run CP?

You will need to switch to a margin account and apply for options trading permissions if you haven't already done so. They will send you a booklet describing the 'characteristics and risks of standardized options.' Not all brokers require a margin account to purchase long positions in options, but it appears that TD Waterhouse does. Similar to the other thread on this board describing margin approval at Merrill Lynch, you will probably need to indicate you are experienced in trading any securities you want approval for. Be careful buying options, even for hedging. Make sure you know what you are doing.

I make a lot of my own frames, but there are several options online for 36x18 cheap frames. http://www.amazon.com/Art-To-Frames-Picture-36-Inch/dp/B0034609JO http://www.arttoframe.com/18x36_picture_frames etc...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-05/diageo-surges-on-report-that-brazilian-billionaire-may-buy-it Could be a great deal for 3G - would love to see a big participation by Berkshire if it happens. BUD moved as well, but I wonder if BUD is actually the vehicle they use for this?

It's out of stock but will probably be available a bit later. In the meantime you can download the Charlie Munger chapter here - http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/05/book-review-the-great-minds-of-investing/

Click this, wait, click on top link that comes up --> http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Profiling+Wall+Street%27s+Bright+Lights+Barrons

Gamecock posted the 1994 report here - http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/looking-up-old-annual-reports/msg219259/#msg219259 I'll look around and see if I have any of the others from that range. People with access to business school libraries can probably get them for you. edit: couldn't find pdf's full scans of 86-93 Annual Reports, but did find a pdf of just the shareholder letters. Obviously also available from the BRK website, but at least it's a pdf format - http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/339810/buffett-all.pdf

Maybe send him a copy of 'When Genius Failed'? I would have no problem with 100% of my investable net worth in Berkshire at 1x book value (not a typo, didn't mean .1x). But I wouldn't do anything like that for an arb spread that can widen just as easily as it can narrow. That's just stupid. I think the Lion Fund did the closest I've seen to 100% in one position with CBRL. Fairholme did as close as I've seen in a mutual fund with AIG. People lever up and put multiples of their net worth into commercial real estate deals all the time. I think that was what ultimately turned Charlie Munger off from that business.

Which ones do you want to short? There is at least one ETF, ticker SOCL, but it has exposure to big profitable companies that might not be the ones you are looking to short. I don't recommend going short on valuation alone, but if you have an issue with a specific company and it's business model and valuation, buy a long dated put or short the stock/basket. The real bubble seems to be the private companies and you won't be able to get short those. Someone on this board mentioned a wonderful short, Bazaarvoice, a few years ago and I was very happy to short it and stay short once I got to know it very well. The valuation was absurd. But I wouldn't necessarily want to be short Facebook, Yelp (for sale?) and twitter.

I didn't see any mention of an IRA account in your question. If you are US-based and have some of your investable capital in IRAs, that would be the place to park a potential PFIC. I would not ignore it and hope the IRS doesn't notice. I put Pershing Square Holdings, Kennedy Wilson Europe and Fairfax India in IRA accounts with no issues.

He didn't say much, but his analyst did an update on Freddie and Fannie. This is the gist of it: * Continues to believe that F/F are vital to the 30 yr. mtg and market share has continued to grow * There is a growing acceptance that they are vital and here to stay * It was an unlawful taking, and the current situation is both legally and economically untenable. * Stuff coming out of Sweeny case suggests the Government hasn't turned over all the documents it was required to * Plaintiffs are making progress in moving forward towards a trial * Believes the market misinterpreted the dismissed case in Iowa as being a material event (it was dismissed because of it's similarity to laberth case) Lamberth case is on appeal, so there are still two cases going, with sweeny progressing nicely. * Core credit guarantee business of F/F continues to be strong. * Government profit sweep is on reported earnings, so the Gov. has taken less recently even though the core business continues to improve. Reported earnings are bing depressed by mark-to-market losses on derivatives to hedge a fixed income arbitrage porfolio. The underlying assets that are hedged have increased in value, but the hedges depress current reported earnings. * As the fixed income arbitrage portfolio shrinks, he thinks that the underlying strength in the core business will show through --- Then in the Q&A section: * Estimates it will take at least through the end of the year to get through discovery, with the government attempting to withhold documents it can take awhile. Believes the judge will be harsh on attempts to withhold documents * Estimates a year, year and a half before a trial begins * Analyst throws out wild-ass-guess on date of a final decision from the trial: May 12th 2017. Gets some giggles, but the analyst stands by his number.. * They believe some positive decisions in court will help to spur parties to the negotiating table, "we'd love to help if we can." * Says their average cost on Fannie and Freddie is around $2 and they hold above 10% of each (of the float, i assume) * In response to a question on the applicability of the Starr/AIG case decision, he says a decision in favor of Greenberg would be a slight positive for the F/F cases, but not directly applicable since the plaintiffs in the F/F litigation are not challenging the expensive preferreds, etc... * Question was how likely are plaintiffs to succeed vs Fannie and Freddie and what type of upside do you see in that situation - Bill answered that they believe they are "much more likely than not" to win in the court of claims or on appeal and that he envisions "very significant upside in fannie and freddie" * says F&F combined are around 3% of consolidated assets

The seeking alpha article they pointed you to is way off on the investments per share math.

The MO for Van Tuyl / Berkshire so far has not been to acquire large groups. They have acquired 3 or 4 dealerships since the deal was announced and they are likely to continue their joint venture model where they partner with the selling management team.

When you know the headline of the article you want to read on WSJ or Barron's you type that in to a google search or google news search and when you click through you will get a "free pass" to read the article. You have to access it through the search engine though. What's the google backdoor?

California taxes capital gains the same as ordinary income. Some states don't have a capital gains tax. The system in California is progressive and starts at 1% and goes all the way to 12.3%. It might be the worst state for capital gains taxes but I don't know for sure.

edit - never mind, site fixed

Glad to hear it isn't just me - yes, the site has been painfully slow this morning.

Two houses for sale - the one you are talking about is really playing it up in the marketing - http://www.livenexttowarrenbuffet.com/ (not super classy..)

I haven't seen any personal notes out there yet, but the WSJ notes cover pretty much everything. Morningstar also did one, but it wasn't quite as good. http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/05/02/live-analysis-the-2015-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting/ Here's one from a fool contributor - http://boards.fool.com/berkvilles-golden-year-31738454.aspx Here are M*'s - http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=695453

No, it's somebody else. Has been in the same family for 50 years

Really great - thanks for posting this!

Sad that at least one value investor who traveled to Omaha for the meeting this week was killed in a car crash while in town. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-dalal-street-veteran-parag-parikh-dies-in-car-accident-in-us-2083201

Omaha is obviously a very inexpensive housing market, but that house is certainly very dated. Radiators, carpet, old kitchen, baths, etc.. Thanks. Wow only $370k... I can barely get a fixer at that price in my area.

http://thegoodlifegroup.npdodge.com/property/39862762/306-S-54-Street-Omaha-NE-68132

BNSF 10-Q is out as well - always interesting to see. Another Billion dollar dividended out to Omaha this quarter - http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/934612/000093461215000016/llc-3312015x10q.htm