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They will probably let you in to everything if you can show you are a shareholder. For example, being able to show them Berkshire holdings in a brokerage account with a smart phone would work. Otherwise, logging in at a hotel and printing out some statement that shows BRK holdings.

That's interesting, Grantham seems to be of opposite view. Do you have a link to that newsletter? Here's the entire archives of the newsletters, they are usually interesting: http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/valueinvesting/resources/newsletter The issue I was referencing is the Spring 2010 issue, PCL discussed page 18. The entire Spring '10 issue is good.

"way" out of the money means a strike price way higher than the current interest rate. (so the option is very cheap) yield calls are just call options that reference a treasury interest rate.

I think it's a standardized ISDA document, http://www2.isda.org/ You can go out to December 2013 with standard SPY leaps. Remember that the further out you go with index puts, the closer you are to taking the other side of Buffett's trade. Klarman buys way out of the money yield calls over the counter. There are shorter duration yield calls available on exchanges. At the end of the day, if you want to hedge your portfolio, it may be better to sell short the various index futures. Many large cap equities don't look overpriced to me, I wouldn't go for it myself. Cash is the best insurance against a weak market.

It's taxed as a preferred dividend. The accounting basis of the preferred was $3.86 Billion because warrants can't be "free" from an accounting cost allocation point of view. This is just the redemption at $5.5 Billion plus a couple of quarters of interest.

You should try calling OID, their website says they offer reprints: http://www.oid.com/public/html/contacts.html

Those posts are from 2007. OID has certainly been publishing since then and sent out an issue in 2010. I have an August 2010 issue and they often go long periods between issues.

Haven't received one recently. Never know when they are going to come out. Many are 'double issues' lately. Few and far between.

$5.5 B plus a couple hundred in interest, not 7.1 Billion higher.

I thought it was two days before Christmas in Hong Kong. Are they having another meeting before next December?

That's true - but it's fairly straightforward to watch where his money goes and try to figure out why. In my experience, it pays to pay very close attention to what he does with HIS capital. case in point, from last year: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/937797/000120919110018107/xslF345X03/c98135_4x0.xml

He certainly sounds British, but he started in business in Canada. I think he lives in Hong Kong or Vienna most of the time. I highly recommend the conference calls!

Not that it's the answer you are looking for, but nobody has done better than John Malone in creating and profiting from these types of special situations.

I'm with the Leucadia guys: "Once again, we remind you that wine is food and it fosters both good times and laughter with family and friends, something that is too often missing in the world today. Raise a glass soon with your loved ones."

I think "Afternoon with Charlie" is still on, just no annual meeting.

couldn't get your link to work, but here's the AR: http://www.leucadia.com/10k_docs/luk_10k_2010.pdf

Buffett also used short puts to acquire a bunch of the original BNI. Assuming they are cash covered, you are risking your great purchase idea going up while you make a couple of bucks and watch from the sidelines. Writing puts on companies you want to own at the strike price is a fine way to generate income, but can obviously leave you with a bunch of stock and no cash in a downturn.

What do you hate about Dairy Queen International? I'm sure you know it's a licensing / Franchise business... Expanding into China, Egypt, Macau, Saudi Arabia, etc... Very little capital employed in the business and the dough keeps flowing up to Omaha with little need to reinvest a cent. Plus it's minuscule inside Berkshire. 31.7% return on capital employed when we purchased it. Year after year...

I've been picking BRK over FFH at recent prices, so far not even l'affaire Sokol has allowed the purchase of BRK shares at below 200 Billion market cap. With the annual meeting around the corner, which includes pre-release of first quarter earnings, and most of Berkshire's Japan exposure coming through their Swiss Re quota share agreement - folks might actually start to focus on the business again. Gotta love that the 1.64 Billion Goldman windfall this quarter will be taxed as a preferred dividend due to the clever structuring of the product.

I know that's from a while ago, and I've seen it a few times by now - but listening again I hadn't caught his comment on predicting coming disappointment among universities that all invested in timberland at the same time ("they all purchased in the same groves"). There was a similar sentiment expressed in one of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing newsletters, where the 'short' winner of Ackman's pershing square prize was a timber reit short. (the long winner was BR)

http://www.morningstar.com/cover/videocenter.aspx?id=375858

I recently got the new book too - and it is really nicely done. A great buy for those that appreciate the minutia of what Buffet is up to. You get a real sense for the insane amount of energy he still has. It was interesting to read the details of a few of his previously undisclosed Korean equity positions: "Buffett said that Berkshire had bought shares of Kia Motors Corp., Shinyoung Securities, and Hyundai Steel in Korea earlier but now owned only shares in POSCO. He personally held one additional Korean stock in his own portfolio." Has anybody checked out a price chart of Kia Motors recently? It's, um, up and to the right... My favorite typo / "damn you auto-correct" moment so far is on page seven where they refer to Michael Milken as "former punk band king". Rock on.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought they were not convertible - i.e., unlike BRK you cannot convert BH class A into BH class B. I know his reasons for the dual class voting are shady, but it doesn't sound horribly different from the voting rights disparity at BRK. (I am not defending his actions, I really dislike this guy)

Not that it really matters, but why does he use the wrong share count and the wrong Shareholder's Equity? Tilson's BRK shares outstanding: 1.636 million Actual BRK shares outstanding: 1.6486 million Tilson's BRK equity: $163 Billion Actual BRK equity: $157.3 Billion Using $163 B ignores the 5.6 Billion that doesn't belong to BRK shareholders.

http://www.deepcapture.com/michael-steinhardt-when-the-bad-guys-came-to-town/