woltac

My biggest mistake of 2015 was failing to follow Ericopoly's advice to hedge my long position in BAC calls. I was lulled by past success into thinking that hedging the position was unnecessary and would only reduce my returns. To add to my blunder, I also did not heed his advice to exchange my 2016 calls into 2017 calls when they became available. This one was just pure laziness on my part as I fully intended to do so. Following either recommendation would have saved me from a loss.

Brk.b, bac.wta

I really enjoyed the article. The criminal prosecution of a few individuals would have a greater positive impact on the culture at the big banks than billion dollar civil settlements.

Congrats Sanjeev and family. Welcome Aikum! I hope to be here for your first post to the board.

From an article in this weeks Barron's Magazine: "Just 900 fund managers out of nearly 8,000 funds have more than $1 million invested in their own portfolios. What does that mean for you?" http://online.barrons.com/news/articles/SB50001424053111903684104580023911134207830 Good luck to the mutual fund "investors" in the other 7,100 funds. They may need it.

Are there charts or graphs that would not view well in the Kindle version?

Bought Jan 2016 BAC $15 calls. Sold Jan 2015 LUK $25 puts.

I think the consensus is that the market is fairly priced. There are still cheap stocks but it is very hard to find bargains from obvious superior U.S. businesses. From reading CoBF and various quarterly letters, investors increasingly are looking abroad for relative bargains. Europe is probably 12-18 months behind U.S. in terms of valuations. Be careful basing any decision on consensus opinion. Too many times in the past the consensus opinion was wrong. Nassim Taleb's Fooled by Randomness is a good read that addresses this and other related issues.

Aside from the annual trip to Omaha for the last dozen years or so, Mr. Buffett's influence has given me the ability to retire at a relatively early age. The lessons that come to mind immediately: Investing Rule #1 Never lose money; Rule #2 Don't forget rule #1 Think of stocks as investments in a business rather than investments in a security. Invest in companies that you want to hold forever (still have trouble with this one occasionally) Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Mr. Market analogy as the right way to think about the stock market Insurance float can be an asset, although it is treated as a liability for accounting purposes There are many, many more lessons.

Thank you Sanjeev. The new mobile app looks great.

"From a tax standpoint, we note the Canadian government withholds 15% of the dividends that these REITs pay to US investors, though you can recover this amount by filing a Form 1116 at tax time. Investors who hold these stocks in an IRA or other tax-advantaged account will not be able to recoup this withholding." Is there any way around the withholding for IRA accounts? Does this apply to all Canadian dividends or is it limited to REITs?

This article agrees with your assessment and identifies suggestions: http://www.moneyshow.com/investing/article/1/GURU-33249/Canadian-REITs:-Super-Buys/

Happy New Year to everyone on the board! May 2014 bring you good times and good health.

Perfect timing, I opened the thread when I climbed on the stair machine. Charlie Rose's website has an endless supply of videos on a variety of topics. http://www.charlierose.com/

How many tulips can i buy with a bitcoin?

Congrats and thank you for sharing your ideas. :D

I was out of step for buying BRK.B rather than AOL during that period. A coworker asking sarcastically, "AOL doubles at least every year, why are you buying an insurance company I never heard of?" He did not listen to the answer. Of course in 2000 he learned the answer to that question the hard way.

Quicken does all the work for me. I download the transactions from most of my investment accounts directly into Quicken. Fidelity, ETrade and Vanguard download directly, while Scottrade OptionsFirst does not.

Luckily, my biggest mistakes were when I started investing and had minimal funds to invest. 1. Media Logic - a company that manufactured machines that "verified" 3.5" computer disks - no sustainable business plan. 2. Gainsco Insurance - fraud allegations against the founder sent the stock plummeting. 3. Not buying BRK.A at $18,000 when it would have taken all of my invested funds to buy one share.

Prunes, I love your scraper tool. It makes me look like an all star investor. My one pick is up 71% in two years! woltac

Happy Birthday Sanjeev!

There aren't many people who don't like upside volatility. Not true. Take an asset that has only upside volatility, and compare it to an asset with equal expected return and no deviation in return (essentially a risk free asset with same E® ). You would prefer the volatile asset? I would not. On the other hand, if by upside volatility you mean volatility above the mean, then the asset would have a higher E®...above the RF asset... Upside volatility is not separable from Risk, and not a meaningful concept, if I understand you correctly, you're looking at the positive side of the distribution and saying "This part is good", but the "good" side also comes with a "bad" side that WILL balance it out to equal E®. You have a dispersion of outcomes, and to an asset holder, given the same expected return, you want the asset with a smaller dispersion... I hope understanding this concept is not a requirement for successful investing.

Nice job on the interview. Great job with your fund. Thank you for participating on the board!

According to Sanjeev in one post above you, SAC has settled with the government. Why is there another probe? Is there more than one insider trading case? :o From the article you cite: “Notwithstanding the settlements that SAC Capital has reached with the SEC, which are very narrow in scope, it still leaves the door wide open to further civil litigation and potential criminal prosecution for others mentioned in the SEC’s complaint,” Sabino said. Generally, when a government investigation begins to get close to the principals of a business, their cooperation ends.

Sanjeev, Congratulations on your 7th year anniversary and thank you for providing the only investing message board that I read daily. I wonder how much in assets the members of the board collectively manage. :)