Investmentacct

Congratulations and big Thank you to Parsad for making this community what it has been. Rgds.

The S&P500 earnings are around $105 and it's at 1517...so roughly about 15 times earnings. Neither cheap, nor expensive historically. It won't provide you returns larger than growth in GDP and inflation plus dividends. You also have no boost from interest rates, nor profit margins, which are at historical lows and highs respectively. Cheers! Is there a rule of thumb, or maybe it is available somewhere, to approximate the FCF for the SPX from the earnings? Please check below link and see if it can be useful. You would still have to derive or assume fcf. http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/spearn.htm

May be Byddf

62.5% on individual portfolio. Got lucky. Since overall AUM number is very low , percentage return was higher. Most of the help from bac warrants and brk.b. Thanks to everyone's help. Esp. Kudos to Ericopoly and Sanjeev's call.

Happy new year 2013 to all of you. Thanks and regards.

Feliz Navidad Prospero año y felicidad Te deseo una feliz Navidad Del fondo de mi corazón Happy holidays . Enjoy.

You might try http://www.google.com/advanced_search Enter Site or domain as www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca And Keyword as shipping. Thanks.

Re: Lookingstill : "Have any of you, guys, observed similar picture last summer or is it different this year? I wasn't on the market last summer, so no clue there." About this time last year, when we were looking to buy in walnut, diamond bar, chino hills area; we had plenty of choices. No bidding what so ever.

"Right now I'm on the market to buy a smaller rental property in a certain area of Southern California." Have you looked in inland empire area; or have you been looking in LA,OC ?

I was impressed by most recent solar power plant commissioned in western state of Gujarat. In last 3 years they have made strides in solar power. If half of the India could adopt the rate at which these plants are built, India in next 15 years , will be largest solar power producer. Jump from few mw capacity to few hundred mw capacity is some change. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_India

I feel some experts in warrants/options can help me out. I have one basic about warrant expiry and delivery. In case of bac-wta, if I buy 100000 warrants at 3.25. In January 2019 at expiry if warrants are in the money, would I need to add additional money to my account @ 13.3 * 100000 = 1330000. ? Or no additional money will be required at delivery? Or since warrants are in money what cost basis would be adjusted to ? Any advice on tax implication. Any reference will help. Greatly appreciate. Thanks.

L.A. Metro (Chino Hills, CA)

May be I am naive to think but; Since appl is headquartered in bay-area; probably huge sum of those 100 Bln in BofA or WFC accounts doing nothing while hopefully BofA doing something with them. Ironically, BofA traded 75Bln in open market.

Rmitz "Maybe Kerala, but most places there have HUGE requirements in greasing the right palms and bureaucracy" You might want to read up on this state from which is growing around 12% a year in last 15 years and comprises 20% of India's GDP growth. Read through economy and industry section. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarat Rgds.

May be it has something to do with the tax increase on rich debate in DC http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/09/race-reveal-buffetts-overtaxed-secretary/42720/

Courtesy: wsj.com http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2011/09/14/report-housing-inventory-hits-2011-low/

Arcadia, CA is a chinese suburb in Los Angeles. As Vancouver, its Prices are interesting as well. There was no real estate crash in this city. It's number 6 on most pricey list: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2010/top25s/housing/pricey.html

Again, the same deal could have been done two years ago for less than 30% of the new sticker. MSFT was just as flushed with cash, and eBay was a (almost too) willing and motivated seller. Why now? Is the economics of consumer* voice/video calling 3 times better than it was back in '09? ----not sure about economics, but as a consumer since skype started way back in 05-06 their quality definitely improved much. You can video conference in people in any timezone in the world and have them on your 55" tv sets, all on hd. We have relatives across europe and Asia. Connecting with them never was easier and good quality before Skype. And, i still remembered paying 5 bucks for 10 minutes every time, just good 10 years back. And now through skype we connect all over places almost free using hd video calls. I would think it will end some point of time. I imagine some point of time video call would worth/cost more than just plain audio if it could be chargable. I would pay money for using skype than using AT&T Anytime. Recent iPhone/iPad/tablet skype calls are wonderful as well. One observation was, Skype has almost as many users as Facebook.

There might be some value in 650 million user base and around 50 million active users a day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype

Good Idea is to be open to other's views: This may be a myth but it's how coke solved its puzzle. http://portal.kinnigoli.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1627&catid=6:category-humour&Itemid=13 http://gosmellthecoffee.com/archives/9570

Feynman Plz see if this is what you were looking for: Berkowitz: March 2009 http://www.grahamanddoddsville.net/wordpress/Files/Gurus/Bruce%20Berkowitz/OID%20-%20Bruce%20Berkowitz%20-%203-17-2009.pdf

Re Sea Island 2% of world's billionaires from this Indian community are considered to be pure vegetarian. One guy on the list is regarded as buffett of India. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marwaris

>>I am still having a hard time seeing when an index fund is helpful. I think I can give you my job's retirement plan example. We have two plans at job, 401 & 457 being semi-government agency. These plans offer only limited choices to invest in Mutual funds and index funds. I did not invest but accumulate most of my job's retirement money started in 2004, until, October of 2008 when Buffett published his buy america article, Since then started investing in S&P 500 index fund until July 2009. After then did not invest any additional money but started accumulating again. This strategy seems to work as long as one does not have many choices for investments in retirement accounts. I recognize that it's kind of loser's choices; but if your job account gives you limited choices , i think could live with it.

Quoting Charles Dickens: "Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay." - Charles Dickens - (Born 7 February 1812 – Died 9 June 1870)

Sorry to hear about your job; but in Polly Ana way Better things are ahead . If you are concerned about weather LA or OC might be better choices; it's always bright & sunny ;as long As you can spend few hours in traffic here and there and Few of those shaking quakes which happens now and then.