benchmark

The pitch is that you can get at least 4x return in 5-10 years.

I got pitched an investment on land in the city of Lancaster. Since I have no prior exposure on this, I'm wondering if there is any good books on this? and what's the general rule of thumb (like CAP rate for rental, etc.)? Thanks and happy holidays.

Do you have a price target?

Seems like IB is preferred by most board members. I use TdAmeritrade, and am considering moving to IB. My TdAmeritrade guy told me that IB is on the sell side, while TD is on the buy side, which would get better fill. Is that true? The other concern I have is if I were to move my account to IB, can they help moving my past trade/records? which is very important coming tax time

50%+ tax rate is insane .... wondering if it's the highest in US?

Are you betting on the jockey too much, and not the company? isn't that what WEB said not to do?

How old is your son? I've been trying to get my son go to BRK's annual meeting, but he isn't interested :(

I think that future car sales will be a lot less than what it is now -- when the self-driving cars are a reality in 5-10 years, the industry will be changed forever.

No problem. I personally just rolled my BAC 2015 10s to BAC 2016 12s. Hi Racemaze, Looking at the data, can you explain the switch over point? is it a share price at which point that the warrant/option would yield the same return as the common? Also, why not BAC 2016 10s? isn't it better (i.e., have a better return with your velocity term)? Sorry for the newbie questions if it's been asked before (or you can point me to the right reading material). thanks.

Great, thanks. Thanks. According to this spreadsheet, JPM is actually cheaper that BAC?

I agree that LinkedIn is a real company with real earnings, but it's only growing at 60-70% y2y, using forward earning, it's trading at about 500+ PE. The short thesis is purely based on rich valuation. At some point, the growth will slow, and the stock will follow, though I don't know when.

Are you referring to the fact that the loss could be unlimited?

I'm finding that to be true :)

Is shorting stock a bad idea in general? For example, LinkedIn seems to be a primary candidate for shorting, purely based on valuation. Moderator, feel free to delete the post if it's been discussed already.

In my part of the world (silicon valley), wages have gone up, and prices (food, gas, housing) have gone up, maybe it's not inflation, but sure looks like it.

I think AIG warrants still have pretty big upside, though it might take a couple of years. Is the selling results of your view that a crash is coming?

LNKD, CRM Both are doing well with their business, but have such a rich valuation, that they bound to go down -- i haven't short them yet, the problem with shorting is that market can stay irrational than you can stay solvent .

Given that BAC has risen quite a bit, and AIG has not, would you sell USB, WFC to buy AIG? would you buy common, warrant, or Jan 15 leap? The other consideration is the impeding rise of tax rate in the US.

I have a bunch of these, and am wondering if i should sell or be greedy and wait for some more?

I agree. Apple is the one. In 10 years, google might be a car company that does search on the side, I think they have incredible business opportunities ahead.

With the impeding rise of tax rate, and the additional health care tax (3.78%), what's the board's opinion on selling to lock in long term gains to avoid the tax hike?

I remember that BRK sold/trimmed GE common -- maybe it's not Buffet's doing.

Yet another discovery -- CA's proposition 30 means a potential 2-3% more tax on the conversion -- on top of 10% state tax. :(

One of the shows I always hated was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Champagne days and caviar dreams. Yuck! That was a very tacky show. At first I was mentioning NetJets metaphorically, but since moving to Santa Barbara I'm finding it to be practical (albeit very, very expensive). The airport here is awesome but it just doesn't fly directly to many places -- everything is a connecting flight. And I'm terrible at planning -- if it snows in Tahoe, I want to be able to make a Thursday night decision to take the kids skiing for the weekend. That means picking them up at school at noon, driving 10 minutes across town right to the plane, getting on, and being in Truckee 1 hour later. Driving to Truckee from Santa Barbara is a non-starter. Flying commercial means getting a connecting flight in Los Angeles and then on to Reno, then we're still at least another hour from Truckee if we're lucky to get our bags right away. So it's like a 4 or 5 hour trip probably counting the connections. Maybe 6 hours including early checkin with security and all. Compare that to just 1 hour on NetJets. Move to SF, you can drive to Tahoe in 3 hours, a few friends do this every other week during the winter.

I like USB, and my investment has a higher gain on USB as well. Buffet seems to have trimmed USB in the last quarter, while continued his purchase on WFC. I'm wondering what he sees in WFC that's not in USB (except scale).