benchmark

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).

do you have a pointer to the original speech/video?

I've bought some USB, WFC at the lows during the crisis. Given that I have too much in financials, I am thinking about selling some to move to AIG warrants. Though WFC has Buffet endorsement, but USB is much smaller, and can grow a bit faster. I'd like to hear board's opinion on which one to sell and why? TIA.

However, when you leave your employer and rollover a 401k to a Rollover IRA, you can have 100% of the after-tax money go directly to a Roth IRA, and have 100% of the pre-tax money go directly to the Rollover IRA. The after-tax money from the 401k can go straight to the Roth IRA even though you haven't yet decided whether or not to do a Roth Conversion on the pre-tax money. That's what I did :) EDIT: Actually, it might have just been the Roth-401k contributions that went straight to the Roth IRA. I had both Roth-401k and the regular pre-tax kind in that company plan. One other thing that I realized was that if you convert this year, you'll avoid the obama health care tax on the conversion amount, which is 3.8%, no small percentage.

Interesting observation. Agreed on immigrants are more hard working than average american, but i think they tends to vote democrats because they are often the ones benefits from the social safe net, as most of them are low income.

Completely agree that both sides are full of it. However, I don't think defense spending is the only reason. Revenue needs to be raised (by cutting deductions or a flat tax), as well cut spending (all able-citizens needs to work for their food stamps,no more freebie).

I'm surprised that he trimmed USB, which I thought is similar to WFC, which he added

http://www.mercurynews.com/mike-cassidy/ci_21648602/cassidy-apple-woz-steve-wozniak-live-australia-new-zealand

This makes perfect sense -- if the rate is the same or higher. If the rate when you retire or convert is lower, then it might not (let's say that you stop working and has no income except the conversion amount).

In the last statement, I assume that by "Traditional IRA", you actually meant "Roth IRA"?