Charlie

"It's not an elephant dancing, it's a crowd of elephants, dancing! " Yeah it is a crowd of very profitable elephants dancing, but when I sometimes hear people argue that Berkshire is too big to grow, I always think of a Munger quote of the annual meeting 10 years ago: "If your system is decentralization to the point of abdication, what difference does it make how many subsidiaries you have?"

Berkshire Operating Profit Surged to Record $10.8 Billion in Latest Quarter https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-earnings-stock-price-8f61fc76?siteid=yhoof2 Cheers!

I bought some Berkshire b shares today. The statistical weak month of October is ending (some equity strategies start investing in November), Berkshire is quite cheap on a P/B basis and Q3 will be released soon, so that will probably decrease P/B further.

Anyone who read this book? https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0CHWNZNFV/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=3JOEIFXUDHY7U&keywords=outlive&qid=1696877624&sprefix=outlive%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-5 It looks like a very good practical workbook of the book "Outlive". I just ordered it.

Great book! Thank you for recommending. I liked especially the part about emotional health.

Some years ago Munger told his relatives at an annual meeting that they shouldn´t be so dumb to sell their Berkshire shares. I think that is the mantra of a lot of Berkshire billionaires and millionaires.

Barron´s take on the second quarter: https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-earnings-warren-buffett-34659069?mod=md_stockoverview_news Cheers!

I like the Apple chart : Buffett began buying in Q1 2016.

Look at/think about the track record of Ajit Jain. That's probably all you need to consider. (Buffett or Munger said that Track record is everything)

Rhodos, Greece. The landscape, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, the weather and the mediterranean diet with red wine are fantastic.

"I just saw them on the CNBC broadcast but I thought they looked and spoke much better this year than last year." I had the impression that both looked better and spoke better than the last 2-3 years at the annual meetings. Munger spoke of himself in an interview that he give himself 5 more years.

The transcript of the Berkshire annual meeting is available at the Warren Buffett archive site at https://buffett.cnbc.com/video/2023/05/08/morning-session---2023-meeting.html https://buffett.cnbc.com/video/2023/05/08/afternoon-session---2023-meeting.html Cheers!

Some good warm-up videos: https://www.cnbc.com/brklive/ https://finance.yahoo.com/live/berkshire-hathaway @John Hjorth Just skip Twitter.

Bought some Berkshire b shares, mostly because Apple shares rising and insurance seems to be doing pretty good.

Anyone asking Buffett and Munger questions? It´s probably a good time to think hard what do you want to know from them. Perhaps one of the last times you can ask them! You can e-mail them to berkshirequestions@cnbc.com. I did also ask one and it´s interesting if your questions get picked. Cheers!

Full transcript of the interview: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/12/full-transcript-berkshire-hathaway-chairman-ceo-warren-buffett-speaks-with-cnbcs-becky-quick-on-squawk-box-today-.html Cheers!

gfp, thank you!

I´m afraid of leverage, low quality businesses in low quality countries and management with a track record of leaving their circle of competence. So I never invested in them. On the other hand they are very good value investors and good Buffett imitators.

"Investing in conglomerates provide you the opportunity to participate in "creative destruction", ref. Joseph Schlumpeter [and ref. the mentioning in the shareholder letter], while also providing you with option - when things goes wrong & south [perhaps dearly] with a certain investment in the conglomerate, which again provides the opportunity to claim here : "I'm not the dork here, the CEO [of the conglomerate] is." [unless one decide to fire that CEO by offloading the position, that is]." Of course, the businesses Berkshire owns is an evolutional process. The flowers bloom, the weeds get automatically cut down. That is the way with nearly everything.

I really miss the list of the biggest equity holdings. Buffett doesn´t like it to be imitated/copy catted. Does anyone have the full version of the Morningstar analysis? https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnys/brk.b/analysis

"So I think anyone reading my posts for the last 25 years knows that Berkshire and AJ Gallagher dominate my portfolio/outcome." dealraker, I have a quote in my working room from Buffett that says: "The most important thing is to be in the right business(es)." With Berkshire and AJ Gallagher you entered the right businesses. I entered only Berkshire, but that worked also.

"@dealraker i love the comments… please keep them coming. Great wisdom. As i get older i am starting to question if Buffett’s and Lynch’s wisdom - that an average person can learn to successfully invest on their own - is actually realistic/possible (for most people). I just see so few people who are actually able to figure it out over time. Worse, i know a fair number of people who have tried and failed… some miserably. None of my family members have been able to figure it out. Why not? I am wondering if the vast majority of people simply do not have the required emotional make-up to be successful self-directed investors. So few people get rich the way Warren Buffett did (financial markets) - perhaps its not as easy as it looks. ————— By ‘successfully invest’ i mean they are able to achieve results (over decades) that are better than the relevant market benchmark. " Successful investing goes against human nature. Digital inventions like iphones etc. make people more irrational, not less. So we value investors can all celebrate the irrationalities of our fellow human beings for decades to come.

It also could be that he bought more german equities: BASF, Munich Re, Allianz are pretty much up sharply. After I saw the charts I bought some more Berkshire.

Any good guesses what Buffett bought in Q4 2022? My guesses would be Occidental, Apple and some share repurchases.

Normally Berkshire tends to rise before and after earnings releases. Before and after the annual report it tends to rise most. Since annual report is coming soon I'm prepared with 100% in Berkshire. A flat stock price and good earnings is a good combination.