Charlie

"This follow the leader strategy has worked much better following Warren than following other value investors because of the extreme standards Warren has used especially in recent years when making a major purchase. The depth of Warren's reasoning is not always obvious. For example, I did not fully understand his key insight into USG until I had spent many long hours studying it. :)" twacowfca, we follow the same strategy :) In terms of opportunity costs I have some regrets in 2012. The biggest opportunity cost was probably not buying USG, after Buffett said the housing market would soon recover and USG was still very cheap. You know probably much more about USG than I do, so did you buy USG and if not, why not? ;)

I like the part where they say that Warren Buffett is not being underestimated, but Berkshire Hathaway is being underestimated ;)

Here is a good quote from the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway with regards to growth: "Charlie added that the first $200 billion (in market capitalization) was hard for Berkshire to create, but the second $200 billion with the momentum Berkshire has will be pretty easy given Berkshire’s culture." :)

Thank you for posting. Great read! :)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/djia-considering-structural-changes-report-2012-09-22?link=MW_home_latest_news SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The owner of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is considering changes to make it more relevant and will discuss possibilities at its next meeting with major index users, according to a media report Saturday. The changes are being considered by Dow owner Stndard & Poor's because the index is supposed to be a measure of U.S. industrial titans but doesn't include Apple Inc [s:aapl], Google Inc. [s:goog] or Berkshire Hathaway Inc. [s:brk.a], the Financial Times reported, noting they are three of the largest U.S. companies. There would be problems adding them to the Dow bedause they would dominate the 30-stock index that's weighted by price, the FT said. David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee for S&P DJ Indices, said the issue is being discussed, the FT reported. Cheers! :)

"Whether genetic, epigenic, environmental or what, we all have tropisms, or motivated abilities that become manifest at an early age and continue without essential change for the rest of our lives. :)" Buffett said a good indicator for business success is at which age you start your first business. I would say the abilities stay the same for most of your life but your incentives probably change with your age and money dependent of your own needs (Maslow´s hierachy of needs). :)

https://secure.marketwatch.com/story/basf-se-berkshire-hathaway-commonwealth-bank-of-australia-among-five-stocks-added-to-dow-jones-global-titans-50-index-2012-05-31 Cheers!

"blaming the real estate bubble all on Spain when German money was all behind this." Why should German money be the cause of the real estate bubble in Spain? :)

"value investors need to accept uncertainty in their investments, always." If you want certainty buy Berkshire Hathaway at P/B of 1,13 and relax. :)

"When Snowball came out I was surprised by the amount of risk Buffett took prior to the 80s and 90s. He did not get rich by avoiding risk. He got rich by taking calculated risks. Dempster, Sanborn Map, Amex salad oil, Berkshire, Geico (twice), Wesco, Wells Fargo (1990s), Washington Post - during an advertising collapse, Salomon Bros, Buffalo News - everyone of these had risk associated with them at the time - sometimes potentially fatal risk such as Geico, and Buffalo News. Even in the 2008 collapse he went against the grain and propped up GE and Goldman Sachs - both were extremely risky at the time." I remember a comment form Buffett when he said he is a "No-Risk Guy". I also remember Munger discussing the Coca-Cola investment. He said it was extrem low risk. With Buffett investments/Berkshire Hathaway the perceived risks seems always high, but the real risk is often extremely low, especielly with the big investments. ;)

Buffett talked after the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting at CNBC about holding cash: ;) BECKY: Warren, we've been watching oil prices this morning, too. And as we've seen, the risk off trade with stocks under a lot of pressure this morning. You've got Treasuries here in the United States a bit higher. Oil prices have been coming down. And this started happening on Friday after we got that lousy jobs number. Right now you can see it's trading at 97 and change, just below $98. You've got a big stake in Conoco. How do you see oil prices going from here and how does it play into your investments? BUFFETT: Well, I— the truth is I don't have the faintest idea, which is probably why I shouldn't have phoned Conoco in the first place. We did not make money with Conoco. And this is— you talk about risk off... BECKY: Yeah. BUFFETT: ...if my understanding— if they take— risk off is selling and going into cash... BECKY: Yeah. BUFFETT: ...that's risk on for me. BECKY: Yeah. BUFFETT: I think— I think cash is probably as risky an asset as you can own over time. So you're not taking risk off when you— when you go into cash. You are going into something that is sure to decline in purchasing power over time. So that is the biggest risk on trade I know is to own cash.

http://www.poseidonpalace.gr/ :)

hotel room per person with all inclusive and flight.

€630 for 15 days :)

The best bargain I have found in Greece is to make holidays in Greece with my wife. :) At the moment I´m in Leptokaria a small city between the sea and with view at the Olymp. Great weather, beautiful landscapes, great food, great wine and reading about the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. It doesn´t get much better than that. ;) Cheers!

Munich Re reports good numbers: MUNICH, April 26 | Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:29am EDT (Reuters) - Munich Re expects net profit of more than 750 million euros ($989 million) in the first quarter, above expectations, helped by a drop in big damage claims and financial market tensions, its chief executive said on Thursday. The figure is well above the 681 million euro average expectation of analysts' forecasts in data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Munich posted a loss of around 948 million euros in the year-earlier quarter. "We assume that we've earned more than 750 million euros in quarterly profit," Nikolaus von Bomhard said in the text of a speech to the annual meeting of shareholders. The world's biggest reinsurer repeated that it sees net profit rebounding to around 2.5 billion euros this year from 712 million last year, when results were hit by a slew of natural disasters and financial market disruption from the euro zone debt crisis. Data from StarMine, which weights analyst forecasts according to their track record, show Munich Re trading at 7.7 times 12-month forward earnings, on par with world No. 3 reinsurer Hannover Re but at a discount to Swiss Re's multiple of 9.0. ($1 = 0.7585 euros) (Reporting by Christian Kraemer, writing by Jonathan Gould) http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/26/munichre-earnings-idUSWEA948420120426?feedType=RSS&feedName=financialsSector&rpc=43 Cheers!

"Today, with Berkshire even more a bargain than in 2000 and Warren once again willing to repurchase Berkshire's stock near the current price..." perhaps after Fidelity have their investor day with Warren they can value the stock better ;D

Charlie Munger once told the story at a Wesco Meeting, how Andy Kilpatrick bought Berkshire on margin and made a lot of money and Charlie thought that that was a very smart investment from Andy ;)

more insider buying :-) http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000118143112015000/xslF345X03/rrd337310.xml Cheers!

I like the statements most that Berkshire is trading "significantly, substantially and far below" its intrinsic value ;-) Cheers!

Hannover Re optimistic for 2012 as prices rise 1:33am EST FRANKFURT, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Hannover Re is optimistic for 2012 after obtaining higher prices and premiums when it renewed contracts with insurance companies at the start of this year to help them cover big losses such as hurricanes and earthquakes. "Overall, we expect rising premiums and rising earnings in 2012," Chief Executive Ulrich Wallin told a journalist briefing. The world's third-biggest reinsurer obtained price increases of 3-6 percent when renewing the annual contracts with insurers in January. About two thirds of Hannover's non-life reinsurance business premiums were up for renewal at the start of the year, and the group said it boosted the volume of renewed premiums by 6 percent to 3.693 billion euros ($4.8 billion). Wallin declined to comment on the reinsurer's 2011 results, which the group is preparing to unveil on March 14. "We certainly have no reason to give any sort of profit warning," he said. Hannover Re has said it expected to post net profit of at least 500 million euros in 2011 and possibly pay out more than 40 percent of it as a dividend. ($1 = 0.7625 euros) Cheers :)

"Somewhat off topic, but while we are talking about the general market evaluation, would anyone care to share their opinion on why the average market valuation over the last 30 years is justifiably higher in some investors minds? I've heard Joel Greenblatt use only the last 20 years to say that "compared to the last 20 years, todays market valuation is in the 90% of cheap". Why would he use only the last 20 years, when he knows that those 20 years have been historically overpriced? Is there a reason why the Shiller P/E should be seen as PE of 20 = fair valued, instead of the normal(for the last century): PE of 15 = fair valued? I've heard that with the introduction of fiat money, the market deserves a higher PE, but i'd like to hear other peoples thoughts." I remember the comment of Munger who said that in the past the market has been horrible mispriced on the downside and now it seems that people have gotten a little bit more rational and price the market a little bit more efficient.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a big thank you to Sanjeev for this great message board.

- focusing on stock price action instead how the business is performing. - holding too many companies you don´t really understand. - being overoptimistic/not thinking about worst case scenarios. ;)

"Moreover, the older we become, the faster time accelerates from one's experience base or "perspective." One year to a ten year old compared to octogenarians like Buffett or Munger seems like eternity versus a blink of an eye to our elders. "Where did the time go?" is often heard by the older generation among us." Benjamin Franklin: "The scarcer things are the more they are valued." :)