Charlie

I find Mr. Rochon doings and writings always interesting, too and always learn something. :) I thought his arguments about the index investing were a little bit weak and his comparison with 1998. He wants to keep his clients. ;) I have no idea, but it looks like he bought the additional US banks in 2019. As a Buffett student I would guess he bought BAC, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo.

2018 annual letter is out: http://www.givernycapital.com/en/doc/224/Giverny_Capital_-_Annual_Letter_2018_web_.pdf Cheers!

"I thought the letter was short and sweet. We should get used to that anyway. " +1 I liked this part: "Let’s now look further at Berkshire’s most valuable grove – our collection of non-insurance businesses – keeping in mind that we do not wish to unnecessarily hand our competitors information that might be useful to them. Additional details about individual operations can be found on pages K-5 – K-22 and pages K-40 – K-51. Viewed as a group, these businesses earned pre-tax income in 2018 of $20.8 billion, a 24% increase over 2017. Acquisitions we made in 2018 delivered only a trivial amount of that gain. I will stick with pre-tax figures in this discussion. But our after-tax gain in 2018 from these businesses was far greater – 47% – thanks in large part to the cut in the corporate tax rate that became effective at the beginning of that year. Let’s look at why the impact was so dramatic."

Good warm-up read for the annual letter and great Berkshire analysis. :)

John Hjorth, I mentioned Munich Re results as an indicator of Berkshire´s next reinsurance results. The results should be good. :) Cheers!

I bought some Berkshire shares. Munich Re reported good reinsurance profits.

Merry Christmas! Thank you for this great message board. :)

I bought Berkshire shares for my parents with the proceeds of sale of Sanofi S.A shares.

I bought some more Berkshire shares for my parents with proceeds of Kraft shares sale. :-\

Sold Phillips 66 shares of my parents and bought Berkshire. I thought about buying Apple, but I think the probability of doubling of Berkshire is higher than doubling of Apple in a few years.

I remember that Munger said that Chinese people have some mathematical advantages, because historically they were very good in counting rice. To many people this will sound too simplistic, but I think it´s a very plausible explanation.

"Enjoy life while Omaha works hard with your money" +1 Yeah, 4 months ago my wife got twins, so there is so much to enjoy and also so much work. :)

304671 / 217677 = 1.399 I´m conservative. ;)

The gift still keeps giving. It´s good to be 100% in Berkshire. :) I love the Apple position and the earnings increase. I regret that I didn't have bought more Berkshire or Apple for my parents (40% invested in Berkshire, 0% in Apple). We will see if the share price will move up fast or if there are enough people willing to sell with the good possibility to selling shares to Warren and Charlie. It´s a No-Brainer not to. ;-) There´s a good chance that Warren and Charlie will pay up to 1,40-1,45 P/B and with P/B of 1,399 now it will be interesting to watch. The buybacks can begin next Monday.... Cheers!

Great interview, thanks for posting. :) Here is the transcript: https://www.nbcumv.com/news/cnbc-transcript-berkshire-hathaway’s-warren-buffett-and-jpmorgan-chase’s-jamie-dimon-speak-cnbc?division=1&network=33135&show=151339

"While I think Semper has done some great work on Berkshire, I'd say Tilson has provided a good service of updating this valuation over the years. It makes sense, doesn't require 50 pages of explanation, and is within the range of a reasonable IV. As Buffett says, you don't need a scale to tell if a man is overweight." +1 Everybody has their misses: Tilsons hedge fund performance, his $3000 investing seminars and Semper Augustus discussion about Index Funds. ;)

Whitney Tilsons latest Berkshire analysis: https://www.tilsonfunds.com/TilsonBRK.pdf Cheers! :)

kiwing100, thank you for the transcript. :)

http://www.morningstar.com/articles/864069/berkshire-results-meet-expectations.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/05/berkshire-hathaway-reports-48-point-7-percent-first-quarter-operating-gain-as-shareholders-prepare-to-meet.html Cheers!

Buffett is live on yahoo facebook. :)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/warren-buffett-us-economic-growth-is-stronger-than-the-2-percent-or-so-average-since-the-financial-crisis.html Cheers!

"Added to BRK today as well. Great price around 190. Quarterly report out Saturday morning with new cash balance (should be huge) and quite possibly zero net earnings on the headline number because of the new mark-to-market equities passing through the income statement.." I also bought some B shares. At P/B of 1,358 and earnings out at Saturday it´s a good buy. And of course I like the big Apple position, which probably got bigger. :)

It´s a good warm-up read for the annual meeting. :) It´s interesting to read which great money managers have Berkshire as their largest position. And it´s interesting how other people remember the annual meetings. There are also a lot of good quotes insight the book.

Cigarbutt, most of my quotes are also not directly related to investing. These are more behavior-related. But I can´t resist to post one of my all-time favorite quotes of Munger: "If you stop to think about it, civilized man has always had soothsayers and shamans and faith healers and God knows what all. The stock picking industry is four or five percent super rational disciplined people. The rest of them are sort of like faith healers or shamans. That´s the way it is, I´m afraid. It´s nice that they keep an image of being constructive, sensible people when they´re really would-be faith healers. It keeps the self-respect up." ;D So the chance when you are talking with an investment advisor that you have a good one is 1:20/25 against you.