Tag: Buffett

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Fun

My Berkshire Hathaway proxy vote

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I sold my remaining BRK.B share last week, and got some US bank (NYSE: USB) shares instead. The main reason I sold BRK.B is:

1) I don’t really understand the valuation of the business, which is 50% insurance + 50% manufacturing, housing, retailing etc. I have no idea for insurance and the whole thing is too complicated (big) for me.

2) I feel while Buffett escaped the worst market in 2008 with relatively few wound, he has appeared too much in public (CNBC?), and may have spent too much time with people he felt comfortable with (CEOs of Goldman Sach etc.). In other words, I hope he spend more time in Omaha, doing his thing/improving himself, rather than “start get into bubble”.

BRK_proxy_vote

For the similar reason, I decided not to worship him in Omaha this May, although I understand the chance of seeing the great investor becomes slimmer and slimmer as time goes (as I told my wife 🙂

That’s OK, at least I voted with my best judgement. I will explain why I voted against some of the directors if you are curious.

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video

Tang Wei Zhen: Chinese Madoff

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(Update 06-13-2020) The links below no longer work. This is one nature of the internet: nothing lasts forever. Here is a new article Tang Wei Zhen.

(Original) Tang Wei Zhen 唐炜臻 (company) claimed to be Chinese Buffett (as shown in the following 11’24” video, link here). But apparently he is Chinese mini-Madoff. Chinese story here (hutong9).

Couple points to spot warning signs:

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Economy

Dow 5,000?

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I remember years ago (in dot com era) there is a book named Dow 36,000. Obviously that predication was a laughing stock becaue Dow crashed in year 2000. No I am not trying to make a fool of myself, my title Dow 5,000 is merely to reflect today the Dow and S&P dropped to 12 year low again (source: bloomberg).

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Master Series

Berkshire Buffett COP Conoco Phillips stake

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(Update Feb 29 2009) CNBC is putting up some nice words on Buffett today. After all, he lent $3 b to GE (the parent co. of NBC) last fall.

(Original) In these turbulant days, investors, ordinary and professional alike, look for directions from investor guru more than ever. Of course among gurus people pay attention, is Warren Buffett quarterly stock holdings change: people are interested in what he bought and what he sold, some (like yours truely) tried to understand his move and thinking, and follow him if makes sense. To avoid copycats, Buffett usually tries to delay his 13G filings as late as possible (within the deadline of SEC, or other regulatories). He famous sent a regular mail to Hongkong Securities Exchange after he sold the PetroChina stock, postmarked by the deadline of HSE.

Warren Buffett pic

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Master Series

Buffett on NBR (PBS)

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Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A; BRK.B) has not done well lately. Nonetheless, Nightly Business Report (PBS) interviewed Buffett. The topic ranges from new administration, recession and investing. The interview is about 30 minutes long.

Interestingly Susie Gharib tried to ask particular investment advice, Buffett declined politely.

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Stocks

Market gyration and why I think Buffett is still the guy

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Week in review 11/17/08 to 11/22/08
Crazy market
If you have not paid attention to the market lately (for whatever reason), yesterday and today’s market should have got your attention, because of its huge volatility: big down yesterday and big up today. Note yesterday Paulson spoke at California and today’s news is NY Fed chief Tim Geithner is reported picked by Obama to run the treasury department. But these are just the reasons on the surface. The real reason, I think, is the real economy in the world is shadowed by the credit crisis. There are enormous fear in the market, as we can saw from the panic sell in the last trading hour yesterday and panic short covering last hour today.

Also in the news, the bailout of Detroit big 3 car makers have been put on hold; and Citi Group (NYSE: C) has under pressure as its stock dropped below $4.

Buffett also makes mistake
It is not pretty week for the Oracle of Omaha either. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) stock dropped more than 10% last week on the reports of its surging CDS levels (Reuters). I read this artticle from seekingalpha, by Whitney Tilson (who holds Berkshire A shares).

I also doubt those long term stock market Index (expires in 2019 to 2030) puts will lose money eventually, but the CDS positions (expire in 2009 to 2013) will lose some money. This is not really surprising because Buffett is also human, he makes mistakes too. I remember he lost money on currency trades a while back.

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Master Series

Buffett lost his touch?

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Berkshire Hathaway, a.k.a, Warren Buffett’s diversified holding company, reported a not-so-good quarter Friday after market close. Here are the results.

BRK berkshire 3Q 2008 pic
(full size pic here)

On the surface the result is not good. But I think the loss from derivatives is on the paper and will be temporary.

What do we learn from Buffett
Discipline, discipline, discipline (see the definition at Wesbster Dictionary). There is a new book about Buffett came out lately. Here is the link to Amazon. If you like, you can also help me out buying from my Amazon store. But this is not my point. My point is, among many attributes that contribute to the success of Oracle of Omaha, discicpline is probablly the most important.

Jason Zweig wrote an article about the secret behind Buffett’s success on WSJ. Here is the Chinese translation.

Buffett pretender award

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Master Series

Buffett talked about rescue plan on Charlie Rose

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Here is the Google video. He also talked about the financial crisis, human psychology in terms of bubble, herd mentality etc. which is my favorite part (but I have to admit I am one of the herd). The interview last about 54 min.

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Master Series

In Buffett we trust: II

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In this turbulent market, most of my stocks took hits, from China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) to Arch Coal (NYSE:ACI), to Chesepeake Energy (NYSE:CHK), Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO), not to mention the once-high-flyers such as Sohu (Nasdaq:SOHU) and Wuxi Pharma (Nasdaq:WX), both of which I already sold. At the same time, I am happy to see my two shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) stood calm, and even went up a bit. Why?

(Fox interview David Sokol, Chairman of MidAmerican Energy, a Berkshire Hathaway holding)

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Master Series

Buffett CNBC interview

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When the Master speaks, we all listen. Here is what he said on CNBC “squawk on the street” Aug 22. Note I don’t pay attention to CNBC and “Squawk on the Street”, unless it’s someone like Buffett or Gross (Pimco) speaking. Here are the transcripts at CNBC. I read it from trader1688 first. Some interesting quotes:

What Chinese company got Buffett interested?
6:22 AM: Buffett reveals that Berkshire made a half-billion dollar bid on a Chinese stock that wasn’t accepted. He wouldn’t say what stock or what industry. He did say that under the right circumstances he could have a lot of money in China, but noted that there are government restrictions on foreign ownership that must be overcome.

Buffett left some money on the table
7:05 AM: Buffett confirms that he sold 60 percent of his Anheuser-Busch [BUD 67.79 0.03 (+0.04%) ] shares at prices around $61-$62 before the company agreed to a friendly merger with InBev at a sweetened price of $70. Buffett says at the time he wasn’t sure the deal would go through given Anheuser’s strong resistance to InBev’s original bid. “In retrospect, I was wrong,” but he says that often happens.

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