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There was definitely two distinct groups of people to observe at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting the year after the split; those who you could tell owned class A and pre-split class B stocks and those who obviously bought in when the class B stock dropped from over $4,000/share to under $100.
It is a great chance for people who can't drop several thousand dollars on one share to get in on BRK stock.
I did. I followed it and bought right after the split was approved.
2 shares of the stock before split got you 100 shares after the split.
Buffet has a good head for investments.
The following is from Buffet's latest stockholder letter.
Berkshire’s “Big Four” investments – American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM and Wells Fargo – all had good
years. Our ownership interest in each of these companies increased during the year. We purchased additional shares of Wells Fargo (our ownership now is 8.7% versus 7.6% at yearend 2011) and IBM (6.0%versus 5.5%). Meanwhile, stock repurchases at Coca-Cola and American Express raised our percentage ownership. Our equity in Coca-Cola grew from 8.8% to 8.9% and our interest at American Express from 13.0% to 13.7%.
Berkshire’s ownership interest in all four companies is likely to increase in the future. Mae West had it right: “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”
....
There was a lot of hand-wringing last year among CEOs who cried “uncertainty” when faced with capital-allocation decisions (despite many of their businesses having enjoyed record levels of both earnings and cash). At Berkshire, we didn’t share their fears, instead spending a record $9.8 billion on plant and equipment in 2012, about 88% of it in the United States. That’s 19% more than we spent in 2011, our previous high.
Charlie and I love investing large sums in worthwhile projects, whatever the pundits are saying.
We instead heed the words from Gary Allan’s new country song, “Every Storm Runs Out of Rain.” We will keep our foot to the floor and will almost certainly set still another record for capital expenditures in 2013. Opportunities abound in America.
In addition Berkshire Hathaway announced that:
In February, we agreed to buy 50% of a holding company that will own all of H. J. Heinz.
Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway is doing what they have always done. Buying stocks they believe are undervalued and selling stocks that they believe are overvalued.
As we can see the OP is just wrong about everything. The fact is most of the wealthy are increasing their stock holdings not dumping them. Being wrong, like the OP, is a direct result of reading spurious blogs which spread lies and which are not based in the real world of facts.
A few years ago there was a 50 for 1 split on the B class stock which brought the share price down to around $69/share. This was an opportunity for normal joe to get in on Buffet's prowess for investing.
Today it's trading at $103. (BRK-B)
I bought into BRKb mid 2012, should have gone on sooner but still a good return.
As we can see the OP is just wrong about everything. The fact is most of the wealthy are increasing their stock holdings not dumping them. Being wrong, like the OP, is a direct result of reading spurious blogs which spread lies and which are not based in the real world of facts.
What exactly was I wrong about in post #1? All I did was ask if this is the start of a downward market. Economist Robert Wiedemer is the one making the prediction's not me, I'm not a stock market guru. I'm only asking the question, is the worm starting to turn.
From the link I posted:
The chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor’s said that Wiedemer’s track record “demands our attention.”
And finally, the former CFO of Goldman Sachs said Wiedemer’s “prescience in (his) first book lends credence to the new warnings. This book deserves our attention.”
I can't believe that no one has mentioned that the OP's article is from August 2012. 8 months later and no economic collapse, no runaway inflation, gold is falling, and Buffet is still buying. That "article" is nothing more than a fake news story designed to promote the Wiedemer's books and other products.
Quote:
But the $800,000 or so in book royalties the authors may receive (based on a standard 15% cover price royalty rate) pales in comparison to the trio's ancillary businesses: David Wiedemer told me the book is responsible for $100 million in assets flowing into Absolute Investment Management, a Bethesda, Md.-based money manager with whom the brothers partnered and where they are now managing directors. On top of that, 1,000 people have paid an annual fee of $399 to receive the Wiedemers' investment advice, a number that is growing faster as more people read the book. (Periodic exhortations to subscribe and invest with them pepper the chapters.)
These guys are hucksters who use a lot of sleazy marketing techniques to make money off of gullible people. Infomercials disguised as interviews, fake news stories full of shameless self-promotion, negative option marketing they won't let you cancel, sensationalist scare tactics, etc. They write all this fantastical doom and gloom about 90% unemployment and 100% yearly inflation to scare people and get them all worked up and then swoop in for the rescue with various products for sale (books, newsletters, investments, etc.) I would not be the least bit surprised to find out that they engage in astroturfing to create fake support for their books online as well.
As one reviewer on Amazon said:
Quote:
If someone is trying to scare you into buying something, it's a scam.
If someone claims to be able to predict the future, it's a scam.
If someone claims to be able to predict the stock-market, it's a scam.
If someone is giving away (for free) advice, that if true, would be invaluable, it's a scam
If the website displays a pop-up asking you if you want to leave or stay on the page when you try to close the page, it's a scam
If a free product requires you to enter a credit card number, it's a scam
If a free book costs $47, it's a scam
Add to that their "secret" chapter to their book that was "too controversial" to publish in the book, but is for sale on their website.
Last edited by EugeneOnegin; 03-08-2013 at 01:54 AM..
What exactly was I wrong about in post #1? All I did was ask if this is the start of a downward market. Economist Robert Wiedemer is the one making the prediction's not me,
Robert Wiedemer is not an economist, he has an MBA in marketing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wapasha
From the link I posted:
The chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor’s said that Wiedemer’s track record “demands our attention.”
And finally, the former CFO of Goldman Sachs said Wiedemer’s “prescience in (his) first book lends credence to the new warnings. This book deserves our attention.”
The link you posted is an advertorial, not a news article, and it cites no sources.
Check out the sleazy infomercial linked halfway through the "article."
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