After "scalping" $9B in bonds at the peak in June of this year, Buffett is sitting on the sidelines... ============================================ Reuters Buffett Sees Little to Invest In Sunday October 26, 4:32 pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett (News) sees very few attractive investments at the moment, and is sitting tight on a $24 billion war chest. The billionaire investor and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway said in an interview with Barron's that he is not impressed with the current opportunities in stocks, Treasury bonds or junk debt. ADVERTISEMENT "We've got more cash than ideas. The question is whether that will prevail for an unduly long time," he told Barron's. In fact, Berkshire sold $9 billion of long-term Treasury bonds this year, and Buffett said buying at current levels is not a wise move, according to the report, which appeared in the Oct. 27 edition of the newspaper. Buffett expressed regret about not selling shares of big companies like Coca-Cola Co. and Gillette Co. when those stocks crested in the late 1990s. He added that such sales would have been complicated by the fact that he sat on both companies' boards at the time, raising possible red flags about insider trading. He said he erred in not buying shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. years ago, because he viewed the stock as overvalued. That miscalculation cost Berkshire $8 billion, he told Barron's. Buffett was upbeat about the insurance businesses that make up the most important part of his company. Those units include auto insurer Geico and global reinsurer General Re Corp. He also complimented rival car insurers Progressive Corp. and Mercury General Corp., praising Progressive's strong systems and Mercury's CEO George Joseph, according to Barron's.
Buffet invested in a lot of insurance companies and then he starts touting how much risk there is of another terrorist attack and driving up the insurance costs for companies. I hope the market goes up and proves him wrong.
He hasn't done that many investment/trades in the last decade or so. Mostly buying up private markets. At Oct '2 lows, he could have come in and scoop up shares for cheap and sell it out now for 70% return on Nadaq and 50% on SP500 since he's sucha value investor. But I guess he's not really a market timer...
Buffet is essentially a " bottom fisher" looking for areas that are undervalued in his estimation. Aren't we all. He's simply saying he doesn't see anything that's an easy mark right now.
Banjo, he's a bottom fisher. But NOT a bottom fisher of EVERYTHING. He didn't buy the market lows of sp500 or naz during oct '02! if he did he would have make a lot of money. but like we said he's more of a value guy than a market timer
Buffet selling long term bonds... I thought this would be a comfortably playground for him to dawdle in. I guess the runup in bonds was a little too bubbly? He sold his FNM and FRE awhile ago yet those have held up fairly well, maybe a mistake on his part? Kinda hard to look for opportunities when much of civilization has matured a bit... not like sitting in a mall watching people use credit cards for the first time and envisioning a system working on electronic credit nor seeing Coca Cola expanding operations to accommodate world demand. Progress does make investing harder. The easy money has been made.
They easy money? 1000 shares of BRKA in 1965...$24000 investment.....is worth $75mill today. Easy money? I guess everybody did as well!
It was ridiculous when Warren Buffett suggested that California Proposition 13 (which limits property tax increases as long as you don't sell the real estate) was unfair and wrong. A tax dodge. What Warren doesn't tell you is that his fortune is based on dodging taxes. If he had to pay taxes on his yearly stock gains at the same rate that people pay income taxes - his returns would look more like that of the Beardstown Ladies. Buffett also gives next to nothing to charities (compared to Bill Gates who has given billions). The reason he doesn't give is that he wants to have the biggest foundation after he dies (all ego). Of course he plans on dodging taxes when he shifts everything to the foundation. Foundations usually dribble out relatively little amounts to charity. Typical hypocrite limousine liberal. Do as I say, not as I do.
Really? So mutual funds that buy and sell for the longer term as Buffet does did as well? I would venture to say that 25k bought an decent house in 1965....is it worth 75mill today? I mean....you paid no tax on it? Why is Buffet a hypocrite?
For condemning others for avoiding taxes when Buffett's whole fortune is based on tax dodging (never selling stock - thus never incurring taxes). He was condemning people who never sell their houses and thus pay lower property taxes in California vs. someone who buys a new home every 4-5 years. I don't have anything against legally avoiding taxes and I don't go around lecturing others that they should pay more. Buffett is a con man with that good old boy act.