Quite irrelevant since the time frame in question was since last November... You might as well quote his performance from the 70s... For OddTrader, if Buffett owns BoA, that is not a cash position...
From Sep 30th, 2016 to Mar 30th 2017: BRK/A book value increased 8.7% SPX price appreciation 8.9% BRK/A stock 15.5%
Actually I know very little about buffett or birkshire. The search I did today showed he used to sell a lot of puts to earn money. That's a good reason why he needs to keep a lot of cash. Or the cash position, besides holding stocks, could be generated from selling puts. As well as a cash as hedge for the short puts,against his inventory of stocks. Disregarding for now the call options on banks. I wouldn't suggest his overall portfolio could be just a simple position, as discussed so far in this thread. Have to sign off now. So long!
BRK is a stock right? Owning a stock is not a cash position... If he moved large amount of his investments into cash, those greenbacks weren't earning him 14% since November... Anyhow, this thread is about Taleb not Buffet... That being said, if the market drops 30% tomorrow, then Buffet is going to be right with his large cast stack...
Well you made a comment about how he missed the performance of the last 8 or so months because of this cash position. And my comment was that he didn't. The book value of his stock went up in lockstep with the market. That bookvalue includes his public holdings, private holdings, and cash positions (which as you and OddTrader pointed out is quite large). And to bring it back to Taleb. He's a pretentious bullshitter while Warren Buffet's track record is about as public as one can be.
??? Perhaps you can kindly share with us the link. Maybe they were referring to his insurance company selling insurance and consider those as puts?
For anyone lazy who doesn't do online search: Update on The Warren Buffett Put Trades - CBOE www.cboe.com/.../options.../update-on-the-warren-buffett-put-trades - Cached 25 Feb 2017 ... While doing research for this project I came across a discussion of a handful of index put options that Berkshire Hathaway had sold between ... Naked Short Put Options - Warren Buffett's Little Secret - GuruFocus ... https://www.gurufocus.com/.../naked-short-put-options--warren-buffetts-little-secret - Cached 23 Apr 2014 ... The strategy Buffett uses is shorting put options. As a general note, a put option gives the buyer the option to sell the underlying stock at a certain price on a certain date. Consider a put option with an exercise price of $10 and an expiration date in 30 days. Be Like Warren Buffett: Sell Put Options - Forbes https://www.forbes.com/.../be-like-warren-buffett-sell-put-options/ - Cached 18 Jul 2012 ... Profit from other investors' anxieties. Sell them overpriced insurance. [PDF] buffett's puts: what are the risks? - FT Alphaville https://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2014/.../Buffett-Puts-Jan-2014-2.pdf?... - Cached ren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway during the 2004–2008 period. Once more, the. Sage of Omaha chose to sell sizable amounts of put options on the S&P 500,. Warren Buffett's $5 Billion Dollar Options Trading Strategy That ... https://optionalpha.com/warren-buffett-options-trading-strategy-19655.html - Cached 5 Sep 2016 ... What if I told you that Warren Buffett's options trading strategy should net ... Everyone ignores the 50,000 short put options he sold on KO or the ... The Warren Buffett Approach to Selling Puts www.wyattresearch.com/.../warren-buffett-approach-to-selling-puts/ - Cached 7 Mar 2017 ... Warren Buffett and Puts on Coca-Cola. ... As a result, he sold roughly 5 million put options at the $35 put strike. If the beverage behemoth fell to $35, the option buyers, otherwise known as the counter-party, would “put” their shares to him for $35. Trading Put Options With Buffett | Seeking Alpha seekingalpha.com/.../66749-trading-put-options-with-buffett - Cached 2 Mar 2008 ... The second category of contracts involves various put options we have sold on four stock indices (the S&P 500 plus three foreign indices). Warren Buffett's Comments on Option Investing - Morningstar news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id... - Cached - Similar 3 Apr 2009 ... In developing our options research methodology, we have taken ... of mass destruction," Buffett has been writing long-dated put options on ... Warren Buffett Made $1.2 Billion On Financial Weapons Of Mass ... https://www.businessinsider.com.au/warren-buffett-q1-equity-index-puts-2013-5 4 May 2013 ... The company run by Warren Buffett earned $3.78 billion or $2,302 per ... In case you forgot, Berkshire had sold put options on the S&P 500, ... How Value Investors Use Put Options to Increase Their Returns fifthperson.com/how-value-investors-use-put-options-to-increase-their-returns/ - Cached - Similar 4 Apr 2015 ... If you buy a put option, it gives you the option to sell a stock at a certain price ( strike ... Buffett sold nearly 5.5 million put options for BNI in 2008.
Sorry but that was a tiny fraction of his investment. I was aware of it from reading his annual reports but not aware his major profits were from selling puts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_proportion_portfolio_insurance https://web.archive.org/web/20051219134848/http://www.productinnovations.co.uk/knowledge/CPPI.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/https://files.nyu.edu/yr366/public/CPPI.doc highlights CDS, high yield CDS, short term way OTM puts Of these, way OTM puts are available to retail traders.