Parsad

Part of the Fool.com interview, but specifically on Buffett & Berkshire. Cheers! http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/01/08/mohnish-pabrai-berkshire-after-buffett.aspx

I am getting this feeling as well. This was discussed in quite some detail a week or so ago on this thread I believe. It will be measured of course, but I think people will be pleasantly surprised. 2013 and 2014 are BAC's "show me" years. We'll get cleaner quarterly results as the year progresses, ramping up of their mortgage & investment businesses, clear view of what "New BAC" reductions were all about, large reductions in loan servicing costs each quarter, and of course dividends and buybacks. Remarkably different than two years ago...and another one of the best turnarounds I've ever seen, especially of this size and scope...just amazing! Cheers! I can't disagree with this, but I think the key term is "measured". I suspect regulators want a clearer picture of what BAC is doing and who they are. There is still uncertainty there. I think what people on this board need to differentiate between is "uncertainty" as viewed through the eyes of an investor in common stock vs a regulator. There is no upside to a regulator being overly permissive. None whatsoever. A regulator has one of those jobs where to do everything right is ho hum, it's what's expected. There are no kudos for that. But make one mistake and you're villified and your career can be over just like that. So no upside, but unlimited downside. So when there are still billions subject to litigation, etc why not err on the side of being cautious? So I think there will be something, but very measured. The future is likely very bright though, its just unclear (as it always is) when the "future" begins. I'll make a bet (gentleman's of course) that they return at least $7B of capital...$3.5B in dividends & $3.5B in buybacks. On another note, it looks like someone or some people are taking some profits as volume is above average and the stock is selling off pretty good. Cheers!

The vast majority of people who have been involved with Herbalife have lost money. The company claims that anyone who loses money is really a customer (not a distributor), but the truth is there are millions of failed distributors. They lose money because they did not execute on the distribution...an actual effort has to be made on the system package material provided to new distributors. A similar argument could be made that some universities are ponzi schemes...students pay fees to attend the university and receive their degree. What if the student has paid fees for four years, fails some of their courses and does not receive a degree? Should the educational institution be categorized as a "ponzi scheme" because the student lost money? Ironically, what about failed hedge fund managers...should their businesses be deemed ponzi schemes? As they charge 2&20 fees on other people's money, run aground, and then close their funds after realizing they will be a long ways from receiving another incentive fee. But they are at the top of the pyramid and run away with all of the fees they've generated over the years. I like Ackman some of the time, but his hypocrisy stinks big time on this one...that Target fund was one of the stupidest things any hedge fund manager has done in some time and his investors lost a bundle. Cheers!

Nope. And some of the MLM players are better connected than these hedge fund managers. Does anyone think the Van Andel and DeVos families (Amway) are just going to sit around and twiddle their thumbs? What about successful financial institutions like Primerica that are well reserved, very profitable and have clean records? No CEO is going to sit around and wait for fat, money-shifting, "2&20" hedge fund managers who want to destroy their reputation and their livelihood. Cheers!

I am getting this feeling as well. This was discussed in quite some detail a week or so ago on this thread I believe. It will be measured of course, but I think people will be pleasantly surprised. 2013 and 2014 are BAC's "show me" years. We'll get cleaner quarterly results as the year progresses, ramping up of their mortgage & investment businesses, clear view of what "New BAC" reductions were all about, large reductions in loan servicing costs each quarter, and of course dividends and buybacks. Remarkably different than two years ago...and another one of the best turnarounds I've ever seen, especially of this size and scope...just amazing! Cheers!

LOL! Cheers!

The stock will move again as the stress test and capital return results start to leak out to the markets. Cheers!

MLM is just a compensatory tool, like anything else...be it options, interest fee loans, bonuses, etc. It's how it is applied and enforced, and should be exmained on a case by case basis like any overall compensatory plan. Not all businesses applying MLM structures operate the same way. Cheers!

"I do think what we've been trying to do at the company has been very clear," Lampert said. "If people want to doubt it or put a spin on it, they're entitled to do it. We just have to perform." Investors are still waiting for them to do just that. They have not been clear at all in the last couple of years on what they are trying to achieve. I like Eddie...I much prefer him to Einhorn, Ackman, or a multitude of other hedge fund managers of similar notoriety...but his tenure as Chairman (and defacto CEO) has been very uninspiring. And I'm not one for short turnarounds, as much as I prefer Steak'n Shake style 6-month quickies! I've held Fairfax for years and years, through the worst of times, with little concern. I've held Chanticleer since the funds pretty much started, including this current period of fraud by their auditor. I was unabashedly prepared for a long turnaround at BAC and was pleasantly surprised by the work of Brian Moynihan. The brand and model at Sears has deteriorated significantly over the years, and nearly as much again in just the last three years. Eddie comments on the best merchant in the world being Jeff Bezos...a hedge fund guy...he's completely correct. But Bezos was smart enough to see that the model for retailing was changing. Eddie was too slow in recognizing that, and certainly I and most anyone else, did not see it either. But some of us were saying that Sears had to change quicker than they were progressing, because we finally did recognize how swiftly the moat had shrunk. Eddie still won't admit that, as they are stuck in their way of thinking as cash burns every quarter. Cheers!

You could be right. I suspect that they will pay him out just before or after the stress test results come out. Cheers!

Hi Shah, Can you explain the balance sheet improvement analysis, because it doesn't look better to me. It actually looks worse on every front. Cheers!

How do you know same store sales were positive? I hope for shareholder's sake that it was a good quarter, but I have hard time believing that was the case in this environment. Cheers! I believe they said that after backing out electronics comps were up in Sears domestic, but down including electronics. Kmart was down. Yeah, this is the problem I see...Sears always spins their reporting, instead of just admitting their mistakes and doing what needs to be done. The simple truth is that they were incredibly slow in monetizing assets, and they've slowed down again since they closed all those stores and spun off a couple of brands. The existing business has eaten up a ton of shareholder value over the years. The balance sheet looks like crap year after year...constant deterioration...and no one, including Eddie, has ever stepped up and said "we've just done a plain shitty job of this over the last few years! We're trying to save something that just doesn't work anymore." Now this CEO is gone and Eddie steps in...again! It's been a horror story for shareholders, and there are few positives around the business and model. It's become incredibly difficult to stop the bleeding...same store sales were up if you exclude electronics...but they sell electronics. That's a significant part of their business. It's like saying, let's exclude home furnishings or ladies apparel. Kmart was down...so let's exclude Kmart too. I don't understand this logic, because what good is improving sales in some areas, while it is deteriorating in other areas. The assets have value, but delays are just eating up that value, and I don't know how much upside will be left for shareholders. Cheers!

How do you know same store sales were positive? I hope for shareholder's sake that it was a good quarter, but I have hard time believing that was the case in this environment. Cheers!

Should make our lives and portfolios better over time. The institutions realize they are the dumb money and are now trying to index the smart money. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/100360543

Sanjeev, Any estimate on bac-wta year end price. Rough estimate: $4.50 plus $5.25...so about $9.75-$10.00? Cheers!

That's a silly article. That's a pretty long list of professions already. It seems as though more recent and prolific psychopaths have been video-game playing, Nazi-sympathizing, white males. And where do psychopaths like Willie Pickton from Vancouver fit in...Pickton was a pig-farmer who killed over 50 vulnerable women, and even fed some to his pigs? I don't think there is any clear cut way to define what makes a psychopath. We're animals born of specific genetic material, mutated by the environment we live in, shaped by the experiences we endure. It's far to complex for any idiot to generalize in an article! Cheers!

Yup, got it. I sent you an email as well. Cheers!

The personal funds are significantly smaller than managed funds, as the personal funds have been partly funding my livelihood since I started the managed funds. Cheers!

Nicely done. No leverage either. The day I was buying equity for the funds, I was buying equity only for my personal account. Never bought more again for any of them, as the price never hit our bid and BAC has risen ever since! I've done this three times before...BRKB's in 1999/2000, FFH, SNS and now BAC...I'm looking forward to the fifth time whenever that appears! ;D Cheers! Sanjeev, Looks like you may have bought at the same time we did( the day after BAC closed below $5.00) with our unfortunately micro sized position. Congratulations for going all in at just the right time. Awesome! Yup, pretty much at that time Tim. Unfortunately, we didn't get the lows, but pretty close! Funny, we never hit the very lows of BRKB, FFH or SNS...but always we were close to the bottom. Cheers!

Yes, because then the dumb money will really start to flow. Brokers will be buying it for all of their trading accounts. Wait till it pays a 3.5% dividend...they won't be able to buy it fast enough for the client accounts that belong to seniors! Cheers!

Hi RJ, No, not currently. I don't think George puts the conference presentations online. Prem also doesn't like videotaping the AGM, and because they attend the dinner, we don't record that either. We will have photographs from all of the events on here, and I'll get a volunteer from each event to write up a summary for boardmembers and post it on here. Cheers!

It seems that way...at least at the ones I swing at! ;D Cheers!

If I mistake in my own portfolio, I live with it and no one can fire me. Even if I institute a lock-up, if I screw up with a big position, when that lock-up comes due...those partners will leave regardless. So, while I may be able to take a slightly bigger position than I currently do now (our max is 25% right now in a single idea), it won't really make a huge difference because I'll be inclined to still not go to 50% or better with other people's money. The obligation, if you are honest and ethical, is to do them no wrong. So you do no wrong because you want to be able to live with the worst case decision. To put it as simply as I can...I would feel ten times worse losing someone else's money than my own! Alot of people don't feel that way. Cheers! You could always have a separate public fund that is more concentrated -- Berkowitz does something like that. You could claim it's your "single best idea" fund and that it would be concentrated in a single stock. This puts it up to your fund's investors to decide if they are comfortable putting a sizable amount into just one position. Takes all of the pressure off of you -- the ball is in their court to appropriately manage their exposure. I guess the time will come when I'll put some money into the funds of a few different managers and I'd actually prefer if they offered something like that. I feel like I'd rather get the best out of each manager, and spread the risk by putting money with more managers. Hi Eric, That may very well be what we do in the future. I like the way we manage this fund at the moment, because it really allows any accredited investor to invest with us...people like my Mom or even older investors...where they want above average returns, but not necessarily out of the park. They want to be able to access their capital if they need it due to ill health or whatever emergency may arise. Can you imagine a hedge fund manager telling a "Sandy" victim that they cannot redeem to rebuild their house or for other needs? But we may start a second fund, with a clear mandate for investors that there probably is going to be far more volatility in this fund due to concentration, and that there would be a 3 year lockup. It's something we've pondered and thought about. Who knows, we may start it even sooner than most people expect! ;D Cheers!

No that is public money. As long as you can track it, and you can eventually have the results audited, I think it would count as public money. It's because the psychology of investing is different than your own money. Your behavior with that account is more in line with how you would do as a fund manager with public money. Of course, the more people you deal with, the more personalities and tolerance for risk you encounter, but it is certainly a more accurate gauge than a personal account. Cheers!

Like I said, dumb money now coming into BAC. Jim Cramer likes it and his target price is $18. Cheers! http://www.thestreet.com/story/11806341/1/cramer-i-wish-i-bought-bank-of-america.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO