ERICOPOLY

I'll still have 20% of my present net worth if BAC is at $0 per share tomorrow morning. Your brother almost got shot dead while in the Eiffel Tower. I'll stay away from that crazy country with their handguns and I'll be fine (I'll be safer in LA perhaps -- he never almost got shot when he lived there).

Shai manages about $100k. The rest is in my trading accounts.

My strategy has two key features that I like: 1) you can move up the strike price of the hedge as the share price rises (you can sell the original hedge to harvest some of the value) 2) tax advantages (if this becomes a long term holding you don't get to take a tax loss on the call option volatility premium until you sell). But the put premium can be deducted as soon as it expires (or you sell it) Scenario (call): 1) You bought the $5 strike 2014 call in December when it was trading for $2. 2) Stock moves to $10 and you want to move up the strike price of your hedge? Can't do it. Scenario (margin+put) 1) You buy the common with margin at $5 per share in December and the put costs you $2 to hedge 2) Stock moves up to $10 and you want to move up the strike price? 3) Answer: Buy the $10 put and sell the original $5 put

Man do you move fast. What strike/term hedges did you buy? Vinod March $7 and April $6. I simply don't trust the Greek drama. Just for clarification as I'm relatively new to options: is your thinking that if Greece causes a panic in the markets and BAC drops, you can sell your position at $7 or $6 and buy more at the panic price? I have a margin loan -- the hedges protect not only the margin loan, but also provide enough locked-in value to provide for my family in the guns and canned food scenario.

Man do you move fast. What strike/term hedges did you buy? Vinod March $7 and April $6. I simply don't trust the Greek drama.

;D ;D Why only BAC? It's my only long position. My only short position too (short term put hedges purchased recently).

Suppose Berkshire winds up with 1.5b shares (including warrants). That adds $3b+ look-through earnings. How much does that increase Berkshire's earnings power, percentage wise?

Buffett ought to do a Sir-Mix-A-Lot spoof for the Annual Meeting.

Not moved yet. We've shelved Australia -- will get back to that adventure when the kids start middle school (oldest is now in kindergarten). We're headed for the LA region until then. My wife won't go to the San Francisco Bay Area (my first choice) because my parents live there, so we're headed for sunny LA. Fine second option! We can travel to Australia for skiing during the too-hot summers (now that the kids are of school age we can't do long ski trips during the school year). This way we can rack up the time in Australia to count towards my two years collective time in the country (at that point I can get citizenship for the kids).

Actually when BofA sold 400 million new shares into the market in December that was the perfect opportunity for Berkshire to add -- lots of additional liquidity. Considering how the market price dropped further, he was able to buy all that and more if he wanted (supply was clearly in excess of demand).

"Now under new ownership."

Ok Al, I'll bite! Why April 9th? Is that your birthday or something? ;D Cheers! Mine is April 10th. However April 9th in the US is the 10th in Australia.

And what has this got to do with the price of Tea in China? WEB been buying? The price of BAC is lagging due to a crisis of confidence. It's down nearly 50% over the past 12 months -- severe lack of confidence. Buffett brings leadership to the table.

Anyways the 13-F from Berkshire will be out next week.

racemize, It's still probably a 50 cent dollar or less (I'd say 40 cent or less). Hardly a happy/optimistic market! Was it happy/optimistic when it first hit this price last August?

Go! Go! Go!

I figure that tangible book will be $14+ by then. I have lots and lots of $15 strike 2014 and $10 2013 (and 2014). They were just so cheap! My thinking is to wait until this coming January and then write a deep-in-the-money 2014 call for every $15 strike call I have. Then take the cash proceeds from writing the calls and use it to exercise the 2013 strike $10 calls (defer the taxes another year while also holding for more gains).

lol, me too, on the tax losses. Carry back up here. And the Bac in black. Your carry back is a great and fair thing. I have a feeling though that in the next 6 months I will be able to use up my tax losses 8)

You guys should relax. You were expecting IKEA furniture?

Remember the Vanity Fair piece by Michael Lewis. Why can't they implement tax collection?

So Whos makin money? While my returns since the start of 2011 are only in the high single digits, I have a mile high of tax losses to carry forward. BAC in black, so to speak.

He rides a 15% Oakmark Select fund allocation in Washington Mutual completely into the ground. Then in Q3 2011 he sells the fund out of BAC at prices that in his own words reflect only 1/3 to 1/4 of long term value. http://blogs.barrons.com/focusonfunds/2012/02/08/oakmarks-nygren-bac-on-right-course-favors-mrk-bmy-vs-jnj/?mod=yahoobarrons

Italy needs to grow at 4.8 per cent just to avoid increasing its debt burden where its budget is balanced. Fortunately that's not necessary. The budget does not need to be balanced, it just needs to grow debt no faster than GDP.

Bruce is doing an interview tomorrow: http://www.fairholmefunds.com/pdf/ConversationBB.pdf

The last few years have been exciting. Going forward I am going to look at value investing as bending over to pick up 50 cent receivables. In recognition that I really don't know what the hell is going to happen while I'm bent over. I changed the word "dollars" to "receivables" due to recognition that macro forces are at work.