Dow jones at record high, but many stocks are not?

[The motor guy]

Tell you what - after you make your first billion, then, perhaps, you can criticize him without sounding silly.



When the press talks about Buffett buying and selling, he is doing so on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway, which is now a trillion dollar company. He is acting on behalf of the shareholders that invest with B-H.

So, of course he worries about risk, which is part of why he eschews tech stocks.

Do you understand what is being discussed here?

I sure do. He hasn't said why he's selling though. Maybe his health is poor and doesn't think he'll be around longer either. I wasn't criticizing him, we've all sold holdings short.

 

[ecotourist]

Are you saying Buffet is selling short Bank of America Corporation (BAC)? Can you show us a reference.

He might be selling BAC stock, but selling BAC short - I don't think so.

Buffet took great pains to get rid of the derivative contracts that one of his larger purchases (General Re as I recall) had made. It took him a couple of years to unwind all those contracts. Warren Buffet is quoted as saying "derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction". I would think he would consider selling anything short a derivative.

Short selling—also known as “shorting,” “selling short” or “going short”—refers to the sale of a security or financial instrument that the seller has borrowed. ref Investopedia

 

[The motor guy]

Are you saying Buffet is selling short Bank of America Corporation (BAC)? Can you show us a reference.

He might be selling BAC stock, but selling BAC short - I don't think so.

Buffet took great pains to get rid of the derivative contracts that one of his larger purchases (General Re as I recall) had made. It took him a couple of years to unwind all those contracts. Warren Buffet is quoted as saying "derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction". I would think he would consider selling anything short a derivative.

Short selling—also known as “shorting,” “selling short” or “going short”—refers to the sale of a security or financial instrument that the seller has borrowed. ref Investopedia

Sold too soon then

 

[Bill7]

This is the first time I've had it where the dow Jones sees a significant increase and still haven't seen my portfolio go up much. It seems like it's only the bank stocks that are benefiting. Everything else is down

Just something to consider: The Buffet Indicator is over 200%.

 

[ecotourist]

Sold too soon then

That's a completely different idea. It's been said that many fortunes have been made by people who "bought too late" and "sold too soon". Nobody buys at the absolute bottom and sells at the absolute top.

 

[The motor guy]

That's a completely different idea. It's been said that many fortunes have been made by people who "bought too late" and "sold too soon". Nobody buys at the absolute bottom and sells at the absolute top.

Well I'm just saying he started selling bank of America a few months ago and it's gone up a good amount since then. I sold it at like $35/share and it's gone up another $12 since then. Still made a 20 percent gain, which was about $13,000, but it would have been a lot more if I kept holding on. Him selling hasn't had much affect on the price. Sometimes you just have to be happy with the gains you have.

 

[The motor guy]

That's a completely different idea. It's been said that many fortunes have been made by people who "bought too late" and "sold too soon". Nobody buys at the absolute bottom and sells at the absolute top.

Yeah, but I bet he wouldn't have sold them if he knew they had another $12 of gains times however many hundreds of thousands of shares he owns or owned.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Buffet at peak owned like 12% of BAC shares. He is not like you and I and can click on a stock and say sell all and one millisecond later its done. It could take days or weeks to sell that much without completely crashing the market. So when its time to get out, he has to start early.

BAC is sitting on a ton of 2.5% long dated treasuries they bought during the pandemic - the same thing that sunk Silicon valley bank. The only real difference is BAC actually employs some bankers that know how to hedge and manage their book (unlike SVB), so no risk of going under, but will drag on earnings for years.

BAC is way up as part of the big "lower interest rates, more political certainty, more allowed M&A stuff" overall bank trades. BAC is up the most because they lagged the most earlier.

Time will tell if selling was the right move. My guess is it was. I wouldn't own BAC here either.

 

[k1xv]

Any time you have sold a security for more than you paid for it, you made a profit.

Time held is also a factor if you are a trader, and not an investor, A trader would prefer to make 10 percent in a week than 50 percent in a year, if he is skilled at identifying short duration opportunities.