Post #5582 by mungofitch on the Berkshire Hathaway board

Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (14)

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 7

I told him it’s easy to sell when things are high, but hard to jump back in IMO. Plus the capital gains tax problem. Instead of selling, I recommended he keep building up some cash so he can take advantage of any big dips in the price.
Thoughts? Is my bias leading him astray because I got lucky with Berkshire?

It sounds like pretty good advice in general.

Sure, I think there is always a price at which it really does make sense to sell out completely. But if you don't have a firm handle on the true value of something, it's danged hard to know where that price is. See Mr Buffett's comments about not selling Coke during its bubble, and saying later that really he should have sold.

Face it, most of us don't have a firm handle on the value of most of the things we own. A corollary is that trading a lot less is a good idea.

Jim

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

Print the post

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (14)

Prev | Next

Announcements

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

A community forum supporting civilized, and highly helpful, self-educating investors that come together for Shrewdness and merry spirits. These message boards closely follow the look and feel of the old message boards at boards.fool.com prior to the boards redirected to discussion.fool.com. Shrewd'm is not affiliated with the comprehensive and excellent investment website, The Motley Fool (TMF), in any way. The Shrewd commmunity here has owed, and continues to owe, gratitude to The Motley Fool for nurturing a culture of jovial irreverence towards Wall St, and that tradition will continue here.