People lament the slow growth of Berkshire, as well as its collection of cash in these go-go times. I can't fault the collection of cash because, frankly, I've been doing more or less the same.

It has also been pointed out, repeatedly, that in order to move the needle, huge purchases have to be made. Simultaneously, many lament missing the boat on the overall market results.

Quit a while ago, Charlie Munger was pounding the table about Alibaba, so I eventually picked it up, then sold it and then rebought it. It is currently up (from my most recent acquisition) by 105%.

This year, I decided to back out of the US market a bit and one of the results was the sale of about half my Berkshire holding. Because the nature of the stocks fit my revised strategy of increased foreign emphasis (in both currency and market) I decided that the stocks Warren was throwing Berkshire money into were as good as (likely better than) those I could pick out myself. Unfortunately, I didn't note the specific dates of the purchases on my spreadsheet (an it's too much trouble to dig them out). I first bought Marubeni Corp, Mitsui and Sumitomo. When they didn't bite me, I added Itochu Corp and Mitsubishi a few months later.

The gains, so far:

Itochu Corp..12.64%
Marubeni Corp..60.88%
Mitsui..56.58%
Sumitomo..47.64%
Mitsubishi..6.83%

While Berkshire's holdings of these stocks is likely not large enough to affect the BRK price, that doesn't mean that cherry-picking from Berkshire's holding can't be rewarding (beyond the performance of Berkshire itself).

Jeff