David Rolfe on selling Berkshire

a few years ago…

was interviewed on CNBC this morning. Seemed quite nervous justifying the sale especially given the recent outperformance. He states that his fund holders did fine given his purchases with the proceeds.

I was not convinced.

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… justifying the sale especially given the recent outperformance. He states that his fund holders did fine given his purchases with the proceeds.
I was not convinced.

I suppose it depends what was bought.
As a random example, a share of Berkshire will buy you 50% more Alphabet shares today than it would have last November.
Maybe Alphabet shares are a good buy here, maybe not, but the relative attractiveness of the two firms’ prices has certainly shifted.

Jim

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David Rolfe is an outlier. The person that you could really put
on the spot is Jonathan Brandt and the folks at Ruane Cuniff/Sequoia Fund.
They took BRK down from far and away the largest position in the
Sequoia Fund to less than a 1% position.

Their timing was absolutely terrible for so called “experts”
on BRK at a time when BRK was clearly undervalued.

Everyone here knows the story about Bill Ruane, Jonathan’s dad,
Warren recommending Sequoia when he dissolved the partnership,
etc.,etc.

I am a long time Sequoia holder who is now considering his “options.”

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Old Market-
Completely agree. An investor would have been better off just investing in BRK and forgetting Sequoia.
I remember when they sold a chunk of BRK/A and put the proceeds into BBBY!!
They always seem to have a big chunk of their money in retail stocks. TJX was a big winner for them at one time but the others not so much.
I never owned the fund but followed it closely.

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I was not convinced.

Sequoia Fund from inception 1970, has CAGR 14%, that is nothing to sneeze at.

The person that you could really put
on the spot is Jonathan Brandt and the folks at Ruane Cuniff/Sequoia Fund.
They took BRK down from far and away the largest position in the
Sequoia Fund to less than a 1% position.

@oldmarket,

Completely agree. I am not that impressed with Jonathan Brandt or his questions at annual meetings. His questions always seem to focus on some irrelevant tiny part of Berkshire that no one cares about. He seems to be worried about tiny plants (not even trees) in stead of focusing on the “forest”.