Remember that Charlie has Li Lu (spelling?) to navigate the political waves in China. That being said, Dividends is correct. In the blink of an eye, things could change in China. China is a risky.
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Update from Bill Miller today
āAlibaba Group Holdings Inc. (BABA)** reversed gains made in the second quarter following the end of the lock-down measures in Shanghai. Alibaba continues to look extremely cheap trading at 10x forward 12-month earnings, near an all-time low. However, the market continues to focus on the macro becoming concerned with the potential negative implications from Chinaās continued zero-COVID policy as well as the quickly deteriorating property market. Given the uncertainties around the top line, the company is now focusing on cost reduction resulting in EBITDA beating expectations by 23% in 1QFY23. The company continues to utilize its strong net cash balance of $81B for buybacks with a current authorization of $25B, 12% of shares outstanding. Even if the Chinese economy continues to be pressured in the near-term, we believe you can buy a pre-eminent business in one of the worldās largest economies at a below market multiple. We believe the company is materially undervaluedā.
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Years ago I subscribed to the Foolās Global Gains newsletter. It was intended to spot investible companies outside the US and do the due diligence to see which ones were solid ideas. I bought two Chinese companies that they claimed to have feet on the ground, checking out that the companies were real. One was a restaurant company and the other was a snacks company. The snacks company proved to simply be a scam and the restaurant company kept going down and was eventually taken back private. My losses on both werenāt material, I hadnāt jumped in in a big way, but they were losses. What this taught me was that even with experienced analysts Chinese stocks could still be beyond my abilities. I havenāt invested in them since. And have been happy that I have stayed out of them.
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Meta and Alphabet hammered today too. Bizarrely comforting itās not just China.
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Sometimes we forget to give Buffett credit for, not swinging 
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I think there is only one lesson, which is position sizing. It is okay to invest in risky, somewhat uncertain outcomes, but you need to size those positions properly. Then you can ride. As much as possible, avoid averaging down. You can keep adding on a bull market on a stock going up, never average down. I hope you are not going to throw towel on this name. Stay the course. This is not the time to have self-doubt.
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HJC, WEB has navigated the last five years expertly. Specifically loading up on Apple and recently oil. Thatās why the Berkshire share price has held up so well.
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Good morning, I wouldnāt say , expertly, he could have repurchased billions more of brkb below 200, but buybacks were never really his preference. Letās see if the team has any interest in Google or Meta down here ?
Yes, itāll be interesting to see.
I dont mind admitting that outside of Berkshire I get my ideas for my ācoffee canā portfolio from 6 monthly buy lists on Dataroma and undertake my own reseaech following so really Iām just a shameless cloner.
Iād identified Meta and Google as two long term compounders with high ROE and ROCE and reasonable valuations. Meta c220 and below and Google sub 100 and on PEās of c20 or less.
I also like the fact that Li Lu had added 50% to his holding in Q4 2021 at above 300 (meta) and I could pick it up for 25% less. (Heās since sold 100% and bought Google instead Q2 2022 at what must be c110 dollars per share so again managed to get in at a 10% discount to this also.
Similar story with BABA, Tencent and Prosus but this time undertaking further research after listening / reading Munger and Pabrai. Again high ROE / ROCE businesses with no debt and valuations at c20 PE or below at the time. I initiated my BABA position at 10% below that of DJCO.
Im summary trying to identify compounders / spawners to buy and hold long term (10 yrs) to sit alongside BRK. The experiment is not good so far. In theoritical terms and having read all the books 
it should turn out fine in 10 years and you have to just ignore the gyrations. Hard to do with a 50% drop though. They do say itās 90% mental.
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Hi, Iām not sure how old you are or for how long you are playing the investing game? Since you visit the Datarama site, do yourself a huge favor. Look at the managers who were most respected 10-15 years ago. Check AUM back then vs current. The vast majority made HUGE errors and blew up. Many lost 75 % of their AUM or more! Iām 72, been in the game for over 50 years, both as an insider and a retail player. IF, I could do it over again, once I retired, in 1992, I would listen to my hero John Bogle, INDEX, and spend all the time I wasted trying to beat the indexes, volunteering more of my time and effort at the Boys and Girls clubs, in the most depressed areas in my city. IF, you are young, give it serious thought bud, stay healthy and good luck!!
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Meta has two challenges, how they are going to tackle APPLE on ad-targeting, how they are going to control their expenses especially around METAverse. There is no clarity and until you have that, the stock is not investable. Not interested in Google, mainly because I have my full position and it is not stupid cheap to add more.
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To clarify I consider brkb , an index fund equivalent , for several reasons.
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Thatās exactly what I was doing with Brk, got to 7 figures in a decade from zero and decided to diversifyā¦ (diworsify) into these compounders as i was worried about concentration risk in Berkshire. Perhaps averaging into indexes is what I should be doing then instead. Iām 30 years younger.
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Good job, if I was 42 again, I would be long various indexes and brkb , I would put a parental block on all the business news shows offered by my cable provider, so I donāt get tempted, and I would spend more time giving back to kids less fortunate than mine. Just a thought, but itās VERY unlikely that even IF you out earn the indexes by 2 %, it would be worth the time and effort vs, giving back. Just a thought, I retired at 42, I could have spent the past 30 years more wisely, in hindsight.
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Iām older than you and did the same thing with the diworsifycation about 20 years ago. My attempt was also a disaster, and now Iām back to 90% Berkshire 10% cash, and Iām no longer tempted to do anything. I do trade in and out of Berkshire in my IRA to keep me busy, and that has worked out reasonably well (about 2% better than the bulk of the Berkshire that I never touch)
Hang in there. You will get back to where you were.
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At the same time I realise that the Hangseng is trading at near 40 year lows atm (PE). Iāll continue to hold as thereās a strong possibility that these stocks could triple in the next 3-5 years. 
. Iām fully aware of my stock market history.
The nature of my business means i get large lunp sums to invest now and then. Iāll mix it up with individual stock picks and indexes.
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I hope not. Facebook is being outgunned on almost every level. New competitors pop up with alarming frequency and achieve critical mass quickly. (Once upon a time that was thought to be moat. Apparently not.)
Zuck is entranced with his Metaverse (at least Google had the sense not to bet the company on their Google Glasses.) The site is littered with ad scams, young people have deserted it for new platforms, and costs are out of control.
Google might be different, but I suspect a lot of the oomph is in the past. Just a guess. Great moat, but if a recession is coming then ad spending is one of the first to go.
Iām looking at durables, but waiting for another Fed shoe or two to drop.
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I think if meta sort their capital allocation model out theyd be fine. Share buybacks now rather than at 300 dollars plus, a focus on core business and generating more revenue per user and a partnership approach on the Metaverse (as with Microsoft and others whilst spending significantly less!) then theyād comfortably be worth north of 400 dollars per share.
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Yep. Dollar cost average. It is too simple for many.
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Watch out, Elon, Warren is catching up. With the drop in shares of Tesla TSLA +1.52% this year, the market value of Berkshire HathawayBRK.A +3.20% is hot on the heels of the electric-vehicle leader.
Berkshire, led by longtime CEO Warren Buffett, is demonstrating its defensive attributes in a bear market, with its class A shares up 0.3% this year, against an 18% fall in the S&P 500 SPX +2.46% Tesla stock is off some 35%, reflecting disappointment on vehicle deliveries and a pullback in growth stocks; CEO Elon Muskās pursuit of Twitter hasnāt helped.
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