5 ms·

I bought a bunch of BRK-B a few months ago, its a nice portfolio balancer to the S&P500 which is heavily tech weighted now.

mmmpop 5y ago
Same. I quit my salaried gig and cashed out retirement into a Roth IRA chock full of about 25% BRK/B, 25% AAPL, and the other half more boring stuff. The boring stuff has really been dragging down the otherwise stellar performance of my portfolio.
- jedberg 5y ago
  Be careful, your BRK is about 1/5 AAPL, so those two will track together. If AAPL takes a dip BRK will too.
  - mmmpop 5y ago
    Yep, cool by me!
lotsofpulp 5y ago
BRK is 45%+ AAPL. SPY is ~21% MAMAA. https://www.cnbc.com/berkshire-hathaway-portfolio/ https://www.cnbc.com/berkshire-hathaway-portfolio/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/holdings/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/holdings/ Seems like SPY is more diversified from “tech” than BRK, which would hardly accomplish the goal of balancing away from tech, unless that means going heavy on Apple compared to the other 4 in MAMAA.
- mxschumacher 5y ago
  You did not read the letter or look at the financials. Apple makes up about half of the equity portfolio, but there are also massive private ownership stakes (bhe, BNSF, insurance and many more) and ~$144bn in cash
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    If you calculate by market cap, BRK’s AAPL shares are ~$150B/$713B market cap of BRK = 21% AAPL. Buying BRK still seems like putting more of your eggs in the AAPL basket than buying SPY, which to me, would be orthogonal to diversifying away from tech. I guess BRK gives you exposure to Buffet and his team’s management skills, but I would be very surprised if they manage to sidestep a downturn in AAPL’s fortunes.
    - ant6n 5y ago
      This assumes brk market value = book value. I'd guess they trade higher than book value. I guess you can always call the difference between market cap and book value "good will" or something...
      - mmmpop 5y ago
        Well, I trust Buffett more than your average financial advisor. I'd say it's a fair premium.
    - rybosworld 5y ago
      I don't think it's a fair comparison. Berkshire has more or less concentrated their tech exposure to what they view as the very best of the bunch (Apple). You can also make a very reasoned argument that Apple isn't a (pure) tech company. You can't really make that argument about Alphabet or Facebook in my opinion. When people say Berkshire diversifies you away from tech, they mean that you are diversifying away from the dozens of tech companies in SPY of varying quality.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        > You can also make a very reasoned argument that Apple isn't a (pure) tech company. I cannot envision what this argument could be and be congruent with my working definition of “tech company”. > When people say Berkshire diversifies you away from tech, they mean that you are diversifying away from the dozens of tech companies in SPY of varying quality. I can see that as a possibility. I did, possibly erroneously, assume in the original post I replied to that tech was shorthand mostly for MAMAA, so I guess we would need voidfunc to weigh in on what they meant.

mmmpop 5y ago

Same. I quit my salaried gig and cashed out retirement into a Roth IRA chock full of about 25% BRK/B, 25% AAPL, and the other half more boring stuff. The boring stuff has really been dragging down the otherwise stellar performance of my portfolio.

jedberg 5y ago
Be careful, your BRK is about 1/5 AAPL, so those two will track together. If AAPL takes a dip BRK will too.
- mmmpop 5y ago
  Yep, cool by me!

lotsofpulp 5y ago

BRK is 45%+ AAPL. SPY is ~21% MAMAA. https://www.cnbc.com/berkshire-hathaway-portfolio/ https://www.cnbc.com/berkshire-hathaway-portfolio/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/holdings/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/holdings/ Seems like SPY is more diversified from “tech” than BRK, which would hardly accomplish the goal of balancing away from tech, unless that means going heavy on Apple compared to the other 4 in MAMAA.

mxschumacher 5y ago
You did not read the letter or look at the financials. Apple makes up about half of the equity portfolio, but there are also massive private ownership stakes (bhe, BNSF, insurance and many more) and ~$144bn in cash
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  If you calculate by market cap, BRK’s AAPL shares are ~$150B/$713B market cap of BRK = 21% AAPL. Buying BRK still seems like putting more of your eggs in the AAPL basket than buying SPY, which to me, would be orthogonal to diversifying away from tech. I guess BRK gives you exposure to Buffet and his team’s management skills, but I would be very surprised if they manage to sidestep a downturn in AAPL’s fortunes.
  - ant6n 5y ago
    This assumes brk market value = book value. I'd guess they trade higher than book value. I guess you can always call the difference between market cap and book value "good will" or something...
    - mmmpop 5y ago
      Well, I trust Buffett more than your average financial advisor. I'd say it's a fair premium.
  - rybosworld 5y ago
    I don't think it's a fair comparison. Berkshire has more or less concentrated their tech exposure to what they view as the very best of the bunch (Apple). You can also make a very reasoned argument that Apple isn't a (pure) tech company. You can't really make that argument about Alphabet or Facebook in my opinion. When people say Berkshire diversifies you away from tech, they mean that you are diversifying away from the dozens of tech companies in SPY of varying quality.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      > You can also make a very reasoned argument that Apple isn't a (pure) tech company. I cannot envision what this argument could be and be congruent with my working definition of “tech company”. > When people say Berkshire diversifies you away from tech, they mean that you are diversifying away from the dozens of tech companies in SPY of varying quality. I can see that as a possibility. I did, possibly erroneously, assume in the original post I replied to that tech was shorthand mostly for MAMAA, so I guess we would need voidfunc to weigh in on what they meant.