Current Holdings In My Portfolio

My current holdings in my mock portfolio consist solely of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) class A and class B shares. The company's core business is insurance, which includes property and casualty insurance, reinsurance and specialty insurance but it also oversees and manages subsidiary companies. I find BRK an attractive investment for the follwing reasons:

- It is a long standing company with a very solid track history

-It is currently under the supervision and direct influence of perhaps one of the best investors of all time, Warren Buffet.

-Diversified portfolio of holdings including but not limited to: retail, utilities, building products, financials, and retail.

- Berkshire has recently purchased preferred stock in Wrigley, Goldman Sachs, and GE totaling $14.5 billion.

In my opnion BRK is well poised to recieve a steady stream of revenue and profit greatly from a general market recovery in the future, given the nature of all the businesses that it controls. My timeline to get out of this investment is 2 years or a full economic recover, whichever comes first.

My Portfolio

I will be posting information regarding my mock online portfolio regularily, and will be keeping you up to date with specific trades I have made and strategies I am applying to my portfolio. I will also be providing a detailed list of all my transaction frequently so that you can keep track of my performance. This will hopefully serve to give people a few ideas. Here is just a quick glimpse of my historical performance, I will also provide a more detailed break down of transaction history in a future post along with an explanation of my overall strategy.

Guides & How-Tos

One of the most common question that I often recieve is: "how do I invest my money?", "what is the best strategy for my RRSP?", "what stocks will get me rich?". Now I would like to start off by saying that different things are right for different people and it would be wrong to suggest a particular investment or strategy as a perfect solution for every individual. What I do intended to do, is to create a series of informative guides and resources as to help individuals gain a better understanding for investing and finance. Along with this I will also post a series of links to websites I have personally found useful. These will be posted as I work on them during the upcoming weeks.

GM gets three final bids for Opel

The three final bidderes are Canadian car parts maker Magna, Belgian-based investor RHJ International and China's Beijing Automotive Industries. Talks have been stalled after Magna wanted intellectual property and distribution rights in Russia to be included in the deal.
This is something that GM is not willing to compromise on. There is some controversy regarding Vauxhall plants and potential lay offs, Magna promised no plant closing until 2013. RHJ would save plants but may force pay cuts.

"GM is expected to give its preliminary findings on the final bids to the German and other European governments on Wednesday.
Next week, GM is expected to have a recommendation ready on which bid to accept. That will be put before its board and the US Treasury, which has a majority stake in GM." (BBC)

In my opinion this is excellent news, the faster that GM will be able to becomer a leaner and more efficient company the better it is for shareholders. In this case it will mean that the majority shareholder (the US government) will be able to let go of GM sooner than later. GM successfully streamlining itself will also be a strong symbol to the American consumer and the rest of the world that big US business will be able to recover and hopefully be better than before the recession. If GM can focus on new green projects such as the Volt, and eliminate the high level of overlap in their product lineup they may once again become a substaintial force to rekon with, all without having to give massive discounts to entice consumers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8158569.stm

New US home starts surge in June

There seems to be a glimmer of hope for the US housing sector, one of the major drivers for the US economy. However it may be a little too early to start hoping for a full recovery. Yes I know that our econ textbooks told us that housing starts are a leading indicator, but given that we are in an abnormal recession I would not place all my eggs in one fiscal basket and count on an economic recovery simply because there are some signs of a turnaround in US real estate.

New US home starts surge in June

"There are signs confidence may be returning to the building sector
The construction of new homes in the US rose 3.6% between May and June to the highest level in seven months, official figures have shown.
This is the second month in a row that housing starts have risen following a post-war low in April.
Compared with the same month a year ago, however, June starts were down 46%, the Commerce Department said.
The number of single family homes being built jumped 14.4% in June, the biggest jump in over four years.
'Genuine surprise'
The number of new homes built totalled 582,000, many more than analysts had expected.
Figures for May were also revised upwards, from 532,000 to 562,000.
It is too soon to call a bottom to the housing market in the US
The Centre for Economics and Business Research
"These figures look like a genuine upward surprise, and support our view that housing construction activity is bottoming out," said Dean Maki at Barclays Capital.
For the April to June months, Mr Maki added that single family starts saw the biggest quarterly increase since the early 1990s.
The number of permits to break ground - considered an indicator of confidence in the building sector - climbed to its highest level since December last year.
Completions down
Some analysts, however, urged caution in the wake of the stronger-than-expected data.
"It is too soon to call a bottom to the housing market in the US," said the Centre for Economics and Business Research. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8156302.stm