Sale of the Century?

[jambone]

Sifting through all the doom and gloom and apocalyptic soothsayers, some of the comments I've heard and seen are: Every crisis is an opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy at firesale prices. This could be the Sale of the Century. Pick well and prosper.

Would you agree? Is this the time to buy? Not looking at the next two or three weeks but the next two or three years.

What are your plans?

[Thormaturge]

I'm thinking of emptying the 25 and 50 Satang coins out of my piggybank and buying up Iceland, although it may be worth waiting to see if the UK comes on the market.

The real biggie waiting to shock the world though is.... well its economy is far more dependant on banking than any other..... everyone has been quiet there so far........ the potential for this country is devastating if their banks are in trouble but keeping it quiet...... Switzerland.

The world awaits.... Is there a sub-prime gnome loans crisis....?

If Swiss banks start to crumble the effect on Switzerland would dwarf the problems Iceland is facing.

[kingwilly]

Would you agree? Is this the time to buy? Not looking at the next two or three weeks but the next two or three years.

try doubling that time frame. at least.

Only gonna be a good buy if said companies you buy dont go completely under.

[lom]

^ So what you do with the money in the meantime?

[kingwilly]

hide it under a mattress.

and hope it aint in Kroners or $US

[lom]

No, it's thai baht.
Maybe I should buy foreign currency now when exchange rate is so good.

[jambone]

Would you agree? Is this the time to buy? Not looking at the next two or three weeks but the next two or three years.

try doubling that time frame. at least.

Only gonna be a good buy if said companies you buy dont go completely under.

I was looking at 30 year charts for the dow today and every time the Dow has crashed from its high, it has been back at the highpoint about two years later. Considering we're one year into the drop from the high, I would expect the move up to start now and be complete within 18 months

^DJI: Summary for Dow Jones Industrial Average - Yahoo! Finance

Sorry don't know how to post the chart. Hope the link works.


(The link doesn't give the 30 year chart. Just change the years at the bottom of it)

[good2bhappy]

well if there is an over compensation I am getting out when the market roars back

[baldrick]

maybe you should wait till it enters reality around the 3-4000 range

[DrAndy]

Obviously there will be excellent opportunities

all you have to do is know when, and what

[good2bhappy]

follow Warren Buffet

[jambone]

follow Warren Buffet

Bargain shopper Buffett fills his basket with vintage deals

America's legendary investor is spending big - but showing no interest in British bank shares, writes Heather Connon

• <LI class=byline>Heather Connon <LI class=publication>The Observer,
• Sunday October 12 2008

Warren Buffett. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP

Ever since legendary investor Warren Buffett put up to $10bn into US investment bank Goldman Sachs last month, everyone from former Financial Services Authority chief Howard Davies to the BBC's Robert Peston has been urging our government to follow his lead. The government has emulated Buffett in offering to subscribe to preference shares in any bank seeking capital - though whether it will get the 10 per cent dividend Goldman is paying on its preference issue remains to be seen.
But Buffett is also getting warrants to subscribe for $5bn of new Goldman shares at any time in the next five years at a price of $115, or roughly the price they are currently trading at, an option that could be extremely valuable. This illustrates that last week's £400bn plan is a rescue of a handful of weak banks by a desperate government while Buffett's Goldman purchase is yet another shrewd move by one of the world's most successful investors.
Goldman is not the only business he has been buying into. His Berkshire Hathaway empire rescued Constellation Energy Group, took a 10 per cent stake in China's largest manufacturer of disposable batteries and is investing up to $6bn in General Electric in a preference share and warrant arrangement that mirrors the Goldman deal.
They are vintage Buffett deals. Shares in both Goldman and GE have all but halved over the past year and both needed to bolster their balance sheets. Buffett is not only buying cheaply now, and earning generous interest, he is locking in the chance to buy cheap for another five years.
The Constellation deal is similarly bottom-fishing. It owns three nuclear power plants as well as one of the leading development companies in the field. Berkshire Hathaway already has extensive interests in electricity and gas but Buffett has said nuclear is too expensive. Constellation, too, is a credit crunch victim; its shares plunged as investors feared it would be unable to get a $2bn credit facility needed for its energy trading operation.
There is speculation that Buffett is poised to snap up yet more bargains. He is rumoured to be interested in buying some of the assets put up for sale by insurance giant AIG, which is having to break itself up to repay the government following its $85bn bail-out - indeed, his comment that shares were starting to look cheap was enough to give the US stock market a fillip this month.
What he does not seem to be interested in is stakes in British banks with large portfolios of overvalued property and private equity assets, or expensive and ambitious Dutch acquisitions to integrate. That is being left to the taxpayer - and the government seems unlikely to secure as good a return on these deals as Buffett is likely to get.




Buy I guess

[nidhogg]

Sifting through all the doom and gloom and apocalyptic soothsayers, some of the comments I've heard and seen are: Every crisis is an opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy at firesale prices. This could be the Sale of the Century. Pick well and prosper.

Would you agree? Is this the time to buy? Not looking at the next two or three weeks but the next two or three years.

What are your plans?

To be completely honest, while I am pig ignorant about finance markets and the like - I kinda thought that was the way it was supposed to work. Stuff droped until it hit a price at which some one would think that its a good bargin, and which point the stock would stop falling.

The way the world is acting though, I must be wrong somewhere....still given my ignorance, its just as well all my investments are in my coin jar.

mind you - in a funny way, all that gold the missus has got out of me over the last decade is actually starting to be worth something!! Funny old world.

[Missismiggins]

Firstly, I think Warren Buffets trades are actually allowed to be kept secret, for the very fact that people will follow him and he can influence the markets, so by the time we find out it'll probably be too late.
As for the 50 satang coins, well you shouldn't need many to purchase Thailand in the next few months.
I am sure, anyone with the skill and MASSIVE BALLS could pick up a bargain, I unfortunately have lost my balls over the past few months, good luck to anyone who gives it a go, you should be able to pick up the SET 100 fro a crate of Chang soon!

[jambone]

Maybe spoke too soon. Looks like a few Japanese banks are in a spot of bother:


Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on Northern Rock Building Society in the UK , uncertainty has now hit Japan . In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up & Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived. Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

[Butterfly]

don't buy banks even when there is no financial crisis, banks always get into trouble eventually, and they have "funny" balance sheets that fucks up ratios and analysis,

[jambone]

I've got some banks. About 30% of portfolio. Good buy at these prices IMO