Ok. This is confusing, look at the sequence :
Then you jump in with this statement :
So they had ~$3B in realized losses on airlines.
~0.5% of their size.
Media says :
Loss After $54.5 Billion Hit to Its Investments
While in reality it's around
$3B.
i said :
This is what another source says :
,,Most of the Berkshire losses were attributable to the enormous drops in the value of the companies that Berkshire owns in its investment portfolio rather than in declines in sales and profits at its own subsidiaries.''
source : https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...orts-nearly-dollar50-billion-loss/ar-BB13vExW
This is what happens, when one chats with multiple people at once and i still wonder, where is the rest of realized $37 B in losses.
If there's non, than as i mentioned (and article above) :
And that statement, was the beginning of our chat.
p.s Not that i am aware of, but if there is, those $37B of longs that got closed, sorry then.
p.s.s
I had in mind, - when you hold shares of the company, which are selling 50% - 80% below the real value of the whole enterprise.
One doesn't use SL orders in that game, you just wait, for the price to catch up, with the real value of the company.
Media also tries to spread the message, that this isn't happening anymore (the shadow of Benjamin Graham times), while in reality, it still does.
Maybe you should first learn the rules how participations should be valued in the books.
In the bookkeeping of Berkshire it was a loss of $45 billion. This loss of course consists of many difference things. Loses from airlines, losses from stocks in portfolio that went down, and probably many other things.
If you wish to know exactly where these losses come from I suggest you read the quartely reporting of Berkshire. There you find all details of these losses.
I said 45 billion.
MSN said 50 billion.
So the value of Berkshire at the end of Q1/2020 was $45 billion less than Q4/2019.
What's confusing about that?
Each quarterly reporting only shows the exact situation at that moment.
They call this bookkeeping.
The cashflow you speak about has no influence at all. Cashflow cannot change a loss, as cashflow has nothing to do with P&L. Whether the cashflow is zero or $100 billion will not change the reported loss of$45 billion. It will still be a loss of $45 billion.
Off course value in three months will be different. But that has always been so, and will always be so.
Next month they can be up $50 billion. Or lose even more.
Probably/normally they will recover part of the losses.
