Subject: Berkshire realized losses
Just noticed that Druckenmiller mentioned in a recent talk that Buffett said this in 2014:

In the past 50 years, we have only once realized an investment loss that at the time of sale cost us 2% of our net worth. Twice, we experienced 1% losses. All three of these losses occurred in the 1974-1975 period, when we sold stocks that were very cheap in order to buy others we believed to be even cheaper.

We have talked here in the past about how Buffett has never realized a loss of 1% of the total value of Berkshire in an investment; well, apparently, he has only done it 3 times, up to 2014 at least; maybe a 4th time if you group the 4 airlines purchased in 2016 and sold in 2020*?

Anyways, with that pointer, I was able to look it up in the 2014 AR, and it is on page 18: https://www.berkshirehathaway....

What did Buffett sell in 1974 and 1975, I hear someone asking?


I looked at the 2 reports, but I don't see any comments about which companies were bought and sold. Any ideas from others?
https://theoraclesclassroom.co...
https://theoraclesclassroom.co...

Anyways, just thought others might be interested. dtb

*I don't know if we have much in the way of details about this airline stock investment fiasco, but we know that Buffett said, in 2020, that he had paid $7-8b for the 4 stakes, between 2016 and didn't say how much he got for them in March 2020 except that "We did not take out anything like $7 [billion] or $8 billion." Looking at the share values of those 4 airlines, from the beginning of 2016 to May 2020, they were down 33%, 54%, 55% and 76%, for an average of about 55%; say 40% loss, if you consider all the dividends received. So the loss may have been about $3b, with Berkshire worth about $450 in the Spring of 2020. So it wouldn't quite qualify for the 4th 1+% loss.