For those with US retirement accounts that do not allow options trading, do you think a comparable strategy would be selling BRK shares at the current price levels and buying a money market fund (VSUXX currently has a 5.30% yield) until a future opportunity arises with lower BRK valuations?

I'm somewhat doubtful.

Don't get me wrong--I have long been a fan of lightening up when the price gets a little bit towards the high end of the range. The problem is that the gain from doing so is so small, because how do you know when to get back in? Maybe it will drop to 1.4 times book, or 1.35, or 1.3, or 1.25, or 1. Who knows?

I have often sold some "successfully" at good valuations, most notably in late 2007, but then I get back in again after only a small drop : ) Sure, I'm better off having done so, but it's not exactly life changing.


What has worked MUCH better for me is to keep some sort of way to access dry powder, any way you can manage (including maybe HELOC but not callable broker loans), and go in "big time" on those rare occasions that the valuation level is really cheap. I use the leverage built into options on those occasions.

As an aside, those yields on cash-like instruments won't last long.

Jim