Buffett Hates The Dollar Too!
Its not often that Warren Buffett offers investing advice that’s easily to implement. According to an email I just got yesterday,
“We are still negative on the dollar,” Buffett continued, shifting his focus to Berkshire’s strategy for dealing with the troubled U.S. currency. “We bought stocks in companies that are earning their money in other currencies. We are gaining foreign currency exposure.” His comments echo Jim Rogers’ and Julian Robertson’s bearishness from yesterday.
So where will the $52 billion man be putting his money?
“My impression is that the Korean market is modestly cheaper than other markets in the world. I think the Korean market will do better for the next 10 years,” said Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha is currently visiting the TaeguTec facility in Daegu, South Korea. TaeguTec is a subsidiary of Iscar — a company Berkshire Hathaway bought a $4 billion stake in last year. While there, he voiced his approval of South Korean steelmaker Posco.
“It’s a great company,” Buffett said of Posco, “and great companies get worth more and more all the time.”
I had recently sold half my PTR stake and bought ICON Asia-Pacific Region S Fund(ICARX), which has quite a few korean companies in it. But if you want to get a pure Korean play, iShares MSCI South Korea Index (EWY) is a good buy. Its up 40%+ YTD!
Another good buy is the Korea Fund (KF). Like EWY, its also up 40%+ YTD. I bought a little bit today since its paying a crazy 32% dividend and today its going ex-dividend (which means its the last day to buy it and get the dividend).
If you’d like to buy it, it should trade at a 32% discount on Monday (since it’ll be ex-dividend, it will most likely drop by the amount of the dividend) even though the dividend won’t be paid out until end of November.
The advantage to buying right before the dividend is that sometimes stocks don’t drop the full amount of the dividend or they quickly make up the loss in share price. The disadvantage is you’re slapped with a dividend and a tax liability immediately.
Maybe I’ll sell the other half of PTR and buy EWY as well. Although, according to ETFConnect, KF trades at a 5% discount to NAV, while EWY trades at a 1% premium.
But regardless of what you buy, you’ve been given a chance to invest like Buffett.
If you found this post helpful, consider donating to my coffee fund!![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
- Investing In Japanese Real Estate In a previous post I had mentioned that a Japanese REIT was going IPO. I was wondering how I could get in on the action. It seems like a good idea - the Dollar should weaken against the Yen and Japan's Real Estate should appreciate after almost a decade and......
- Which Dividend Stocks Are Worth Looking At? The market has been defying gravity this summer, with the S&P500 up 49% since March. But most of the appreciation has been in what I consider lower quality stocks. Many homebuilders with doubtful prospects have doubled from their recent lows, while stocks that are somewhat recession proof like McDonalds, Walmart,......
- Is Value Investing The Same As Market Timing? Warren Buffett has been touted as the world's foremost 'Buy and Hold' Investor. He's been quoted as saying he likes to hold stocks "forever". He's also a value investor. So most people could draw the conclusion that value investing means buying for the long term. I disagree strongly. Buying when......
Related Websites
- Peter Schiff on the Rally and Why You Still Need to Buy Gold So, we're finishing up the eighth straight week of the bear market rally of March-April 2009. Everyone's asking how long it will last. Last week, Schiff mentioned the rally in passing, but this week he addressed it head on. Simply put: both some bears and some bulls are wrong going......
- How to Buy Perfume Online These days you can buy perfume online just as you can buy almost anything over the Internet. If you want to buy perfume online, however, it is a bit more of a challenge than purchasing certain other goods like books or small appliances. Unless you go to a store or......
- Receiving Dividends from Non-Dividend Stocks If you own 100 shares or more in a company that does not pay dividends but that does trade options, you can still receive income from your stock by writing covered calls. When you write a call, you are selling a derivative (financial contract whose value derives from the value......
[All content is copyright of Living Off Dividends & Passive Income]
November 4th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
There’s wisdom in not following the crowd. Buffett is in the business of making money too, even from you.
I’m starting to feel a change to the dollar trend.
November 25th, 2007 at 11:01 am
I checked the EWY. There was no big drop after the ex-dividend date.
Any comments on that?
Tks!
Eddie
November 25th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Hi Eduardo
Its KF with the large distribution, not EWY.
and KF has dropped big-time with the rest of the market.
its currently trading at an ~8% discount to its NAV.
EWY is currently trading at a slight premium ~1% to its NAV.