quote:Originally posted by bushbasher

However, even in this example if you had bought 10 years ago at $15 you would still have made a compound return approaching 12% p.a. based on a share price of $45 today. Everything depends on the time period during which you hold.
By using technical measures you could have sold for $70 to $50 [u]8 years ago</u>. Even if you hurried the selling process and got 10% or 15% less than you should have, you've had 8 years to make it back. If you are exceptionally enarmored with the stock, you could buy back in at any time the technicals corroborated (Coke may finally be doing so now - an irony with Buffett announcing his departure from the board).

quote:Originally posted by bushbasher

Now that he is so big Warren Buffet doesn't have the luxury (as most of us do) of being able to get into and out of stocks in a short time horizon.
Berkshire Hathaway owns 200m shares in Coke, about 8.45% of the company, currently worth roughly US$9b. The total value of Coke is in excess of $100b. The value of all securities listed on the NYSE back in March was US$43.6 TRILLION (This isn't even counting the Nasdaq and other North American markets). Coke represents less than 0.25% and Buffett's stake around about 0.02%. It's not a credible argument that he would face difficulties selling this stake. In the New Zealand context selling 100% of TEL would be a big ask. In the USA its less than a blip.