According to the recent TIM (Trade Ideas Monitor) report for the week of October 30-November 5, 2009, the TIM Sentiment Index (TSI) rose 5.65 points to 55.49, moving into bullish territory (see last week's post and the youDevise website for additional information on the TIM report, a reading above 50 is bullish). The TSI Worldwide Index also increased 7.55 points to a bullish 57.34 reading. Nine of the ten sectors were in bullish territory with only one bearish. Total new long ideas as a percentage of all new ideas sent to investment managers by way of the TIM increased 5.64 points to 73.20%.

As for individual securities in the U.S. and North America, Research In Motion (RIMM), US Steel (X), and Bank of America (BAC) were stocks with long broker sentiment, while Wells Fargo (WFC), and AMR Corp (AMR) had short broker sentiment. In general, the consumer discretionary, energy, and materials sectors had long broker sentiment, while the consumer staples had short broker sentiment.

A recent report provided some insight into the changes in equity holdings for Berkshire Hathaway. While important knowledge for Berkshire investors, this report has also become a market news event, given that any signal that the Oracle of Omaha is buying or selling a company you currently own could make for either a pleasant or long weekend, even though the Berkshire stock transactions may have occurred over three months ago.

As highlighted in the report, Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it no longer has a position in Ameriprise Financial - AMP, selling 661,742 shares ($34.3 million), but has added to its positions in Kraft - KFT, buying 5.88 million shares ($182.3 million, giving 138 million total shares), increased its position in Ingersoll Rand - IR, buying 300,000 shares ($13.4 million, giving 936,000 total shares), increased its position in Burlington Northern Sante Fe - BNI, buying 2.96 million shares ($272.7 million, giving 63.8 million total shares), and decreased its position in Iron Mountain - IRM, selling 1.29 million shares ($34.2, giving 3.4 million total shares).

Other new positions include purchases of US Bankcorp - USB (1.05 million shares valued at 33.9 million), United Health Group -UNH (400,000 shares valued at $13.7 million), Wells Fargo - WFC (1.4 million shares valued at $40.6 million), and Wellpoint - WLP (300,000 shares valued at $13.2 million). Berkshire also sold a smaller stake in Trane - TT (60,500 shares valued at $2.8 million), and make smaller purchases in Carmax - KMX (300,000 shares valued at $5.8 million), M&T Bank - MTB (6,300 shares valued at $500K), and Sanofi Aventis - SNY (16,828 shares valued at $600K).