Warren Buffett has often spoken about the importance of a business moat. In a presentation to the MBA students at the University of Florida Buffett said: “I want a business with a moat around it. I want a very valuable castle in the middle… and then I want the Duke who’s … Read More
Outperformance Means Living Through Periods of Underperformance
In Berkshire Hathaway’s latest annual shareholder letter Warren Buffett provides a great illustration of how price randomness in the short term can obscure longterm growth in value. His following real-life example demonstrates that in order to achieve longterm outperformance investors must suffer through periods of significant underperformance. Here’s an excerpt … Read More
Warren Buffett: Investing Lessons Learnt From ‘That’ Bet
In 2007 Warren Buffett entered into a 10 year bet with Protégé Partners that the S&P 500 would outperform a selection of hedge funds over the following ten years. Last year he won that bet which resulted in the Girls Inc. of Omaha receiving $2,222,279 from his initial outlay of $318,250. In … Read More
Warren Buffett: How To Use Phil Fisher’s Scuttlebutt Method Today
Last year Warren Buffett did a great interview with Becky Quick at CNBC in which he discussed how he uses Phil Fisher’s ‘Scuttlebutt Method’ for finding investments. Phil Fisher wrote a investing classic called, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. Scuttlebutt means rumors or gossip about a particular product or company from … Read More
Warren Buffett – “EMT Has Been An Extraordinary Service To Us And Other Followers Of Graham”
Here’s a great passage from Warren Buffet’s 1988 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter in which he discusses issues surrounding the Efficient Marker Theory (EMT) and how it has been a godsend to Grahamites. In terms of the ‘contest’ between EMT believers and the value investing community Buffett says: “In any sort … Read More
Warren Buffett – “It’s Not What You Look At That Matters; It’s What You See.”
Warren Buffett provides a great lesson for all investors in the book – The Warren Buffet Way, by Robert Hagstrom. The lesson is that investors can spend weeks and years reading and analyzing information on prospective companies, but according to Buffett, “It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s … Read More
Charlie Munger – How To Dramatically Improve Your Financial Results
Here’s a great passage from the book – Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger, in which Munger illustrates how your financial results can be dramatically improved by being prepared, on a few occasions in a lifetime, to act promptly in scale, in doing some simple and logical … Read More
Warren Buffett: Why Stocks Beat Gold, Bonds… and Bitcoin
It’s quite incredible to watch the latest euphoria surrounding cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin. Whether or not we’re witnessing a bubble, only time will tell. But at the time of writing there are 1395 cyrptocurrencies with a combined market cap of approximately $730 Billion. Of which Bitcoin has a market cap of … Read More
Buffett & Munger – The ‘Eureka Moment’ For Two Of The World’s Greatest Investors
It seems that all of the great investors have a ‘eureka moment’ during their investing careers. A ‘eureka moment’ refers to the common human experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept. Sometimes referred to as an ‘Aha’ moment. And so it was two of the world’s greatest … Read More
Warren Buffett – The Only Score That Counts In Investing Is Your Internal Scorecard
One of our favorite investing books here at The Acquirer’s Multiple is – The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, by Alice Schroeder. Schroeder recounts a time in the late ninety’s when Buffett was being humiliated by some of the leading financial commentators of the time and Berkshire’s … Read More
Superinvestors Agree That Business Schools Don’t Make You A Better Investor
While a lot of investors believe that a good finance course at one of the world’s most prestigious business schools is a sure-fire way to becoming a better investor, it seems that some of the greatest investors disagree. Here’s what Buffett, Munger, Greenblatt, Pabrai, and Lynch have to say about … Read More
Warren Buffett – Mistakes of the First Twenty-Five Years
One of the best resources available to investors are the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters. One of my personal favorites is the 1989 letter in which Warren Buffett wrote a piece called – Mistakes of the First Twenty-five Years (A Condensed Version). It’s a great insight into how even the greatest investors … Read More
Warren Buffett’s Hero Philip Carret Says There’s Only One Rule For Selling Winning Stocks
One of our favorite investors here at The Acquirer’s Multiple is value investing legend Philip Carret who Warren Buffett once described as one of his heroes. Carret has written three books – The Art of Speculation, A Money Mind at Ninety, and Classic Carret: Common sense from an uncommon man. After founding … Read More
Is It Better To Buy The Stock And Watch The Price Drop Or Not Act And Watch The Price Soar? – Daniel Kahneman
One of the most common predicaments facing investors is that they’ve analysed a stock, it meets with the investors criteria, and now it’s time to pull the trigger and buy the stock. But something happens, the investor ums and ahs and delays the decision to buy. Next thing you know three … Read More
Great Investors Focus On Absolute-Performance Rather Than Relative-Performance – Seth Klarman
Earlier this month The Washington Post published an article titled – Warren Buffett’s $100 Billion Problem. The article was reporting on the $100 Billion that Berkshire has accumulated in cash over the years, stating: Warren Buffett celebrated his 87th birthday a few days ago, but the bigger number in his life … Read More
Great Investors Create Their Own Version Of Omaha – Buffett, Munger, Klarman, Pabrai
One of the biggest problems facing investors is the amount of ‘noise’ that we get from the financial media and commentators. Financial news sections, the internet, and podcasts are continually bombarding us with the latest ‘hot stock’ or miracle investing strategy. Meanwhile investors get caught up in the noise checking … Read More
The Definitive Guide On Identifying Companies With An Economic Moat – Warren Buffett
With so much talk about a company’s economic moat it’s important to recognize how to clearly identify a moat, understand how wide it is, and figure out how long it will remain in place. One of the best papers ever written on the subject is Michael Mauboussin’s – Measuring the … Read More
How Does Warren Buffett Stay At The Top Of His Game
So it appears that if you want to best investor in the world you have to have a few quirks. As you can see from this video on CNBC: However, while he may be a little quirky that’s not the main reason that sets him apart from other great investors … Read More
Here’s How Charlie And Warren Calculate Intrinsic Value Differently To Everyone Else
One of the biggest problems facing investors is the calculation of intrinsic value. There has been much written about the correct way to calculate intrinsic value but one of the best explanations can be found in the book Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor, by Tren Griffin. The book provides the essential … Read More
Buffett Nears a Milestone He Doesn’t Want: $100 Billion in Cash
One of our favorite investors here at The Acquirer’s Multiple is of course Warren Buffett. This week Bloomberg reported that Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is sitting on $100 Billion at the end of its second quarter. The question is, what he is going to do with it? Here’s an excerpt from … Read More