Tag Archive

In the book – Talent, Strategy, Risk: How Investors and Boards Are Redefining TSR, there’s a couple of great quotes by Warren Buffett on how to deal with financial shenanigans. Here’s an excerpt from the book: Whether people deviate from ethical behavior through bad intention or bad practices, you must put … Read More

In his 1994 Shareholder Letter, Warren Buffett explained why most major acquisitions don’t make sense. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: The sad fact is that most major acquisitions display anegregious imbalance: They are a bonanza for the shareholders of the acquiree; they increase the income and status of the … Read More

In Chris Mayer’s Book – 100 Baggers, he explains how Warren Buffett consistently borrowed money at rates lower than the US government. Here’s an excerpt from the book: Along with more than 40,000 other people, I was in Omaha, NE, for the Berkshire annual meeting, which also celebrated the 50th … Read More

In his 1984 Shareholder Letter, Warren Buffett discussed his dividend policy and why all earnings are not created equal. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: Dividend policy is often reported to shareholders, but seldom explained. A company will say something like, “Our goal is to pay out 40% to 50% … Read More

During this Berkshire Annual Meeting, Warren Buffett discussed putting seventy five percent of his net worth into one position when you’re working with smaller sums. Here’s an excerpt from the meeting: There have been times… well initially I had 70, several times I had 75% of my net worth in … Read More

In his 2008 shareholder letter, Warren Buffett discussed the U.S Treasury Bond bubble of 2008 and why investors should beware of investment activity that produces applause. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: The investment world has gone from underpricing risk to overpricing it. This change has not been minor; the … Read More

In his 1966 Buffett Partnership Letter, Warren Buffett discussed diversification and why investors should avoid the ‘Noah School of Investing’. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: There is one thing of which I can assure you. If good performance of the fund is even a minor objective, any portfolio encompassing … Read More

In this shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett explains why Ben Graham would not have adopted his strategy. Here’s an excerpt from the meeting: We’ve tried to put in the annual report pretty much how we approach securities and book value is not a consideration, virtually not a consideration at all, and … Read More

While Warren Buffett is famous for calling derivatives ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’, in his 2008 Shareholder Letter he explained his strategy for trading derivatives. Here is an excerpt from the letter which covers put options: Considering the ruin I’ve pictured, you may wonder why Berkshire is a party to … Read More

In his 1996 Chairman’s Letter, Warren Buffett provides a great example of why you should never sell portions of your most successful investments. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: Our portfolio shows little change: We continue to make more money when snoring than when active. Inactivity strikes us as intelligent … Read More

In his 1993 Annual Shareholder Letter, Warren Buffett outlined the five risk factors that an investor must assess before making any investment. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: In our opinion, the real risk that an investor must assess is whether his aggregate after-tax receipts from an investment (including those … Read More

Warren Buffett recently contributed another $4.1 Billion to five foundations. Following are his comments on philanthropy and philanthropists: Today is a milestone for me. In 2006, I pledged to distribute all of my Berkshire Hathaway shares – more than 99% of my net worth – to philanthropy. With today’s $4.1 … Read More

In his latest 2021 Berkshire Annual Meeting, Warren Buffett reiterated what he has been saying for many years, and that is that the average person cannot pick stocks and should consider investment in the S&P 500, or Berkshire. Here’s an excerpt from the meeting: Buffett: I do not think the … Read More

A recent article from Reuters reported Warren Buffett admitted that he “paid too much” for Precision Castparts, and “PCC is far from my first error of that sort. But it’s a big one.” Here’s an excerpt from the article: (Reuters) – Warren Buffett makes mistakes too. The 90-year-old billionaire on … Read More

In his most recent Berkshire Hathaway 2020 Annual Report, Warren Buffett discussed a number of topics including why Berkshire is different to the prototype conglomerate, and the shenanigans around paying for overpriced acquisitions. Here’s an excerpt from that report Berkshire is often labeled a conglomerate, a negative term applied to … Read More

In Alice Schroeder’s book – The Snowball, she recounts a great story about Warren Buffett, the twenty nine year old activist, who was fed up with Sanborn Board members refusing to distribute the company’s investments to its shareholders, and instead wasting shareholders money on cigars. It’s also an early illustration … Read More

During the 1998 Berkshire Hathaway meeting, Warren Buffett was asked about his use of Fisher’s scuttlebutt method: ” When you’ve identified a business that you consider to warrant further investigation — more intense investigation — how much time do you spend commonly, both in terms of total hours and in … Read More