Warren Buffett - The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville

[npg]

This text should answer questions about the margin of safety Buffet aims for (or used to aim for) as well as a very useful pointer to a book we all should read (no, it's not "The Intelligent Investor").

Before we begin this examination, I would like you to imagine a national coin-flipping contest. Let's assume we get 225 million Americans up tomorrow morning and we ask them all to wager a dollar. They go out in the morning at sunrise, and they all call the flip of a coin. If they call correctly, they win a dollar from those who called wrong. Each day the losers drop out, and on the subsequent day the stakes build as all previous winnings are put on the line. After ten flips on ten mornings, there will be approximately 220,000 people in the United States who have correctly called ten flips in a row. They each will have won a little over $1,000.

Now this group will probably start getting a little puffed up about this, human nature being what it is. They may try to be modest, but at cocktail parties they will occasionally admit to attractive members of the opposite sex what their technique is, and what marvelous insights they bring to the field of flipping.

Assuming that the winners are getting the appropriate rewards from the losers, in another ten days we will have 215 people who have successfully called their coin flips 20 times in a row and who, by this exercise, each have turned one dollar into a little over $1 million. $225 million would have been lost, $225 million would have been won.

By then, this group will really lose their heads. They will probably write books on "How I turned a Dollar into a Million in Twenty Days Working Thirty Seconds a Morning." Worse yet, they'll probably start jetting around the country attending seminars on efficient coin-flipping and tackling skeptical professors with, " If it can't be done, why are there 215 of us?"

Does that ring any bells? I felt like sitting in a bell tower at noon.

Link below leads to the pdf of the re-print.

http://www1.gsb.columbia.edu/valuein...ves/DOC032.PDF

Enjoy

[Night2o1]

Previously read this.. I recommend it. Highly.

[nilminih]

Hi NPG,
The link is not working. Can you please post it again?
Thank you,

Originally Posted by npg

This text should answer questions about the margin of safety Buffet aims for (or used to aim for) as well as a very useful pointer to a book we all should read (no, it's not "The Intelligent Investor").



Does that ring any bells? I felt like sitting in a bell tower at noon.

Link below leads to the pdf of the re-print.

http://www1.gsb.columbia.edu/valuein...ves/DOC032.PDF

Enjoy

[npg]

Warren Buffett - The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville

[nilminih]

Thank you NPG. I got it.

Originally Posted by npg

Warren Buffett - The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville

[npg]

Cheers. Don't forget to post some feedback on that article once you're done reading it :)

[Stockowner]

It was printed on the last pages of The Intelligent Investor, the one with the commentaries of Jason Zweig. It was a good read.

Does that ring any bells? I felt like sitting in a bell tower at noon.

Yes.

[physics]

Does anyone know of a book or even article on the Internet that contains Warren Buffett's past trades? That is, the date he purchased a stock, how much stock, for how much, did he make more purchases of it, and when did he ultimately sell? If anyone has read Darvas' book, How I Made $2,000,000 in the stock market, I'd be interested in a similar chronology of Buffett's trades.

[Stockowner]

Warren Buffett Stock Holdings, Investment Philosophies and News -- GuruFocus.com


If you go into "list of gurus", "Warren Buffett", you can chose "stock picks" and "portfolio" :)

[joshuat]

Company Information: BUFFETT WARREN E

I.e. search Warren Buffett on Edgar, the SEC's data base.