- We do not spend a great deal of time talking to management
- I helped Ben with the third edition of Security Analysis, published in 1951
- When you buy a depressed company it’s not going to go up right after you buy it, believe me
- Sell is tough. It’s the worst, it’s the most difficult thing of all
- You never get the high and you never get the low
- Each year we buy stocks and they go up, we sell them and then we try to buy something cheaper
- My first job at Graham-Newman was to prepare the annual report for that 10th year
- I agree with Warren to keep it simple and not use higher mathematics in your analysis
- You have to be a little aware of the emotions of the people who have invested with you
- Warren is a very good judge of people and he’s a very good judge of businesses
- Ben’s emphasis was on protecting his expectation of profit with minimum risk
- You know, people tend to like to buy companies that are doing well
- We like to buy stocks which we feel are undervalued and then we have to have the guts to buy more when they go down
- My job was to find stocks that were undervalued
- Ben was really a contrarian but he didn’t use those terms because he was really buying value
- You have to invest the way that’s comfortable for you
- Fear and greed tend to affect one’s judgement
- By setting up Berkshire Hathaway, Warren has done everything very rationally
- I found that it was much better to look at the figures rather than people
- If the stock goes down we want to buy more
- Basically, we try to buy value expressed in the differential between its price and what we think its worth
- One has to know more about a company if one buys earnings
- Ben was a very simple straightforward man with a brilliant quick mind
- Ben didn’t want to lose money. He had had a rough time during the depression
- Some kinds of stocks are easier to analyse than others
- Book values have some good and some bad features
- I don’t have a ticker-tape machine in my office
- Try to establish the value of a company
- People don’t like to buy things that are going down
- I liked the results of the profits in the markets
- Enjoy your work and have ethical standards
- Try to buy assets at a discount than to buy earnings
- Buy stocks where the outlook is not good
- I have been around a long time and Wall Street has changed a lot
- You have to have patience in this field
- The market is a very emotional place that appeals to fear and greed
- Most look at earnings and earnings potential, well I can’t get into that game
- Look for companies that do not have a lot of debt
- Be careful of leverage. It can go against you
- You never really know a stock until you own it
- I like the idea of company-paid dividends
- Try not to let your emotions affect your judgement
- Earnings can change dramatically. Usually assets change slowly
- Timidity prompted by past failures causes investors to miss the most important bull markets
- Have a philosophy of investment and try to follow it
- Look at companies selling at new lows
- Price is the most important factor to use in relation to value
- Have patience. Stocks don’t go up immediately
- Yes, Warren [Buffett] has done very well
- Ben was a very simple straightforward man with a brilliant quick mind
- Ben didn’t want to lose money. He had had a rough time during the Depression
- Ben was a great believer in buying a diversified group of securities, so that he limited his risk
- We basically followed the idea of buying comapnies selling below working-capital — at two thirds of working-capital
- This is a business. Like any other business
- I was in Graham’s office the day he bought GEICO. Warren owns one-third of the stock today
- Graham liked the idea of protection on the downside
- One of the tricks of this business is, keep your losses down
- I’m not very good on timing. In fact, I’ve stayed away from it
- You have to have confidence in what you’re doing
- Stockbrokers aren’t too interested in a stock you can sit there for five years with
- When I buy a stock, I have kind of an idea where I want to sell it
- Our average holding period is four years
- I’m a passive investor. There are people who are very aggressive; they try to buy companies
- Making a decision to sell is the most difficult thing we do
- All the publicity about value investing – it’s become a very popular thing
- We don’t put the same amount of money in each stock
- We may buy a little bit of a stock, to get our feet wet and get a feeling for it
- Managements, you know, often think of themselves
- A lot of companies have lots of assets tied up in plant and equipment. Well, is it old plant, or is it new plant?
- If the market is so cheap, you want to get something with a little more zip in it, or potential
- We get a feeling, if we can, about what we think the company is worth
- If there are not too many value stocks that I can find, the market isn’t all that cheap
- If the market were way over priced, I wouldn’t own any stocks
- Remember that a share of stock represents a part of a business and is not just a piece of paper
- Use book value as a starting point to try and establish the value of the enterprise
- Be sure that debt does not exceed 100% of the equity
- Don’t buy on tips or for a quick move
- Don’t sell on bad news
- Don’t be afraid to be a loner but be sure that you are correct in your judgement
- Try to look for weaknesses in your thinking
- Have the courage of your convictions once you have made a decision
- Don’t be in too much of a hurry to sell
- Before selling, try to re-evaluate the company again and see where the stock sells in realtion to its book value
- Be aware of the level of the stock market. Are yields low and PE ratios high?
- I find it helpful to buy near the low of the last few years
- Fear and greed are probably the worst emotions to have in connection with the purchase and sale of stocks
- Devise a simple strategy so you can sleep at night
- Make sure you have the courage to stay true to your convictions and not let the market affect your emotions
taken from here
