Buffett’s 5 Nuggets of Investing Wisdom

Lesson 3: “If you instead focus on the prospective price change of a contemplated purchase, you are speculating.”

It is not uncommon for stock investors to be guided by price, thinking the low price will move higher or that a stock with momentum indicates further upward movement.

But the Omaha Sage deflates such pretensions when he declares that he at least lacks the ability to succeed with such an approach.

“I know, however, that I am unable to speculate successfully, and I am skeptical of those who claim sustained success at doing so,” he writes. “Half of all coin-flippers will win their first toss; none of those winners has an expectation of profit if he continues to play the game.” 

For good measure, Buffett adds that past price performance — i.e., momentum — is “never” a reason to buy a stock.

Lesson 4: “I thought only of what the properties would produce and cared not at all about their daily valuations.”

The fact that Buffett’s farm, and a retail real estate property he also bought, do not enjoy the constant price quotation characteristic of equity securities should be a disadvantage for real estate, but because of human psychology this advantage of stocks becomes a curse to most investors.

Buffet writes that he himself — and other disciplined investors — would benefit from constant price quotations:

“If a moody fellow with a farm bordering my property yelled out a price every day to me at which he would either buy my farm or sell me his — and those prices varied widely over short periods of time depending on his mental state — how in the world could I be other than benefited by his erratic behavior?” Buffett writes.

“If his daily shout-out was ridiculously low, and I had some spare cash, I would buy his farm. If the number he yelled was absurdly high, I could either sell to him or just go on farming.”

Stock investors, though, typically react in panic to an implied message of “Don’t just sit there — do something.”

Such reactions, especially to extreme events like market crashes, “can’t hurt an investor any more than an erratic and mouthy neighbor can hurt my farm investment,” he writes, adding that they can actually boost the bottom line of an investor with available cash.

Lesson 5: “Forming macro opinions or listening to the macro or market predictions of others is a waste of time.”

Indeed, the Berkshire chairman confidently states that in 54 years he and Munger “have never foregone an attractive purchase because of the macro or political environment, or the views of other people. In fact, these subjects never come up when we make decisions.”

But it is not just that such factors don’t enter the investment equation; rather, Buffett regards macro views as outright dangerous — a peril he humorously describes as follows:

“When I hear TV commentators glibly opine on what the market will do next, I am reminded of Mickey Mantle’s scathing comment: ‘You don’t know how easy this game is until you get into that broadcasting booth.’”

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• What Buffett’s Farm Can Teach Investors
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• Buffett on Berkshire’s 2012: ‘Subpar It Was’