Warren's way

My friend promptly read yesterday's entry and sent me an e-mail advising me to not assume I know what Buffett thinks just from reading Hagstrom's books. This is a valid argument and I realize that more reading will be needed. At this point I'm still willing to go on the record as saying I will be very surprised if at any point Buffett suggests you should "put all of your eggs in one basket."

My friend suggested that I read Buffett's letters to share holders, which he described as "really a collection of essays written to the readers of his reports on making good investment decisions and they go into great detail on how to evaluate investments." It turns out these letters (at least some of them) are available on line at the Berkshire Hathaway website. It is worth going through the Berkshire website as there are other items of interest there besides the letters. Hopefully I will have time to read it in coming months.

Which Ben?

When I first set up this blog I named it with Ben Franklin in mind. How ever over the next weeks or months you might begin to think it was in reference to Benjamin Graham. Graham is credited with teaching Warren Buffett how to invest. Buffett is, of course, known as the most successful stock investor of our time.

I recently decided to start reading about Buffett's investment style after realizing that I have been practicing much of it since the tech bubble burst and the 9/11 attacks. So this past week I started reading The Warren Buffett Portfolio by Robert G. Hagstrom. A good friend of mine has been reading about and trying to practice the Buffett investment philosophy since 2000 (or a little earlier). Even though I am just over a third of my way through my first book on Buffett I can already tell I have a very different interpretation on Buffett's investment philosophy than my friend does.

In the following weeks I will discuss my understanding of this approach on this blog.