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T H E W A RRE N B U FFETT W AY
I n v est m e n t St r a t e g i es o f t h e W o r l d ’s G r e a t est I n v est o r R O BERT G . H A G STR O M
MAIN IDEA Warren Buffett is one of the most successful stock market investors of the past 30 years. His entire approach is to focus on the value of the business and its market price. Once Buffett finds a business he understands and feels comfortablewith, he acts like a business owner rather than a stock market speculator. He studies everything possible about the business, becomes an expert in that field and works with the management rather than against them. In fact, often his first act on buying shares in any company is to grant the managers his proxy vote for his shares to assure them that he has no intention to try and move the company awayfrom its core values. Buffett champions the value investment strategy, and puts no credence in day to day movements in share prices, the impact of the economic mood overall or any other external factors. He maintains a long-term perspective at all times, and never loses sight of the underlying value of a business. THE BUFFETT APPROACH TO INVESTMENT 1. Never follow the day to day fluctuations ofthe stock market. The market only exists to make it easier to buy and sell, not to set values. Keep an eye on the market only for someone who is willing to sell a stock at a not-to-be-missed price. 2. Don’t try and analyze or worry about the general economy. If you can’t predict what the stock market will do from day to day, how can you reliably predict the fate of the economy? 3. Buy a business,not its stock. Treat a stock purchase as if you were buying the entire business, using the following tennets: Business Tennets 1. Is the business simple and understandable from your perspective as an investor? 2. Does the business have a consistent operating history? 3. Does the business have favourable long-term prospects. Management Tennets 1. Is management rational? 2. Is management candid withits shareholders? Financial Tennets 1. Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share. 2. Calculate "Owner Earnings". 3. Search for companies with high profit margins. 4. For every dollar of retained earnings, has the company created at least one dollar’s extra market value? Management Tennets 1. What is the value of the business? 2. Can the business currently be purchased at a significantdiscount to its value? 4. Manage a portfolio of businesses. Intelligent investing means having the priorities of a business owner (focused on long-term value) rather than a stock trader (focused on short-term gains and losses).

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1. WARREN BUFFETT In the 1993 Forbes list of America’s richest people, Warren Buffett had an estimated net worth of $8.3 billion. Ofall 69 people listed, Buffett is the only one who obtained his wealth from the stock market. Buffett graduated from the University of Nebraska. While there, he read a book The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. This book so impressed Buffett that he went to New York to study with Ben Graham at the Columbia Graduate Business School. At the age of 25 in 1956, Buffett started an investmentpartnership. He had seven limited partners who contributed $105,000 and Buffett as general partner put in $100. The limited partners received 6-percent interest per year and 75-percent of the profits generated above this level. Buffett was paid the other 25-percent. Over the next 13 years, this partnership compounded investments at an annual rate of 29.5-percent. In 1965, Buffett closed the partnershipand cashed out with a personal stake of $25 million. Warren Buffett used his capital to purchase a controlling interest in Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing, a well established but struggling textile company. This company merged with Hathaway Manufacturing, and also bought interests in two insurance companies in 1967. The combined company was renamed Berkshire Hathaway. The insurance companies...