1966: "Buffett explains investment goals" after taking an interest in Berkshire Hathaway
"We have no formal program of acquisitions. We like to put our money into things with good value and good management."
"Ben Graham was studied with respect by generations of analysts, but not with affection."
"What was one to do all day, if the market was to be ignored?"
"Ben really liked learning things. He didn't care much about money."
"Young Buffett" did not sit around reading 10-Ks all day. He was very proactive: cultivated relationships and friendships all over, traveled a lot, looked for scuttlebutt.
1985: Buffett "revises his strategy," worries about inflation
"Graham never said he had the only way to get to heaven."
"During inflation, goodwill is the gift that keeps giving."
"Whenever I buy something, I think heavily about what inflation will do to it."
"I like playing big and fast when I'm comfortable. If I'm not, you won't get me to budge."
1989: getting paid for "whitemail" - expensive preferred stock that protected from raiders.
"Work for whomever you admire the most. You'll be turned on. You'll feel like getting out of bed in the morning. You will learn a lot. That is what I did.
Ben Graham didn't hire me immediately. So I offered to go work for nothing. I started trying to be useful to him."
Paul Tudor Jones: "One of my no. 1 rules as an investor is as soon as my manager, if I find out that a manager is going through divorce, I redeem immediately. Because the emotional distraction that comes from divorce is so overwhelming..."
...The idea that you could think straight for 60 seconds and be able to make a rational decision is impossible, particularly when their kids are involved. You can automatically subtract 10 to 20% from any manager if he is going through divorce.”
Soros had a self-described burn-out and “kind of identity crisis” after his first divorce which was right before Jim Rogers left as his partner.
Ackman got divorced around the time he held the bag on $VRX?
Profile of Jeff Vinik who took over the Magellan fund from Peter Lynch then left to run his own hedge fund.
(Money Magazine, 2000)
Lynch's first successor lasted two years. Vinik took over in '92 at age 33. Soul searching at Wendy's over whether to take the job that could "wreck his family life." He lasted four years.
"To Vinik, the essence of investing comes down to this: a company's earnings ultimately drive the price of its stock. The key, then, is to predict whether that company will beat Wall Street's consensus earnings expectations."
Some additional resources to @B3_MillerValue's recent profile
"I’m just trying to understand the present."
"supercharged his personal bet on AMZN during the financial crisis, loading up on call options as the stock plunged" barrons.com/amp/articles/h…
On Bitcoin
"It’s Economics 101. The supply grew 2.5% last year; it’s growing 2% this year. Is demand growing faster or slower than 2%? It’s that asymmetry between supply and demand that is leading to what’s going on."
Here is a profile from 2001, when Miller had just beaten the S&P ten years in a row.
Stocks were falling, Miller was buying:
"If you want to boil down everything we do, it's this: The guy with the lowest average cost wins."