Last weekend, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett spent roughly a fifth of his latest annual letter talking about what he calls “The Bet.”
What he didn’t talk about is even more interesting.
In the bet, made at the end of 2007, Mr. Buffett correctly wagered that several bundles of hedge funds selected by investor Ted Seides wouldn’t be able to outperform the S&P 500 over the ensuing decade. What Mr. Buffett didn’t mention directly in his letter is that Berkshire Hathaway didn’t outperform the S&P 500 over that stretch, either….
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This article was originally published on The Wall Street Journal.
Further reading
Jason Zweig, Your Money and Your Brain
Jason Zweig, The Devil’s Financial Dictionary
Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor
Lawrence A. Cunningham and Stephanie Cuba (eds.), The Warren Buffett Shareholder: Stories from Inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
Alice Schroeder, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Roger Lowenstein, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
http://jasonzweig.com/on-warren-buffett/
http://jasonzweig.com/the-higher-wisdom-of-warren/
Warren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s shareholders
Warren Buffett’s letters to investors in the Buffett Partnerships and other early writings