Hey I love bitcoin and have some bitcoin. Do I think he is right about it. I don't think so.
But do I think Buffett is invested or will invest in a meaningful way. Never.
Actually all his investment advice talks about fundamentals and investing in businesses. Just read his latest shareholders report today by chance.
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2013ar/2013ar.pdfCouple of quotes
Focus on the future productivity of the asset you are considering. If you don’t feel comfortable making a rough
estimate of the asset’s future earnings, just forget it and move on. No one has the ability to evaluate every
investment possibility. But omniscience isn’t necessary; you only need to understand the actions you undertake.
Š If you instead focus on the prospective price change of a contemplated purchase, you are speculating.
There is nothing improper about that. I know, however, that I am unable to speculate successfully, and I
am skeptical of those who claim sustained success at doing so. 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. And the fact that
a given asset has appreciated in the recent past is never a reason to buy it.
Owners of stocks, however, too often let the capricious and often irrational behavior of their fellow owners
cause them to behave irrationally as well. Because there is so much chatter about markets, the economy, interest
rates, price behavior of stocks, etc., some investors believe it is important to listen to pundits – and, worse yet,
important to consider acting upon their comments.
Those people who can sit quietly for decades when they own a farm or apartment house too often become
frenetic when they are exposed to a stream of stock quotations and accompanying commentators delivering an
implied message of “Don’t just sit there, do something.” For these investors, liquidity is transformed from the
unqualified benefit it should be to a curse.
A “flash crash” or some other extreme market fluctuation can’t hurt an investor any more than an erratic
and mouthy neighbor can hurt my farm investment. Indeed, tumbling markets can be helpful to the true investor if
he has cash available when prices get far out of line with values. A climate of fear is your friend when investing; a
euphoric world is your enemy.
During the extraordinary financial panic that occurred late in 2008, I never gave a thought to selling my
farm or New York real estate, even though a severe recession was clearly brewing. And, if I had owned 100% of a
solid business with good long-term prospects, it would have been foolish for me to even consider dumping it. So
why would I have sold my stocks that were small participations in wonderful businesses? True, any one of them
might eventually disappoint, but as a group they were certain to do well. Could anyone really believe the earth was
going to swallow up the incredible productive assets and unlimited human ingenuity existing in America?
