As if it were a premonition about his profession, Warren Buffett was born in the midst of one of the biggest economic crises in the United States: the crisis of the year 1929. Buffet came into the world on August 30, 1930, in the small town of Omaha, in Nebraska.
Through a career as an investor of more than 50 years, Buffet became the third richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine in 2017. In this Market Times article, we propose you learn more about this extraordinary character and see what we can learn from him. him for our lives and for our wallets. We will see how he has developed, how he thinks, what advice he has given to traders like us and what lessons he gives us from his long career.
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Who is Warren Buffett?
Warren Edward Buffett is one of the most successful investors in history worldwide. He currently exercises his portfolio from the Directorate of the firm he helped make great: Berkshire Hathaway. In addition to being the CEO, he has been the company’s largest shareholder since the 1960s. His fortune is estimated to be in excess of $90 billion.
Buffet has been dubbed the “Oracle of Omaha” for his consistent success in managing his investment capital. He retains numerous awards in this profession, perhaps the main one being the purchase of Berkshire, a company that reshaped from the textile industry to be one of the most valuable capital market investment companies in the world.
Buffett is a 92-year-old man today. He has an austere lifestyle, he does not indulge in great luxuries: In addition, his numerous philanthropic works are known. Owner of a very particular investment style, and with a whole philosophy of life that supports him as a human being worthy of admiration, Warren Buffet is a guide for many traders and investors throughout the planet.
How does Warren Buffett invest?
The buffet is a benchmark for value investing. His objectives throughout his career have been shares of companies with good fundamentals in which he is positioned with a long-term vision.
Fortunately for us, he is a generous man and has given us valuable investment advice. This way of doing it led him to earn millions of dollars for more than five decades and become a finance guru put into practice thanks to his statements to journalists, and writers and appearances in the media.
Buffet’s main key is to buy shares in value companies that are trading below their price. Even if they are in a downtrend, the man invests in them only if he believes that the company is worth, on his fundamentals, more than his price. And then he holds the position until he decides that all the profit is done.
In this regard, he has recently given some specific tips that are more detailed on how to invest in companies, which we transcribe below:
- Don’t invest in something just because everyone else is doing it. You have to be convinced by yourself what you have invested in or are ready to do.
- Observe the address of the company you want to buy and what its fundamental financial indicators are (fiscal and financial situation, salaries, CEO, products to be launched, etc.).
- Supports market declines. What matters is the value of the company, and that is behind the price, which is conjectural.
- Invest in companies with a business model that thinks in the long term. In these times of changes due to technology and trends, see how these can affect your target asset.
- If the scenario has changed since you took a position in an asset, don’t be afraid to sell. Many times things do not turn out as we wanted to foresee and in these cases, there is no need to be afraid of changing the plan on the fly, for example with a forced sale.
Now let’s take a look at how Warren has implemented these concepts into his current portfolio.
Warren Buffet’s portfolio as of late 2023
In the following table, we show you how Warren Buffet’s portfolio is made up at the end of 2023, when this article is being written:
| 🔥 Action | 💰 Portfolio percentage |
| Apple (AAPL) | 41.4% |
| Bank of America (BAC) | 10.3% |
| Coca Cola (KO) | 7.3% |
| American Express (APX) | 6.8% |
| Chevron (CVX) | 6.8% |
As you will see, these are in most cases large companies, in the so-called “ value ” segment, with solid fundamentals, long-term stability prospects, and an interesting detail: all of them pay dividends to their shareholders.
Warren Buffett’s personal life
Buffet is the only son of a stockbroker who was a congressman and had two more children. He leads a life that we can say is austere, since he continues to live in the same house in Omaha that he lived in in the 1960s when he bought it, for example. Her annual salary from him in 2006 was a mere $100,000, one of the lowest in the industry compared to CEOs of similar companies at the time.
He likes to collaborate with charity works and help others; his collaborations with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are common.
Warren Buffett married Susie Thompson in 1952. They divorced her in 1977, although they maintained a cordial relationship since he confessed to still being in love with her. In 2004 Thompson passed away, and Buffet remarried just a short time later.
He is described in biographies as mild-mannered, and friendly, but introverted and has struggled for many years with difficult shyness.
Books recommended by Warren Buffet
Buffett hasn’t written books, but the amount of literature he has inspired is truly monumental. It is said that more pages have been written about him than about any other celebrity in the world today, except of course presidents of countries or religious leaders.
In addition, he is a passionate reader of finance, economics, and biographies of successful men. In this sense, in GuíaTrading we mention five books that Warren Buffet recommends reading to any trader who wants to improve their professional investment skills.
- “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham.
- “The most important thing to invest with common sense”, by Howard Marks.
- “Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules” by Jeremy Miller.
- “A Thousand Ways to Win $1,000” by Frances Minaker.
- “How to Make Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
All of them are true cult books for investors and traders. We recommend that you take a look at them and incorporate them into your reading material without question.
Famous Warren Buffet quotes
But, if there is one thing about Warren Buffet that makes him stand out from other investors and makes him so attractive to trading fans, it is his wisdom. Which, he often expresses in short sentences but is full of wisdom and talent for investment.
Here we leave you a selection of just about ten, which we have chosen at our discretion because we have loved them in a special way. We invite you to learn more about this extraordinary investor, from whose thinking we can learn enormously.
- It is much better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
- The most important decision when evaluating a business is pricing power. If you have the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you have a very good business. And if you need to have a prayer session before raising the price a tenth of a cent, then you have a terrible business. I’ve been to both and know the difference.
- Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
- Only when the tide goes out do you find out who has been swimming naked.
- Rule number 1 is never to lose money. Rule number 2 is never forget rule number 1.
- When I buy a stock, I don’t care if it go public tomorrow for a couple of years, because I’m hoping that the business, Coca-Cola or whatever, will give me returns in the future. Now if it matters to me that the stock market is open tomorrow, then to a certain extent I am speculating, because I am thinking about whether or not the price is going to go up tomorrow.
- Pervasive fear is your friend as an investor because it helps you buy bargains.
- Never invest in a business you cannot understand.
- Keep things simple and don’t jump for the fences. When they promise you quick wins, answer with a quick “no”.
- Today someone is sitting in the shade because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Final notes
We have come to the end of this biography of Warren Buffet, an icon of stock investment and a character with a very interesting life due to his philosophy and way of seeing money and finance.
