Professor Glen Arnold

I’ll just write a quick note today, and give a more considered analysis next week. I bought at around 27p – 29p. (Sold some of my Caledonian Trust to do it at £2.80 – a pity I had to do that but at least they have given a very good return (bought at under a […]

At the Berkshire Hathaway Meeting three weeks ago Warren and Charlie were asked “how you go about attempting to forecast the degree of future success of one specific product in a good business versus another, such that you invest in American Express and Coca-Cola rather than Diners Club or RC Cola, for example.” I think […]

These are the words spoken by Charlie Munger at the Berkshire Meeting three weeks ago.  Buffett said he did not like cryptocurrencies either, but he is somewhat more moderate in his language. The out-burst by Charlie was in response to the question: “Capitalization of cryptocurrency has approached that of Berkshire and Apple last year. And […]

A shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway asked for a formula to calculate intrinsic value at the Meeting three weeks ago. He asked, “Would you work the arithmetic using a fictional data set to illustrate the mathematical principia to determine an intrinsic value? And I hope you include the comprehensive mental model of the key metrics considered, and […]

Warren Buffett was asked at the Berkshire AGM three weeks ago if the people of America are more divided today than 50 years ago.   His answer provides hope for investors in any country affected by political problems. He said that multiple times in his life, people have felt the country was more divided than ever. “I’ve […]

At the recent Berkshire Meeting a shareholder asked if Buffett and Munger agreed with Elon Musk that the concept of the moat was “lame” or “nice in a sort of quaint, vestigial way”, and that, these days, innovation was the key, because if you rely on moats to defend you against invading armies, you will […]

At the Berkshire Meeting, Buffett and Munger were asked a technical question about US Treasury bonds. The answer was that Buffett did not know, but then he launched into an attack on the notion of thinking bonds a good option for your money. “The one thing we know is we think that long-term bonds are […]

You will never get Buffett or Munger to declare whether the market as a whole is too high or too low. They don’t look at things like that. They focus on whether there is an abundance of good businesses/shares being offered at low prices, or conversely, whether good businesses at low prices are few and […]

Once Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have decided that the key person(s) in one of their companies is competent and of high integrity they let him/her just get on with running their organisation.   At The Berkshire Meeting a couple of weeks ago they were asked whether they were still involved in pricing decisions at See’s […]

The issue I want to address today, with the help of Buffett and Munger is: What to do with an investment when management have erred? At the Berkshire Meeting the two sages were reminded by a shareholder of one of their time-honoured principles:  ‘Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing […]