The Oracle of Omaha

I studied Warren Buffett early on during college. In fact, I remember when I first learned about the ‘Oracle’, I was skeptical. The world’s greatest investor is in the middle of Nebraska. In the middle of America? At first, this was one of those stories where someone was attempting to upsell some secret formula about investing. I was skeptical and ignored the Oracle of Omaha for the first few months.

But then, like any value investor, I went head first into the world of Security Analysis. I remember studying about discount cash flows in my second year, and thought there was a better way to invest. So instead of studying Buffett, I decided to study his teacher, Benjamin Graham. It didn’t require much novel insight to study Ben Graham first. Every time I looked up Warren Buffett’s content, he recommended reading Graham’s two famous books about investing: Security Analysis and the Intelligent Investor.

For context, I only recommend reading Graham’s books if you are serious about learning the fundamentals of value investing. Both of his books are long reads and require focus. Security Analysis was written in 1934 and is 752 pages long. The revised versions continue to get longer. If you want to learn more about these books, read my last post about the end of Value Investing.

After reading Graham’s books, I had a better understanding of how fundamental investors viewed the world. You might learn about financial models in the classroom but you earn when investing in the markets. So after the mentor, I studied the mentee and read every single shareholder letter written by Warren Buffett since 1957. You can read more about Buffett’s past shareholder letters here.

Berkshire Annual Shareholder Meeting

This week marks the beginning of the Berkshire Annual Shareholder Meeting. You can watch it live on YouTube this Saturday at 8:30 a.m. It is well attended by ~40,000 shareholders and considered the Woodstock for Capitalists. I went to the Berkshire meeting last in 2017. It is a fantastic event and I recommend more investors attend it. Of course, that means you need to buy Berkshire Hathaway shares to receive the special tickets, as seen below.

If you are not attending Berkshire, check out the shareholders guide for more context. Over 40,000 shareholders come together this weekend to go running, shopping and investing. My favorite experience was visiting the exhibitors in the grand hall. As a shareholder, you will receive significant discounts to these vendors because they are owned by Berkshire.

Outside of Berkshire’s schedule, value investors will find the chance to meet some of the greatest, and most like-minded people in their universe. In Asif’s post, you will find a few of the most well-known events attended by value investors this week. The events are amazing and I recommend going to a few.

​LIVE: Warren Buffett presides over the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting — 5/3/25​

Inside the Future of Berkshire

Once you are inside, whether online or in person, you need to soak up this opportunity. As mentioned earlier, I have read Buffett’s letters since 1957. Almost every Berkshire shareholder letter starts in a similar format. Buffett will display his investment returns first before going into the details of Berkshire. This is uncommon for most investment firms because they tend to begin with an opinion. Instead, Buffett lets everyone know how their capital is performing first.

Since Charlie’s passing, Buffett has been joined by Greg Abel and Aji Jain. Greg runs the non-insurance operations, and Ajit runs the insurance operations. If you own Berkshire stock, you will want to pay close attention to the transition process. The Berkshire we studied for decades will look very different in the future.

If you are familiar with Berkshire, then you know their one secret weapon is the insurance business and its float, which Ajit has done a wonderful job running. I’ve read that Buffett speaks with Ajit 7-8x per day to review the risks of Geico and the other insurance entities.

This year, Ajit and Greg will be taking from the audience, alongside Buffett. If you want to learn how the greatest investor in the world does succession planning, I recommend tuning in this weekend.

How my Investment Strategy Changed Since Berkshire

I think it’s important for every investor to read Berkshire’s shareholder letters. If you don’t have time to read every letter, then I recommend studying bits of Bill Ackman’s progress. He’s a disciple of Buffett’s investment style to buy great companies at a fair price.

For context, Bill started Pershing Square in 2004 and a few years later he went on to manage billions of dollars from making concentrated investments in great companies. Here’s Bill asking Buffett and Munger how to analyze financial statements. I think this interview is from the early 2000s.

If you want to learn more about investing, I recommend watching Ackman’s video on everything about finance and investing. It’s 43-minutes long and has 12 million views. It is an excellent introduction video if you want to understand the fundamentals of investing.

For me, I stopped following Buffett’s methods a few years after college. The change came from the culmination of a few important moments. First, I remembered that Buffett working with Charlie Munger was instrumental in changing Berkshire’s path. Before Buffett met Munger, he was focused only on investing in cigar-butt styled investments. Which meant only buying stocks at a significant discount.

This discount strategy was great when nobody bought equities. After the 1980s, America started booming and everyone was investing in equities. Buying stocks in America became rampant for two particular reasons: 1) discount brokerages made it affordable for retail investors to buy stocks; and 2) the dot-com era of the 1990s made it exciting to buy stocks.

Over the past several decades, we watched retail investors pile into the equity markets. For example, I started investing at 17 because Scottrade made it affordable with the lowest commissions. Robinhood made buying stocks affordable for millions of young investors with commission-free trading. And let’s not forget the index funds and ETFs that allow anyone to invest in +500 stocks for 0.10%. All of these have resulted in trillions of dollars in new capital to be available in the markets. Plus buying stocks is the best way to compound capital over a long period of time.

However, when all of this new capital entered into the market, it made very few companies available to buy at a discounted price. In fact, Munger’s suggestion to Buffett was to buy great companies at a fair price. Which has been an excellent strategy for Berkshire, which has compounded at ~20% annually for decades.

But where my strategy diverged the most from Buffett, Munger and Graham was the rise of technology.

I always thought it was strange that Bill Gates was on the board of Berkshire for twenty years, yet Buffett never bought a single share of Microsoft. Buffett also lost money investing in IBM and eventually bought the largest stake in Apple. These three companies have stood the test of time, and it has been interesting for me to observe Berkshire’s experience with each of them.

Personally, my problem was that Buffett, Munger and Graham had limited experience with technology. Munger was dead wrong about Bitcoin, crypto and Tesla. Graham never experienced the internet, the smartphone and artificial intelligence. And Buffett doesn’t know how to value technology, which is predominantly made up of intangible assets such as goodwill.

I came across this problem when I watched the venture capital industry make billions from new technologies. It was hard to comprehend how far we had come over the past three decades. It also helps that I was familiar with technology and knew enough about software. When tech stocks started outperforming the major indices, I had to rebuild my investment strategy from the ground up. The old-Graham investment style would not be applicable in the new age anymore.

The Evolving Landscape of Investing

Attending or watching the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting is more than just an event; it's an educational experience. It's a chance to learn from some of the greatest minds in investing and witness firsthand the principles that have guided Berkshire's success for decades. From Benjamin Graham's fundamental analysis to Warren Buffett's evolved strategy of buying great companies at a fair price, the core lessons of value investing remain vital.

However, as we've seen, the investment landscape is constantly changing. The influx of retail investors, the rise of technology, and the increasing importance of intangible assets all require a more flexible approach. My own journey has shown me that while foundational principles are essential, we must also be willing to evolve our strategies to the times.

Ultimately, whether you follow Buffett’s classic value approach or embrace newer, tech-focused strategies, the key is continuous learning and critical thinking. Watch the Berkshire meeting, study the shareholder letters, and learn from others like Bill Ackman. But also, analyze the market for yourself to understand your own strengths, and be prepared to adjust your course when necessary. The world of investing is a dynamic one, and success lies in our ability to learn, adapt, and grow along with it.