Late Benjamin Graham, a professor of Columbia University was the godfather of Warren Buffett, the person whom I call to be ahead of times. Warren Buffett, the only person in the world to make it to ’’FORTUNE 500’’ list of richest by investing in capital market. At present, Warren Buffett is having wealth worth $ 35 billions and holding second position in ’’FORTUNE 500’’ list and its almost a decade that he is in top ten’s. Public at large in States and Canada were always keenly interested in knowing the secrets and techniques of Warren Buffett; they were always fascinated by the saga of converting $ 105, 000 (1957) to $ 20 billions by 1997. Many authors tried to reveal the secrets by publishing the letters written by him to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway but none succeeded; many others such as Larry King, students of business school of Standford University, etc. tried to know his techniques by conversating with him but everyone failed. Warren Buffett would never let anyone know his business secrets except his family members and the ones whom he trusted.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Mary Buffett, an ex daughter-in-law of Warren Buffett was a successful businesswoman of export - import business and gave tips for investing in capital market prior to she got married to Peter and was almost inactive during her marriage life. When she got separated from Peter, she received many offers for writing a book on Warren Buffett and his investment avenues. She seeked help of David Clark and waited for his acceptance.
David Clark, truly a buffettologist and a family friend for over 3 decades also had received many offers for writing a book on Warren Buffett but didn’t have enough guts to take initiative, it was Mary who seeked her help and then the series started. Besides being a buffettologist David Clark was a portfolio manager and gave investment tips to his clients.
Mary Buffett has explained the qualitative approach while David Clark has explained the quantitative approach.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The much awaited book was finally on stands in 1997 which has been divided in 47 segments with each and every segment of equal importance (this is what I felt).
The preamble of the book tells us about the authors, gives short description about Warren Buffett and the person from whom he had his lessons. By now everyone of you would have had the gist of the book.
The book further has been divided into two parts the one which is called the Art of Basic Buffettology which I call Initial Buffettology ( in short ) and the later part is captioned as Advanced Buffettology which masterly deals with the ways of prospective investing of Warren Buffett in capital markets.
Initial Buffettology states how Warren Buffett makes his initial decisions for investing in a particular company while Advanced Buffettology majorly deals with the equations, values, ratios, etc. to be made and calculated.
Some of the suggestions given:-
To have gist of a particular company say ’’IBM’’ and have an insight about it, one is required to be the part of IBM. How? Read the book because practically it wouldn’t be possible to discuss it here as the techniques are spread throughout the book.
Try to be a prospective investor rather than being a speculator or an investor for short run; it would be possible that the company wouldn’t be able to churn profits in short run or the share price of the particular company might not rise but don’t panic and hold on your horses.
Invest in a company, the business of which you can thoroughly understand.
Some 20 million odd copies of this book has been sold making it national best seller.
SOMETHING UNKNOWN & MY TAKE
Usually in most of all his lectures and interviews Warren Buffett hasn’t recommended speculation and the book also states the same thought but what I have found after keeping track, is that he himself did speculation though not on mega scale and so what harasses me is this fact, I am not able to understand it clearly.
Of late, bullion market is the part of his portfolio. In years 2000 & 2001 he transacted in silver on mega scale and that too did speculation of it. Bullion market too hasn’t been recommended by him in most of all the questions asked to him about the bullion market.
According to me, Warren Buffett is an investment wizard because he has been able to grasp everything taught to him by his godfather and have made it to ’’FORTURNE 500’’ list ( the only investor, purely an investor ) while his pupil David Clark hasn’t been able to follow the footsteps of his godfather and isn’t so successful like Warren Buffett. And so, I recommend this book to each and every individual who wants to make his/her career in capital market or who wants to earn something extra.
For the residents of India, I would state that this book is ahead of times because still Indian markets aren’t so strong as the foreign capital markets. But, there is a ray of light because before Dhirubhai Ambani the capital markets were called speculators market but after Dhirubhai Ambani and the equity cult started by him the capital markets are becoming potential investors friendly and is day by day becoming strong though at snail’s pace but I feel that within a decade this book would be of high significance for India.
For residents of Western countries, whoever wants to make his/her career in capital markets or wants to earn extra money just grab this book, go through it thoroughly, purchase a financial calculator and start making your analysis because its a golden period for investing in capital market and once the depression is over I am cent percent sure that you would benefit substantially.
If I would have been writing articles for a newspaper or a magazine, I would have surely discussed this book in 4 parts and not just in a single review.