Salient to Investors:
Tim McAleenan Jr. writes:
It is rarely advisable to follow the investment decisions of others because they have different opportunity cost calculations than you, and may understand a company in a way that you do not.
Buffett recently stated that he makes the decisions in any Berkshire move that involves $5 billion or more, and that it is likely Combs or Weschler makes decisions in the hundreds of millions of dollars range. – they each control $5 billion discretionary portfolios.
The financial media mistakenly claims that Buffett is making the decisions when each quarterly filing comes out, especially with positions that total a few hundred million dollars. The recent investment in Chicago Bridge & Iron of $400 million is more likely a Weschler and/or Combs investment.
So ignore Berkshire’s purchases in the hundreds of millions, unless you are interested in the decisions of Weschler and Combs.
If you want to copy Buffett, look at Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, IBM, and American Express – those are his big ideas – but beware they may not reflect prices at which Buffett would buy. Wells Fargo is Buffett’s largest common stock holding, and he has been adding to it recently.
Read the full article at http://seekingalpha.com/article/1450991-forbes-has-it-wrong-on-buffett
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