Off topic -- Warren Buffett was dead wrong on stocks (one year ago).
(Thank goodness I chose (and still choose) to ignore him).
Jon.
P.S. I am aware that a stopped (analog) clock is correct twice each 24 hours.
So, at some point, he may get it right ...
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Barron's Online
Thursday, March 11, 2004 7:29 p.m. EST
Fighting The Tape
By HOWARD R. GOLD
With All Due Respect, Mr. Buffett -- Part 3
ALMOST EXACTLY A year ago, this column went out on a limb.
In an open letter to Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's multibillionaire chairman, I took the legendary investor to task for his claim that he couldn't find many stocks worth buying (see Fighting the Tape, "With All Due Respect, Mr. Buffett," March 13, 2003).
Citing many indicators that suggested investor sentiment was as bearish as it could get on the eve of the Iraq War, I chided the great man for his excessive caution.
"As fear rules the market and stocks test their lows," I wrote, "long-term investors -- like you -- may be looking at their first great buying opportunity in years."
That column got more reaction and e-mails than anything I've ever written, and most of it can be charitably described as critical, even disdainful. (One person actually called me a "nitwit.")
I took that hostility as only more evidence that it was time to buy stocks, concluding a sequel column (see Fighting the Tape, "With All Due Respect, Mr. Buffett -- Part 2," April 24, 2003) as follows:
"I'm not declaring victory -- I was talking about a long-term investing opportunity, and I meant it. But I'm standing my ground."
On the day the first column ran, the Dow Jones Industrial Average began a war-related relief rally that took it from a low of 7524 to a high of 10,753 before its recent pullback. The Standard & Poor's 500 has risen 38% from its March 2003 lows and the Nasdaq Composite index is up 55%.
So, since we use one-year performance as our benchmark for Weekday Trader and other Barron's Online features, I hereby officially declare victory.
Comments? Please e-mail us at online.editors@barrons.com
Howard R. Gold is editor of Barron's Online. Fighting the Tape appears twice monthly.
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