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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Simba who wrote (68759)	10/8/1999 12:12:00 PM
From: BGR	Respond to of 132070

Simba, As I have mentioned, it was in my play account (one in which I take inordinate risks and can afford 100% losses). In my real account, my returns have been just matching that of the market, so Mr. Buffet evidently has done better than me. He is a superb investor, the kind that makes the strong form of EMH untrue. However, my question is, is his investment philosophy universally applicable? IOW, can he write a set of principles that can be codified and applied by a black box which will duplicate his performance? I think the answer is no. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many Buffet devotees humbled by the market. As an analogy, I play tennis and Rafter plays tennis. I play percentage tennis, which doesn't mean that Rafter should as well. But if I try to play tennis like Rafter, my ranking will clearly drop and not improve. Similarly, if I try to do value investing ala Buffet ... you get the picture; so, thanks, but I choose high percentage index fund investing. Last, but not least, my average cost basis for my index funds (which I have been buying for 6, almost 7 years now) puts the average PE in the low teens (since I DCA, the PE doesn't increase linearly). I am a buy-and-hold investor too, in fact I plan to buy regularly and hold till I retire. Am I a value investor, then? Or is it OK for Buffet to hold Coke at PE of 40, but not OK for me to hold S&P at PE of 35, because he is doing it actively and I am doing it passively? <VBG> -BGR.