No. of Recommendations: 9
SPY is liquid, Buffett knows how hard it is to beat SPY, why bother to try to beat it 12 years ago with T and T? Why not take his own advice?
They thought they could do better.
I think there is merit to the idea that Berkshire "index" most of their equity investments going forward. Having huge, concentrated positions worked when the firm was much smaller and the greatest investors were in charge. Now Berkshire has huge amounts to invest and less talent to do it. How about a self-generated, value-weighted "index"? Could it work?
The Mars family has their five principles in huge letters inside their factories. One of them is Efficiency - "do only what we can do best". Under Greg, maybe what Berkshire can do best is operate those companies the best way possible, generate profits and float, reinvest, and invest surplus in equities in an efficient manner.
