Buffett's Early Investments

[Brett]

On 12/13/2024 at 4:02 AM, Stuart D said:

Hey Brett,

I just saw your book is being reviewed on the investor’s podcast - congrats!!

Thank you Stuart!

[wescobrk]

Brett,

I loved the book.

any chance you have time to do the same thing for Charlie’s investment partnership years?

a logical title would be Munger’s early investments.

[Brett]

On 12/30/2024 at 12:00 AM, wescobrk said:

Brett,

I loved the book.

any chance you have time to do the same thing for Charlie’s investment partnership years?

a logical title would be Munger’s early investments.

Thank you! The reception has been so overwhelming that I am considering it. The big bottleneck for me is that Munger's partnership letters/docs aren't available, so it's a little harder knowing trade dates / position sizes. I have found readers are a little more forgiving of some of these holes than I expected (as long as the holes are properly disclosed!), so I may do something.  I felt like I had a lot of differentiated stuff on Buffett--I have some on Munger, but not sure I have enough... yet! 

[wescobrk]

That would be amazing if you are able to!

I will definitely buy your next book!

I feel Munger’s partnership years are so neglected, yes we know about the closed end fund and blue chips making up 75 percent roughly in the early 70’s but any anecdotes, data points would be very welcome as Charlie was a hero of one and I miss him very much.

[Eng12345]

Brett - I listened to a podcast you did on the book. It was excellent and wanted to share with the board, but cannot find it again. 

 

Nonetheless, I purchased the book and look forward to reading it. 

[oscarazocar]

On 1/4/2025 at 1:50 PM, Brett said:

Thank you! The reception has been so overwhelming that I am considering it. The big bottleneck for me is that Munger's partnership letters/docs aren't available, so it's a little harder knowing trade dates / position sizes. I have found readers are a little more forgiving of some of these holes than I expected (as long as the holes are properly disclosed!), so I may do something.  I felt like I had a lot of differentiated stuff on Buffett--I have some on Munger, but not sure I have enough... yet! 

 

Brett,

 

I enjoyed the book, you did a great job covering the important information in a concise manner.

 

I recall seeing somewhere (maybe Twitter) a few years back that small cap stocks did extremely well in the 1950's/1960's, the period covering much of the Buffett Partnership years.  I don't know how that was measured or if any small-cap indexes existed at the time.  Did you come across anything like this while researching the book?

 

Thanks.

[Pellom]

Finished this one a few days ago. Grateful for the work put in.

 

I am curious if Buffett is sitting on some documentation from this time in his life that he plans to allow release of after his death. I also kind of wonder if we'll get a peek behind the curtains of his personal portfolio at that time as well. 

Edited January 8 by Pellom

[Brett]

On 1/5/2025 at 9:14 AM, wescobrk said:

That would be amazing if you are able to!

I will definitely buy your next book!

I feel Munger’s partnership years are so neglected, yes we know about the closed end fund and blue chips making up 75 percent roughly in the early 70’s but any anecdotes, data points would be very welcome as Charlie was a hero of one and I miss him very much.

Completely agreed! Hopefully I can do something one day!

[Brett]

On 1/7/2025 at 10:39 AM, Eng12345 said:

Brett - I listened to a podcast you did on the book. It was excellent and wanted to share with the board, but cannot find it again. 

 

Nonetheless, I purchased the book and look forward to reading it. 

Thank you so much! I am still very new to the podcast game... I thought my first couple weren't great.  Hope you enjoy the book!

[Brett]

On 1/7/2025 at 11:12 AM, oscarazocar said:

 

Brett,

 

I enjoyed the book, you did a great job covering the important information in a concise manner.

 

I recall seeing somewhere (maybe Twitter) a few years back that small cap stocks did extremely well in the 1950's/1960's, the period covering much of the Buffett Partnership years.  I don't know how that was measured or if any small-cap indexes existed at the time.  Did you come across anything like this while researching the book?

 

Thanks.

Interesting question. I actually don't think a small cap index (like the Russell 2000) was around then). The closest thing I found was the table pasted below from What Works On Wall Street. All stocks did better than large stocks in the 1950s-1970s, implying small / mid cap stocks did better; which supports your statement. But I haven't seen a specific index.

[Brett]

On 1/8/2025 at 1:15 PM, Pellom said:

Finished this one a few days ago. Grateful for the work put in.

 

I am curious if Buffett is sitting on some documentation from this time in his life that he plans to allow release of after his death. I also kind of wonder if we'll get a peek behind the curtains of his personal portfolio at that time as well. 

Thank you so much! Schroeder has talked about Buffett having a ton of file cabinets at headquarters, but before I decided to write the book I asked for an old memo and was told by his assistant that it was in dead storage. So they have off-site files too. I'm hoping they all become public one day.