Warren Buffett explains why investing isn't an Olympic event
| Don't try to jump over "7-foot bars" when you invest As we enter the second week of the Tokyo Olympics where athletes from around the world are working very hard to do very difficult things, here's some classic investing advice from Warren Buffett.
At the 2005 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Buffett pointed out that in many of the Olympic competitions, such as diving, athletes get "paid" with more points when their dives are more difficult.
"But in terms of investing, there is no degree of difficulty. If something is staring you right in the face and the easiest decision in the world, the payoff can be huge. And we get paid, not for jumping over 7-foot bars, but for stepping over 1-foot bars."
Here's the full clip from the CNBC's Warren Buffett Archive: At the 1996 meeting, Buffett also looked to the Olympics to make a point about some of the CEOs running Fortune 500 companies.
They're "not selected like 500 members of the American Olympic track and field team. And it is not the same process. And you do not have the uniformity of top quality that you get with the American Olympic team in any sport. You do not get that in top management in American business."
While there are some "terrific people," like "a Bill Gates" there's also a "lot of mediocrity."
And when you find a good CEO running a good business, "you want to bet very heavily."
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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
  BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - July 30, 2021
 Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.
Holdings are as of March 31, 2021 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on May 17, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of March 31, 2021 as disclosed in New England Asset Management's 13F filing on May 17, 2021.
In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2020 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders, are included. The price of those shares in U.S. trading is used to approximate the current market value of the position. The value of the stake as a percentage of the company's market value is fixed at what was listed as of December 31, 2020 in the letter.
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)
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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
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