Warren Buffet

Every year JPM Investment Group attends the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting which is held in Omaha Nebraska in the United States of America.  The Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway is Warren Buffet who is one of the world’s richest men, unlike most other people on the Forbes rich list he has created this purely from investing.

Each year at the Annual General Meeting from 9:30am to 3:30pm Buffet opens the floor with his co-director Charlie Munger to answer any questions about the economy, investing and his philosophy.  The meeting becomes more like a educational course than a formal meeting and Buffet and Munger relish in the interaction.

In the early days Warren Buffet studied under Benjamin Graham and worked within his funds management practice.  Benjamin Graham was the leader in the developing “value” investing.  This philosophy was created in finding bargain companies trading well below their fundamental/true value.  These companies were trading at this bargain levels for a number of reason such as issues with legal proceedings, short term concerns over market environment, disenchantment by shareholders etc.  What however was discovered was that the underlying fundamentals in a number of cases drove long term share price value.  The phrase that 

“The share market in the short term is a voting machine but in the long term a weighing machine”

 was coined by Benjamin Graham.  Indicating that common sense in most cases restored and rational thinking resulted in the share price reflecting the fundamental value.

Benjamin particularly focused on trodden down companies which he termed cigar butts which had one last puff left in them.  Warren initially started out with a similar belief and philosophy however after leaving the firm to go out on his own he met Charlie Munger and the philosophy evolved and developed to no longer focus on cigar butts but rather well run companies with a history of strong management.  Normally these companies would trade at their fundamental value or a premium, but ever know and then they would run into trouble and the sentiment of the market would change.  This would affect the share price adversely creating inefficiencies in the pricing of the shares.  This present unique buying opportunities for the savvy value investing.

JPM Investment Group embraces this value philosophy in their investment style and process in selecting investments.  The firm does not speculate on companies which do not have sustainable business models or take reckless risks with clients funds on unknown share float ventures as they have seen too often these types of investment fail.  The ability to attend the Annual General Meeting of Berkshire Hathaway and hear Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger speak ensure that they have the leading information on the economy, trends within the market and insight in to the value philosophy from 2 of the greatest minds in the world.