That's why I like Livermore. A rich guy who knew what to do with money (while he had it). Now take the Sage of Omaha. Third richest in the US while he pretends to be an everyman leading a middle class life.
FWIW, Buffett ranks no. 1 in the All Time list under the Kelly Criterion (a quantitative measure) ahead of Soros, Lynch, Keynes, Seykota, Dennis and all others. And he didn't buy tech stocks at the highs unlike Soros who lost $BNs. At the $10BN+ level it's definitely all about wealth preservation. Don't let the fools leveraging the farm tell you otherwise. Man, "Buffett vs Soros" threads generate as much emotion as "Institutional vs Prop Trader" ones...
Oh yeah Gates has given Billions of his crappy Miscrosoft software to charity that costs nothing to replicate, yet marked at ridiculous values, hence making him look like a real philanthropist. It's even better when the institutions receiving these great donations, get stuck on a crappy monopolizing OS, hence forcing them to give more and more money to Microsoft down the line. Things are never as they seem.
Look are you all bitter that you cannot invest? 2000 was a trader's market not an investor's one. Buffet IS NOT A TRADER, HE IS AN INVESTOR. Just get that through your head. Buffet's position in the Euro is against the dollar. If you honestly think that it's not smart to go against the dollar, you have no idea of whats going on in this debt ridden, cheap currency country. Not saying that Euro is what I would play with, but it is only the one currency to move greatly against the dollar.
I would agree if it was inherited wealth. How "lucky" you would be if your parents bought 1000 sh of BRK in 1965 say.
I'm not preaching Buffet here..but it was Livermore that said the rare trait of a market participant is to being able to sit on their hands when they have a position on and ride that position to where they ultimately thing its going to in the end. I don't think anybody on this planet has more patience than Buffet. Maybe Peter Lynch ranks second in that area. As for long term Surf you should know what I'm saying with your Long Term short on BBI..is that trade luck or brains?
i would have to agree with you that the ability to ride a position to max gain is key. my entire index system is based on this premise. thanks for the kind words about my BBI trade. of course, it was ( is ) total brains at work.