Monday, October 11, 2010

"Warren Buffett, Mr. Market and the Buffett Partnership Letters, 1959-1969 (BRK.A; BRK.B)"

We first posted the partnership letters in September 2007 when it was one of our most popular offerings.
This is a repost from Sept. 2008 with the special bonus feature of a few of the early Berkshire Letters to Shareholders.
But Wait, there's more! The link to Warren's Mr. Market quote.
There are a couple Finance/MBAs in these:

I had an "Oh shoot" moment on Saturday.
As I was looking for a section of Mr. Buffett's 1987 Letter* to the Shareholders of BRK, I remembered that I had an outstanding promise that I hadn't fulfilled. On August 9 I linked to a post from 1440 Wall Street:
1440 Wall Street writes:
I am no great Buffett-ologist. And I don't consider myself to be a value investor by any means.

And while I don't have a tipline, I do have scores of relationships that date back nearly 20-years. From time to time I pass along things of interest, and Warren Buffett's very first partnership letter, written when Eisenhower was President, and the twenty that follow are apparently hard to come by:...
...In any case, if you want the link to the letters, which cover nearly twenty years ending in 1969, send me an email describing in ten words or less why 1440 is the best financial blog extant, or if you don’t believe that, why I am a douchebag. Be forewarned, the letters will take hours to read in their entirety. Respectfully yours,
StockJockey
I wrote:
Well I am a Buffetologist and I also know where they are. We'll give StockJockey time to conduct his poll/contest, say for another 12 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes. If he hasn't publicly provided the link, meet me here after the close on Monday, August 18.
And then promptly forgot about the promise. Sorry.
The letters were hidden in plain sight, I posted the links on September 25 last year. Here they are again, with the bonus of a couple early BRK letters:



2/11/1959 The General Stock Market in 1958
2/20/1960 The General Stock Market in 1959
1/30/1961 The General Stock Market in 1960
7/22/1961 To My Partners
1/24/1962 Our Performance in 1961
7/06/1962 A reminder
12/24/1962 To all Partners
1/18/1963 The Ground rules
7/10/1963 First Half Performance
11/06/1963 To all Partners
12/26/1963 To all Partners
1/18/1964 Our Performance in 1963
7/08/1964 First Half Performance
1/18/1965 Our Performance in 1964
7/9/1965 First half Performance
11/01/1965 To My Partners of 1966
1/20/1966 Our Performance in 1966
7/12/1966 First half Performance
11/01/1966 To My Partners of 1967
1/25/1967 The First Decade
7/12/1967 First half Performance
10/9/1967 To My Partners
11/01/1967 To My Partners
1/24/1968 Our Performance in 1967
7/11/1968 First half Performance
11/1/1968 To My Partners
1/22/1969 Our Performance in 1968
5/22/1969 To My Partners
4/3/1970 Berkshire Letter written by Ken Chase
3/13/1972 To the Stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:
3/16/1973 To the Stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:

Sincere thanks to Redfield, Blonsky & Co., LLC.

*From Theoretical Declines of a Bursting Oil Bubble. And: Warren Buffett Swings By:
Mr. Market
...Ben Graham, my friend and teacher, long ago described the
mental attitude toward market fluctuations that I believe to be
most conducive to investment success.  He said that you should
imagine market quotations as coming from a remarkably
accommodating fellow named Mr. Market who is your partner in a
private business.  Without fail, Mr. Market appears daily and
names a price at which he will either buy your interest or sell
you his....CONTINUED
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