Dien... Do you know if Warren Buffett invests in...

> ... in Walmart?

> (I remember reading that you follow WB
> pretty closely.)

Hi Adam,

I have read that Warren Buffett has invested in Wal-Mart - but I don't know if he still has them. (More about this below.)

Buffett is one of my "heroes" but mainly because I do my best to duplicate his investment technique, through my own analysis.

However, here you can find a list of Warren Buffett's top 15 holdings through Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's company.

And if you go to this page, you can find a list of smaller stocks rumored to be held by Buffett. You will find Wal-Mart is on this list.... According to this list, Buffett sold 571,000 shares of Wal-Mart (WMT), but I don't know how many shares he had, and he may have sold more since then as well.

By the way, I honestly think these are good times to invest in stocks. Bad times are good for value investors, because it is easy to find bargains among some of the strongest companies.

The last year has been bad for the markets - but some investors have still made money. I think these times are what really separate those who know what they are doing from those who have more of a tendency to gamble or speculate. I definitely DON'T see stock market investing as a gamble - in fact, you can get consistently good returns, EVEN in "bad times" like now.

To illustrate, here's how the indices have done. In 2001, the Nasdaq LOST about 21% of its value, the S&P 500 LOST about 13%, and the Dow LOST about 7%. The Australian All Ordinaries Index GAINED about 6%.

My shares are in two portfolios, my own personal investments, and we also have a small family "pension fund" where investment decisions are jointly made by my brother Thomas and me (I can't touch this money until I am 55, but I can choose where it is invested). My personal investments are all in Australian stocks, and I made a return of 17.4% in the last 12 months. Our family fund is exposed roughly equally to the US and Australian markets, and there we made 11% in the last 12 months. My main concern is to always beat the indices, and we managed to do that.

In terms of overall return, this was my worst year, BUT even in these bad economic times, we still made money and beat the stock market indices.

A "value investing" approach may not seem as exciting as gambling or speculating, but IT WORKS. I highly recommend it.

Thanks for asking Adam.... I love the stock market, in both good AND bad times. In good times, I love my profits, and in bad times I love the bargains I see around me, there's too much choice. The bargains I buy today will turn into future profits tomorrow. :)

- Dien Rice


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