market folly

Charlie Munger just held the annual meeting at the Daily Journal and shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics.  It's a rare chance to hear from one of the investment world's great minds.


Here's a few quick takeaways and quotes followed by the full video below:

- He owns a chunk of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/B) stock, a chunk of Costco (COST) stock, and then has money allocated to Li Lu's fund.  He feels diversification is basically for the 'know nothing' investor.

- On why Berkshire bought airline stocks and Apple: "I don't think we've gone crazy.  I think the answer is we're adapting to a business that's gotten much more difficult." Consolidation in airlines has finally happened similar to what happened in railroads

- Munger recommended the book A Man For All Markets about Ed Thorp.  For other books he likes, be sure to check out out Charlie Munger's recommended reading list.

- "The success of Berkshire came from making two decisions a year over 50 years." 

- "You don't want to believe in luck, you want to believe in odds."

 - Regarding American Express (AXP): "If you think you know what's going to happen to payment systems 10 years out, you're probably under some state of delusion."

- On Wells Fargo (WFC): "(It) had a glitch... I don't think anything is fundamentally wrong."

- They bought Exxon Mobil (XOM) as basically a cash substitute 

 - Lots of opportunity still in China; strong and selling at cheap prices.  Problem is they gamble a lot and believe in luck, but they're formidable workers.

- On India: "India is grossly defective because they took the worst aspects of our culture, allowing a bunch of idiots to scream and stop everything.  They've taken the worst aspects of democracy."  Says the country is still battling corruption.

- "One thing about doing something dumb is that you're unlikely to do it again."


Embedded below is the video of Charlie Munger's talk at the Daily Journal annual meeting 2017:



For more on him, check out the book Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor as well as notes from the previous Charlie Munger Daily Journal meetings.