To some investors, “meme stocks” that are bid up to the stratosphere, or stocks with no earnings that have sky-high valuations, or other examples of wild speculation, are a warning sign that they should get out of the market, or at least move to a more conservative position. However, crazy behavior is not of great concern to Warren Buffett, and as he pointed out, long before meme stocks, that speculation is not a new part of the market and that he has seen an awful of it over the course of his lifetime. “We’re trying to find wonderful businesses. And the fact that a part of the market is kind of screwy, that’s unimportant to us,” Buffett noted.
“Throughout the careers Charlie and I have had in investing, there have always been hundreds of cases, or thousands of cases, of things that are ridiculously priced, and phony stock promotions, and the gullible being led in to believe in things that just can’t come true.” Warren Buffett said at the 1996 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. “So that’s always gone on. It always will go on. And it doesn’t make any difference to us.”
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© 2021 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.