If you are songwriter and you copy somebody else’s song, you are going to get sued for plagiarism. However, when it comes to investing, there is no downside to copying someone else’s strategy, as long as you understand it. Warren Buffett credits reading Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor and Phil Fisher’s Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits for many of his ideas.
“I think you can learn a lot from other people,” Warren Buffett said at the 1995 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. “In fact, I think, if you learn reasonably well from other people, you don’t have to get any new ideas or do much on your own. You can just apply the best of what you see.”
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© 2022 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.