The ideas these investors keep coming back to, the books they recommend and the meetings and talks worth watching, with links to the original sources.
Picture the market as an excitable business partner who offers a new price every day. You can ignore his moods and only deal with him when his price is clearly too high or too low.
Benjamin GrahamThe Intelligent Investor, chapter 8 ('The Investor and Market Fluctuations')
Pay well below your estimate of a business's value so that errors, bad luck or an unknowable future still leave you protected.
Benjamin GrahamThe Intelligent Investor, chapter 20 ('Margin of Safety as the Central Concept of Investment')
Value an investment by what the underlying asset will produce over time, not by recent price moves or macro forecasts, and treat market panics as chances to buy.
Warren BuffettBerkshire Hathaway 2013 shareholder letter, 'Some Thoughts About Investing'
Munger persuaded Buffett to move on from buying mediocre businesses because they were cheap, and to pay a sensible price for excellent ones instead.
Warren Buffett / Charlie MungerBerkshire Hathaway 2014 shareholder letter, 'Charlie Straightens Me Out'
What matters is not how large your area of understanding is but knowing where its edges are, and declining anything outside it however popular it becomes.
Warren BuffettBerkshire Hathaway 1999 shareholder letter, 'Investments'
The best businesses have a durable moat and need little extra capital to grow; the worst grow fast while consuming capital and earning little.
Warren BuffettBerkshire Hathaway 2007 shareholder letter
A business is worth the discounted cash it can hand out over its remaining life, and shareholders should think of themselves as part-owners holding for the long term.
Warren BuffettBerkshire Hathaway Owner's Manual
For people who are not professionals, a low-cost index fund will beat most fee-heavy active managers over time, as his ten-year bet against hedge funds showed.
Warren BuffettBerkshire Hathaway 2016 shareholder letter
Hard problems often become easier when turned around: work out what would guarantee failure, then avoid it.
Charlie MungerHarvard School commencement address, 13 June 1986 ('How to Guarantee a Life of Misery')
Predictable mental tendencies, such as reacting to incentives or following the crowd, lead sensible people into poor decisions, so a decision-maker needs a checklist of them.
Charlie Munger'The Psychology of Human Misjudgment', Harvard, 1995
To outperform you must think differently from the consensus and be right, weighing what is already expected and priced in rather than simply forming a view on the future.
Howard MarksOaktree memo 'I Beg to Differ' (26 July 2022), drawing on The Most Important Thing
Market sentiment swings between euphoria and despair and seldom rests at a sensible midpoint; each extreme sows the seeds of the swing back.
Howard MarksOaktree memo 'The Happy Medium' (20 July 2004)
Protecting capital comes before chasing returns; insist on a sizeable discount, judge results in absolute terms and be content to hold cash when nothing is cheap enough.
Seth KlarmanMargin of Safety (1991)
Own businesses that earn high returns on capital from repeat demand, buy only at sensible valuations, and then trade as little as possible.
Terry SmithFundsmith Owner's Manual
Look for bets where the downside is small and the upside is large, as when Patel families bought motels with modest capital and limited risk.
Mohnish PabraiThe Dhandho Investor, chapter 1
Learn about a company by talking to its competitors, suppliers, customers and former staff; the outstanding businesses stand out once you do.
Philip FisherCommon Stocks and Uncommon Profits (1958)
Treat a share as a stake in a real company, buy with a margin of safety, ignore Mr Market except at extremes, and stay within a small circle of competence built through long study.
Li Lu'The Practice of Value Investing', Peking University Guanghua School of Management, 29 November 2019
Look for an exceptional business, run by able managers, with a record of reinvesting profits at high returns; if one leg weakens, consider selling.
Chuck AkreAkre Capital Management, 'Our Investment Philosophy'
Accept that roughly one year in three the portfolio will lag its index and roughly one purchase in three will disappoint, and judge results over five years or more.
François RochonGiverny Capital annual letter 2013
Own a concentrated set of established, cash-generative businesses with pricing power or valuable intellectual property, and keep turnover very low.
Nick Train (Lindsell Train)Lindsell Train, 'Our Investment Approach'
Risk means permanent loss rather than price swings, and growth only adds value when it produces free cash returns above the cost of capital.
Chris BloomstranSemper Augustus, 'Investment Philosophy'
The original textbook on analysing bonds and shares from first principles, the foundation of the value investing discipline.
Recommended by Warren Buffett (foreword to the sixth edition)
A short, humorous look at Wall Street and at how brokers and advisers tend to do better than their clients.
Recommended by Warren Buffett
Graham's guide for the non-professional investor, introducing Mr Market and the margin of safety and distinguishing investment from speculation.
Recommended by Warren Buffett
Fisher's case for owning a few outstanding growth companies for the long term, including his 'scuttlebutt' research method and fifteen points to look for.
Twelve New Yorker essays on notable episodes in American business and finance.
Recommended by Warren Buffett (lent it to Bill Gates)
A study of the psychological principles, such as reciprocity, commitment and social proof, that lead people to say yes.
Recommended by Charlie Munger (in 'The Psychology of Human Misjudgment')
The former Magellan Fund manager argues that individual investors can find good companies through everyday knowledge, then check them with research.
Klarman's long out-of-print book on avoiding permanent loss, buying at a discount to underlying value and holding cash when bargains are scarce.
An explanation of the business, management, financial and market tenets behind Buffett's investment decisions.
Buffett's shareholder letters rearranged by subject, covering governance, capital allocation, investing, accounting and valuation.
A guide to special situations such as spin-offs, restructurings and merger securities, where bargains are more likely to be found.
Columbia Business School's framework for valuing companies through asset value, earnings power and franchise value, with profiles of practising value investors.
An exploration, inspired by Munger, of why people misjudge and of the thinking tools that help reduce errors.
A collection of Charlie Munger's talks covering his latticework of mental models across investing, business, psychology and ethics.
Recommended by Warren Buffett, Warren Buffett
A plain explanation of buying good businesses at bargain prices using a simple ranking of return on capital and earnings yield.
Pabrai sets out a low-risk, high-uncertainty approach to investing, illustrated with the story of Patel motel owners in the United States.
The Vanguard founder's case that low-cost index funds are the best option for most investors.
The authorised biography of Warren Buffett, written with extensive access to Buffett himself.
Marks distils his client memos into a set of principles on risk, market cycles, investor psychology and second-level thinking.
Case studies of eight chief executives whose capital allocation decisions produced exceptional long-term returns for shareholders.
Recommended by Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger
Marks explains how economic, credit and psychological cycles interact and how investors can judge where they stand in them.
An anthology of Terry Smith's essays and Fundsmith letters from 2010 to 2020 on buying high-quality companies, not overpaying and holding them.
Watch Greg Abel preside over the full 2026 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting
Berkshire's 2026 annual shareholder meeting: Watch the full morning session
Warren Buffett presides over the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting — 5/3/25
Berkshire's 2025 annual shareholder meeting: Watch the full morning session
Watch Warren Buffett preside over the full 2024 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting
Berkshire's 2024 annual shareholder meeting: Watch the full afternoon session
Berkshire's 2023 annual shareholder meeting: Watch the full morning session with Warren Buffettbuffett.cnbc.comWarren Buffett Archive
Mohnish Pabrai's Talk and Q&A session with students at the University of Texas on February 28, 2023
2009 Ivey Value Investing Classes Guest Speaker: Seth A. Klarman
[Complete] Charlie Munger USC Law Commencement Speech - May 2007
Li Lu - Invest like a Journalist (Columbia Business School Speech 2006)
Warren Buffett | Lecture | University Of Florida | 1998
Charlie Munger: Psychology of Human Misjudgment (Full Speech)
Howard Marks: Talks@GS
Howard Marks: "Mastering the Market Cycle"
Value Investing Legend Seth Klarman: Masters in Business
IC Interviews: UK equity manager Nick Train
Markel's Tom Gayner on successes and mistakes in investing.
