Warren Buffett

Known holdings

Each line names its source. Where a size is given it’s as reported at the time.

Record

• 1957–1969: the partnership compounded at 29.5% a year before the general partner's share (cumulative +2,794.9%). Limited partners compounded at 23.8% a year after the GP's allocation (+1,502.7%). The Dow (with dividends) compounded at 7.4% a year (+152.6%). (Buffett, 'The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville' (1984), Table 3. The PDF's text layer garbles the column headers; the figures were matched to columns by recomputing the compounding.)
• Early years, partnership gain vs Dow: 1957 +10.4% vs −8.4%; 1958 +40.9% vs +38.5%; 1959 +25.9% vs +19.9%; 1960 +22.8% vs −6.3%. Cumulative to 1960: +140.6% vs +42.6%. (Buffett Partnership letter dated 30 Jan 1961 (text transcription))

About

• Born 30 August 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. (cnn.com)
• Worked as a security analyst at Benjamin Graham's Graham-Newman Corp. in New York from 1954 to 1956. (cnn.com)
• Founded the Buffett partnerships in 1956 and dissolved them in 1969. (cnn.com)
• The partnership began buying Berkshire Hathaway in early 1962 and took control in 1965. (cnbc.com)

Buffett rarely named holdings in his letters while he still owned them, so most of these come from his later talks and from biographies.

Past returns don’t predict future ones. Nothing here is investment advice.

Books and letters

• Buffett Partnership letters, 1957–1970 (compilation) Warren E. Buffett, 1957 · letters
• Buffett Partnership letter, 30 Jan 1961 (Sanborn Map) Warren E. Buffett, 1961 · letters
• The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren E. Buffett, 1984 · talk
• Warren Buffett's Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters Jeremy C. Miller, 2016 · book
• Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett: Twenty Cases Yefei Lu, 2016 · book