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Copied from the Gobe and Mail
Ivy League endowment funds and Saudi princes have been losing big bucks on the stock market these days. Now, you can add another name to the list: Warren Buffett.
Bespoke Investment Group keeps a close eye on the Oracle of Omaha`s known equity investments – at least the ones made through Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as of Sept. 30, 2008 – and has found that Mr. Buffett was down 15.6 per cent this year alone. That is considerably worse than the 10 per cent decline of the S&P 500 over the same period, which might make you feel good about your own performance or perhaps concerned that it is truly impossible to make money in the stock market right now. These are early days in the new year, of course, and Mr. Buffett is the definition of long-term investing, but still....
The biggest drags on Mr. Buffett`s portfolio this year? Financials top the list: Wells Fargo & Co., his third-largest holding, is down 50.9 per cent, U.S. Bancorp is down 47.1 per cent, M&T Bank is down 36.8 per cent, SunTrust Banks Inc. is down 45.9 per cent and Bank of America Corp. is down 59.5 per cent.
"Buffett is widely considered to be among the greatest investors of all time," Bespoke said on its blog, Think B.I.G. "However, his growing list of `headaches` (index put options that Berkshire wrote, Goldman Sachs and General Electric preferred stock deals, Wells Fargo, and now U.S. Bancorp) and the performance of Berkshire`s stock have shown that even the best haven`t been spared during this bear."
Berkshire`s class A shares have tumbled 41 per cent from their 52-week high in September. On Wednesday, they traded at $86,200 (U.S.), down $50.
Ivy League endowment funds and Saudi princes have been losing big bucks on the stock market these days. Now, you can add another name to the list: Warren Buffett.
Bespoke Investment Group keeps a close eye on the Oracle of Omaha`s known equity investments – at least the ones made through Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as of Sept. 30, 2008 – and has found that Mr. Buffett was down 15.6 per cent this year alone. That is considerably worse than the 10 per cent decline of the S&P 500 over the same period, which might make you feel good about your own performance or perhaps concerned that it is truly impossible to make money in the stock market right now. These are early days in the new year, of course, and Mr. Buffett is the definition of long-term investing, but still....
The biggest drags on Mr. Buffett`s portfolio this year? Financials top the list: Wells Fargo & Co., his third-largest holding, is down 50.9 per cent, U.S. Bancorp is down 47.1 per cent, M&T Bank is down 36.8 per cent, SunTrust Banks Inc. is down 45.9 per cent and Bank of America Corp. is down 59.5 per cent.
"Buffett is widely considered to be among the greatest investors of all time," Bespoke said on its blog, Think B.I.G. "However, his growing list of `headaches` (index put options that Berkshire wrote, Goldman Sachs and General Electric preferred stock deals, Wells Fargo, and now U.S. Bancorp) and the performance of Berkshire`s stock have shown that even the best haven`t been spared during this bear."
Berkshire`s class A shares have tumbled 41 per cent from their 52-week high in September. On Wednesday, they traded at $86,200 (U.S.), down $50.