← 返回任务列表

2004年股东大会 · 巴芒:优秀的投资经理人极其稀缺

60 段 · 3 位说话人 · 原片 7:05
M1
M10:01

Warren、Charlie,我叫 Peter Brodsky,来自 Massachusetts 的 Beverly。我想感谢你们二位,帮助我成为一个更好的生意人,也成为一个更好的投资者。

Warren and Charlie, my name is Peter Brodsky from Beverly, Massachusetts, and I would like to thank you both for helping me become a better businessman and a better investor.

也许更重要的是,你们用自己的榜样,为我树立了一个真正的道德罗盘上的正北,让我可以照着那个方向前进。

Perhaps more importantly, you have created by example a kind of true north on the moral compass for me to steer by.

这种学习经历当然非常棒,但我发现,经营一家成功企业的压力,再加上要照顾一个大家庭,让我根本没有时间去实践那套研究流程——而我因为成了这个“教派”的一员,已经非常习惯这套方法了。

While the education has been fantastic, I have found that the demands of owning a successful business and having a large family do not leave time to apply the research process I have become so wonderfully accustomed to by being a member of this cult.

请你们想象一下,假如你们年轻三十岁,而且你们的投资打孔卡上只剩下没几个孔可以打了。

Please imagine for a moment that you are 30 years younger and have only a few holes left in your investment punch card.

我喜欢这个说法。

I like it.

如果你们处在我的位置,除了 Berkshire Hathaway 之外还要把持仓做一些分散的话,在现在这种环境下,你们会怎么挑选投资经理人?

If you were in my situation, to the extent that you would diversify your holdings beyond Berkshire Hathaway, given this environment, how would you choose the investment managers?

或者,像 Charlie 刚才在谈到基金会时说的那样,你们会不会去寻找另外两家伟大的公司,通过普通股去投资它们?

Or, as Charlie has just discussed, when addressing foundations, would you hunt for 2 more great companies to invest in via common stocks?
M2
M21:03

Charlie,你来回答一下怎么样?

Charlie, why don't you take a swing at that?
M3
M31:05

嗯,当然是要去找的。

Well, of course you're hunting.

这本来就是人生乐趣的一部分。

That's part of the fun of life.

不过,我会说,最重要的教训是:你一辈子里,真正能找到的这种机会,恐怕不会有很多。

And, uh, but I would say that the chief lesson would be that you're unlikely to find very many in a whole lifetime.

而当你真的找到一个你已经想得非常透彻、而且很有把握的机会时,看在老天的份上,别小里小气地下手。

And when you find one in which you really have thought it out and have confidence, for God's sakes, don't do it in a niggardly fashion.

那些非常聪明、又有投资能力的人,居然还应该把投资组合分散得很夸张,这种想法简直荒唐。

The idea that very smart people with investment skills should have hugely diversified portfolios is madness.

这是一种非常主流、非常传统的荒唐观念,而且所有商学院都在教这个,但他们错了。

It's a very conventional madness, and it's taught in all the business schools, but they're wrong.
M2
M21:49

至于寻找其他投资顾问这个问题,确实很难。

The question of finding other advisors is a tough one.

我是说,当年我结束自己的 partnership——一九六九年年底的时候——我有一大批一直信任我的合伙人,而我要把很多钱寄还给他们。你知道,我觉得自己至少有责任给他们推荐一些替代方案。

I mean, when I wound up my partnership in 19— at the end of 1969, and I had all these partners that had counted on me, and I was going to mail them back a lot of money, um, you know, I felt an obligation to at least suggest some alternatives for them.

所以我推荐了两个人,这两个人我知道,他们都是格外优秀,而且格外诚实。

And I recommended 2 people who I knew were exceptionally good and exceptionally honest.

其中一个,我们不久前让他进了董事会,今天也再次确认了这一点,就是 Sandy Gottesman。

We put one of them on the board not long ago and reaffirmed it today, Sandy Gottesman.

另一个是 Bill Ruane。

The other one was Bill Ruane.

当时我已经在投资界待了很久了,而我所认识的人里,也就这两位符合条件,不过他们基本上也算是和我同一代的人。

Now, I'd been around the investment world for a long time at that point, and those were the 2 I knew, but they were more or less contemporaries of mine.

这些年里我逐渐认识他们,也长期观察他们很久了。

And I'd gotten to know them over the years, and I'd seen them for a long time.

所以我不仅知道他们的业绩,我还知道他们是怎么做出这些业绩的,这一点特别重要。

So I not only knew their results, but I knew how they'd accomplished their results, which is terribly important.

现在这一代的经理人,我就不熟了。但你想想,以我当时认识那么多人的情况,而且我那时候还是非常活跃的,最后也只找得出两个人,这本身就说明,要找到优秀的经理人有多难。

I don't know that generation of managers now, but the fact that with the number of people I knew, that I could only come up with 2 at a time when I was very active, says something about the difficulties of finding managers.

有一件事我几乎可以向你保证:那些到处做宣传、四处向机构投资者兜售自己的人,通常都很难通过任何长期能力测试,有时候连品格测试都未必过得了。

The one thing I can almost guarantee to you is that the promotional types going around to solicit the institutional investors are very unlikely to meet any long-term tests of ability and sometimes integrity.

识别一个真正优秀的投资人,并不是件容易的事。

It's not an easy job spotting an investor.

我觉得这件事可能会相对容易一点,取决于你能投入多少时间——你刚才提到你有孩子、有生意,还有你能拿出来研究投资的时间。

I think it's probably easier depending on the amount of time— you know, you mentioned having children and the business and the amount of time you can spend on it.

不过,时不时地,你还是会遇到。

Every now and then you do.

如果你一直关注投资世界,而且对市场上在发生什么有一些基本的理解,你就会看见某些机会。比如说,像我们几年前在 junk bonds 上看到的机会,或者更早些年股票更便宜的时候,我们在各种各样的东西上看到的机会。

If you're conscious of the investment world and you have some kind of sort of grounding knowledge about what's going on, you can see something, you know, as we did in junk bonds a couple of years ago, or as we did with all kinds of things some years back when stocks were cheaper.

你偶尔就是会看到那种你应该狠狠干一把、重仓买进的东西。

You will occasionally see something that you should load up on.

而且,Charlie 说得对,这才是你真正必须去做的事。

And, and Charlie says that's what you really have to do.

我的意思是,这个房间里有些人很多年前就重仓了 Berkshire,而事实是,他们根本不需要分散投资。

I mean, some of the people in this room loaded up on Berkshire many years ago, and the truth was they didn't need diversification.

你知道,我自己就重仓了,Charlie 也是。

You know, I loaded up on it, Charlie did.

你偶尔会看到机会,但你不会每天或者每周都看到。

And you'll see opportunities occasionally, but you're not going to see them every day or every week.

如果你觉得自己每周都能看到一个机会,那你会亏很多钱。

If you, if you think you're going to see an opportunity every week, you're going to lose a lot of money.

呃,因为会有人过来告诉你,他们手里就有这样的机会,他们可能没像我们电影里那个人那么明目张胆,但本质上是一回事。

Uh, because people will come around and tell you that they've got them, and they may not be quite as flagrant as that fellow we had in the movie, but they're a version of that.

Charlie?

Charlie?
M3
M34:35

挑选投资经理这件事,最近被证明比我以前以为的还要难。

The business of selecting investment managers was recently shown to be even harder than, than I had previously thought it was.

全国那些管理 mutual fund 的机构投资经理人里,有相当一部分人,居然真的接受了贿赂,去背叛他们自己的股东。

A significant fraction of the institutional investment managers who run the nation's mutual funds actually accepted propositions to take bribes for betraying their own shareholders.

这就好像有人跑来对你说,我这儿有个绝妙的提议。

It was as if a man came to you and said, I have a wonderful proposition.

不如我把你妈杀了,然后我们把保险金分了,怎么样?

Why don't I kill your mother and we'll split the insurance money?

荒唐到就是这种程度。

And it was that ridiculous.

可居然还有相当一部分人会说,哎,我还真想分点保险金。

And yet a significant number of the people said, gee, I would like some insurance money.

然后他们就真的这么干了。

And they just went right ahead.
M2
M25:25

而且他们在这之前本来就已经很有钱了。

And they were already rich beforehand.
M3
M35:26

对。

Yes.

这个,这种彻头彻尾的——而且他们当中很多人,就因为做了这个疯狂的决定,把自己给毁了。

The, the absolute— and they've destroyed themselves, many of them, by making this insane decision.

而且,呃,我觉得他们当中很多人大概还会认为,这个结果不公平。

And, uh, and I think many of them would probably think the outcome is unjust.

我是说,他们遭遇的这种垮台。

And I mean, the, the downfall they've had.
M2
M25:41

当然,这里面有意思的地方在于,这是个非常庞大的行业,那些没这么干的人,其实也非常在乎别让整个行业的名声被搞臭,而他们当中有不少人肯定知道发生了什么。

And the interesting thing about it, of course, is that here is a huge industry where the people who weren't doing it have a great interest in having the reputation of the industry not get stained, and a number of them had to know what was going on.

我的意思是,这种——我不——我,我,我——我很难想象,大多数大型 mutual fund,哪怕是那些没有——或者说 mutual fund 管理公司,哪怕是那些没有参与这些行为的,也会对此毫不知情。

I mean, this would— I don't— I, I, I— it's hard for me to imagine that people at most large mutual funds, even the ones that didn't— or mutual fund management companies, even the ones that weren't engaging in the activities mentioned, weren't aware of it.

我的意思是,你只要身处那样一个行业,你总会听到发生了什么。

I mean, you just, if you're in an industry like that, you're gonna hear what's going on.

而 Investment Company Institute 那时候还在忙着自我表扬,你知道,一场接一场地开会,而且还跟立法者打得火热。

And the Investment Company Institute was busy patting itself on the back, y'know, one meeting after another, and, and, and becoming very cozy with legislators.

结果在一个 whistleblower 去找 Eliot Spitzer 之前,根本没有任何一件事被做出来。

And there wasn't one thing done until a whistleblower went to Eliot Spitzer.
M3
M36:33

啊。

Ah.
M2
M26:33

然后,呃,呃,他就开始行动了。

And, ah, ah, and he got active.

而且动作非常强硬,尽管他手下的人非常有限。

In a very strong way with a very limited staff.

他把当时发生的这些事都挖了出来,还送上了各大报纸的头版。

And he uncovered and put on the front pages what was taking place.

可这个行业本身,明明有成百上千的人肯定知道发生了什么,而且这种事持续了很长时间,却从来没人说过一句话。

But the industry itself, with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that must have known what was going on, and it went on for a long time, never said a word.

这事吧,你知道,确实会让人有点琢磨。

It's, you know, it makes you wonder a little bit.
M3
M37:04

第三位?

Number 3?