Traditions. As you get older your life slowly starts turning into a series of traditions. (I write this word and I think of Tevye the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof singing it.) And over the years, the beginning of May has turned into a wonderful tradition: a trip to Omaha to Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.
Indeed, early May in Omaha, Nebraska, is almost like a spring-break destination for value investors (with fewer Señor Frog or Girls Gone Wild moments). But for a value investor, May is also the most intellectually stimulating time of the year.
As well as dinner in the evening with old and new friends — mostly at steakhouses, so I am sure my cholesterol, just like the stock market, was hitting all-time highs — I get to participate in several investment panels.
This year, for the fourth time, I was on the Value Investing Panel at Creighton University. For an hour and a half, I had the immense pleasure of answering questions from students. I also participated in an investment panel hosted by YPO, where I joined some great value investors, including Markel Corp’s smart, funny and articulate CIO Thomas Gayner, and Thomas Russo, a well-known value investor who has held some stocks for longer than the life expectancy of a Twinkie.
