Of all the Buffett watchers in the investment world, Robert Hagstrom, author of The Warren Buffett Way, The Warren Buffett Portfolio, and Latticework, is perhaps the best at distilling the investment wisdom of the Oracle of Omaha. In The Essential Buffett, Hagstrom conducts a thorough review of Buffett's philosophy of "focus investing" and then applies it to investment in sectors that Buffett himself usually ignores: technology and international stocks. Written in a style that's accessible to all levels of investors, The Essential Buffett not only serves as a great introduction to Warren Buffett but offers an innovative way to apply focus investing to the New Economy. --Harry C. Edwards


Fortune, April 30, 2001
"A comprehensive primer on applying Buffett's investment strategy to the new economy.


Book Description
Applying Buffett's principles to technology and international investing
From the bestselling author of The Warren Buffett Way and The Warren Buffett Portfolio comes The Essential Buffett: Timeless Principles for the New Economy. In this fresh take on Buffett's irrefutable investment methods, Robert Hagstrom shows readers how to apply Buffett's principles to technology and international investing using real-life case studies of successful fund managers like Legg Mason's Bill Miller.
Following the Buffett model, Hagstrom explains Buffett's four timeless principles: 1) analyze a stock as a business; 2) demand a margin of safety for each purchase; 3) manage a focus portfolio; 4) protect yourself from the speculative and emotional forces of the market. Then Hagstrom shows how Buffett's thinking can be applied in the new economy, addressing technology investing, international investing, small cap stocks, and socially responsible investing. Perhaps most valuable are Hagstrom's insights into the psychology behind Buffett's focus investing. For the first time, we are given sure-fire guidelines on how to become a winning Buffett disciple.
The Essential Buffett will include convenient sidebars featuring key Buffett ideas, enabling readers to quickly compare Buffett's fundamental tenets.


Download Description
From the bestselling author of The Warren Buffett Way and The Warren Buffett Portfolio comes The Essential Buffett: Timeless Principles for the New Economy. In this fresh take on Buffett's irrefutable investment methods, Robert Hagstrom shows readers how to apply Buffett's principles to technology and international investing using real-life case studies of successful fund managers like Legg Mason's Bill Miller.


Book Info
Outlines core economic principles that readers are urged to make part of their decision-making process for purchasing stock. Shows how to look at the business and not the stock to see if the stock will retain and grow in value, how to demand a margin of safety for each purchase, how to manage a focus portfolio, and other strategies based on those used by Warren Buffett.


Inside Flap Copy
For a while, with day traders and speculators driving the stock market to unprecedented heights—and redefining the concept of investing in real time—Warren Buffett’s measured, buy-and-hold value philosophy seemed as quaint as an old adding machine. Buffett himself lamented that his investors would have done just as well if he had gone to the movies instead of the office. But the madness is over. As the smoke clears Buffett’s timeless investment strategies are looking smarter than ever. In this book, Robert G. Hagstrom helps you draw on the wisdom and counsel of Warren Buffett to succeed in today’s challenging market. Picking up where his previous bestselling books on Buffett—The Warren Buffett Way and The Warren Buffett Portfolio—left off, Hagstrom explains how Buffett analyzes companies and selects stocks. He then shows you how these techniques can be applied to technology, small-cap, and international stocks— areas Buffett traditionally has not explored. Buffett built a multibillion-dollar business empire by confidently following a course that often put him at odds with Wall Street trends. The Essential Buffett outlines the core principles that you will want to incorporate into every stock decision you make: • Invest in a business, not a stock—you’ll look at a company’s economics as if you were taking over as CEO tomorrow • Demand a margin of safety for each purchase—how to keep risk at a minimum • Manage a focus portfolio—a comprehensive portfolio strategy, used with spectacular results by Buffett, which focuses the investment process on a few outstanding companies • And protect yourself from the speculative and emotional forces of the market—a lesson thousands of investors have now come to appreciate the hard way The Essential Buffett shows you how Buffett’s framework can reliably guide your investments in today’s economy. Investors today are bombarded with information. But understanding is still a scarce resource. To understand and practice the real rules of investing, you’ll find no better touchstone than the essential tenets developed by Warren Buffett and laid out in this book.


Back Cover Copy
Critical Praise for The Essential Buffett "Far more than a first-class distillation of the investment wisdom of Warren Buffett, The Essential Buffett is an education. By placing Buffett’s approach into a broader context, Robert Hagstrom captures not just the key ideas of this century’s investing giants, from Ben Graham to Phil Fisher, but also lucidly explains the theoretical foundation of their insights, including probability theory and psychology. This is not simply an investing book; it is an investing library."—Chris Davis, Portfolio Manager Davis New York Venture Fund and Selected American Shares "Robert Hagstrom has written an excellent book that sets out some of the most important concepts of investing used by many of history’s best investors, most notably Mr. Buffett. As Buffett has argued, investing is not simply buying shares of a stock; it is a process of understanding a company’s business model as well as its intrinsic value. Hagstrom successfully argues that Buffett’s approach can and should be applied to all investments. At a time when investors are questioning whether the New Economy requires new rules, Buffett’s principles are very important to keep in mind."—David Decker, Portfolio Manager Janus Strategic Value Fund "A lively demonstration that Warren Buffett’s principles are more relevant than ever in the rapidly shifting investment landscape of the 21st century. By applying Buffett’s tenets to tech investing, Robert Hagstrom shows how ‘the world’s greatest investor’ can help us navigate the shoals of the New Economy."—Kay Booth, Director of Global Equity Research Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.


About the Author
ROBERT G. HAGSTROM is the author of The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World’s Greatest Investor; The Warren Buffett Portfolio: Mastering the Power of the Focus Investment Strategy; The NASCAR Way: The Business That Drives the Sport, and Latticework: The New Investing. Hagstrom is Senior Vice President of Legg Mason Funds Management and Director of Legg Mason Focus Capital.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In this book, Robert G. Hagstrom helps you draw on the wisdom and counsel of Warren Buffett to succeed in today's challenging market. Hagstrom explains how Buffett analyzes companies and selects stocks. He then shows you how these techniques can be applied to technology, small-cap, and international stocks - areas Buffett traditionally has not explored." "Buffett built a multibillion-dollar business empire by confidently following a course that often put him at odds with Wall Street trends. The Essential Buffett outlines the core principles that you will want to incorporate into every stock decision you make: invest in a business, not a stock - you'll look at a company's economics as if you were taking over as CEO tomorrow; demand a margin of safety for each purchase - how to keep risk at a minimum; manage a focus portfolio - a comprehensive portfolio strategy, used with spectacular results by Buffett, which focuses the investment process on a few outstanding companies; and protect yourself from the speculative and emotional forces of the market - a lesson thousands of investors have now come to appreciate the hard way."--BOOK JACKET.

SYNOPSIS

Robert Hagstrom shows readers how to apply Buffett's principles to technology and international investing using real-life case studies of successful fund managers. He explains Buffett's principles and provides insights into the psychology behind focus investing, showing how Buffett's thinking can best be applied in the new economy.

FROM THE CRITICS

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