Cobas AM: Nueva Gestora de Francisco García Paramés

 We’ve come to expect perpetual criticism of Berkshire. Criticism, not praise, sells in the media world, so we take negative articles and headlines in particular with a grain of salt. However, the publication of the table highlighting Berkshire’s trailing the index for not only the year to date but for the magical one, five, ten and fifteen-year periods caused a spike in this writer and shareholder’s blood pressure. Think about what kind of impact a 4.1% return over not quite four months can do to short-interval relative returns when measured against 17.5% for an index. We’ve always believed that measurement over the classic 1-3-5-7-10’s is ridiculous in that the beginning and endpoints can severely sway the results. A mere four months of material deviant return, either way, can dramatically skew the comparison. If your reaction is that deviant returns over four months should either be attributed to “skill” or be a cause for alarm, then (insert something pithy but to the salient point here…)...