How to be a value investor like Warren Buffett

Many a fund manager has been proclaimed the new Buffett, but none can boast a performance record even approaching his. In order to follow in the footsteps of America's most famous value investor, you need the courage and confidence to stick to some fundamental principles. MoneyWeek editor Merryn Somerset Webb outlines what they are - and suggests some good places to start...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the weird way in which all fund managers consider themselves to be value-investing contrarians. (Read Merryn's article here: Should contrarian investors avoid commodities?) The fact that so few actually are is made clear by all the hoo-ha surrounding the retirement of Anthony Bolton, who has been managing Fidelity's Special Situations fund since 1979, and over that time has managed to turn an initial investment of £9,000 into £130,000.

I've heard a great many fund managers over the years saying they invest in the same sort of way as Bolton, but if they really did we'd probably hear a great deal less about how unique Bolton's performance is. The same is true of those who style themselves after America's famous value investor Warren Buffett.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.