Buffett Partnership Letter Mid-1966
1966 first half letter on performance and investment comparison
warren-buffettbuffett-partnershipperformance1966
Buffett Partnership Letter Mid-1966
Warren E. Buffett | July 12, 1966
First Half 1966 Performance
| Metric | Dow | Partnership | Limited Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Half 1966 | -8.7% | +8.2% | +7.7% |
Dow declined from 969.26 to 870.10 in the first half.
Buffett's Goal
"It is my objective and my hope (but not my prediction!) that we achieve over a long period of time, an average yearly advantage of ten percentage points relative to the Dow."
Note: "Such results should be regarded as decidedly abnormal."
Investment Experiment
Buffett described an experiment: if you had invested $100,000 equally in the world's largest companies:
- General Motors (largest auto)
- Standard of New Jersey (largest oil)
- Sears Roebuck (largest retail)
- Dupont (largest chemical)
- U.S. Steel (largest steel)
- Aetna (largest insurance)
- AT&T (largest utility)
- Bank of America (largest bank)
"Even Samson gets clipped occasionally."
Long-Term Record
| Period | Dow | Partnership | Limited Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cumulative (1957-H1 1966) | 141.1% | 1028.7% | 641.5% |
| Annual Compounded | 9.7% | 29.0% | 23.5% |
Source
Warren E. Buffett, July 12, 1966.