James Aitken, the highly respected adviser to some of the world’s biggest investors, has a saying that could not be more appropriate in these difficult times: we all want to be Warren Buffett, until a Warren Buffett moment arrives.
Aitken’s point is that while the wisdom of Buffett is often spouted by investors – be greedy when others are fearful; the sharemarket is a device to transfer money from the impatient to the patient – when moments of crisis arrive, many investors panic and freeze.