Spend more time in the library

Where do most investors go wrong in making their investment decisions? Warren Buffett, whom many like to think of as the world’s most successful stock market investor, has no doubts. People need to spend more time with their nose in a book, thinking about the way the world works, and less time looking at the price of the shares that they own. Buffett has long since moved on from buying individual shares to buying whole companies, but the way he spends his time has not changed much in the 50 years he has been a professional investor.

One day a couple of years ago, he received a faxed letter about a company he had never heard of. He liked what he saw. ‘The next day,’ reported the Wall Street Journal, ‘Mr Buffett offered to buy Forest River. He sealed the deal in a 20-minute meeting one week later. He spends most of his time alone in an office with no computer.