15710 Managing Your Portfolio
U
p to this point, we have studied Warren Buffett’s approach to
making investment decisions, which is built on timeless principles
codif ied into twelve tenets. We watched over his shoulder as he
applied those principles to buy stocks and bonds, and to acquire com-
panies. And we took the time to understand the insights from others
that helped shape his philosophy about investing.
But as every investor knows, deciding which stocks to buy is only
half the story. The other half is the ongoing process of managing the
portfolio and learning how to cope with the emotional roller coaster
that inevitably accompanies such decisions.
It is no surprise that here, too, the leadership of Warren Buffett will
show us the way.Hollywood has given us a visual cliché of what a money manager looks
like: talking into two phones at once, frantically taking notes while try-
ing to keep an eye on computer screens that blink and blip at him from
all directions, tearing at his hair whenever one of those computer blinks
shows a minuscule drop in stock price.
Warren Buffett is about as far from that kind of frenzy as anything
imaginable. He moves with the calm that comes of great conf idence. He