I am planning to spend the rest of my life just speculating in our local stock market, which is the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Berkshire Hathaway generally doesn't speculate, but Warren has some funds on the side which he will speculate with. Warren and Charlie say one of their weaknesses (their words, not mine) is that they never sell a company. However, I was involved with a company called Burnham Pacific, which Warren bought 5% of for his personal account. This requires him to file a 13D with our Securities and Exchange Commission saying he owned more than 5%. The stock jumped because of his involvement...and he sold into the buying. The company turned out to be trouble, but Warren ended up with a nice profit. Berkshire has taken positions on foreign currency and silver (contrary to one other post here...the foreign currency trade was a winner, although it lost money in 2005). But their usual modus operandi is buy and hold forever. Buffet lost money last year by speculating on the dollar to go down. He is probably right, but the timing was off.
However, with stocks he sticks to his old rules of buying value for the long term.
If you want to earn a living by speculation, my advice would be to choose liquid stocks only and big markets. But maybe I am wrong.
Good luck! I believe long term is the way to go... | 