Duan Yongping Interview: Can Investment Copy Homework?

Recently, Fang Sanwen, the founder of the financial media platform Xueqiu, interviewed the famous investor Duan Yongping in the United States.

I watched the nearly two-hour interview as soon as it was available, and I would like to share a few segments that left a deep impression on me in a series of articles.

Fang Sanwen asked Duan Yongping whether one can copy others' homework in investing.

Duan Yongping replied that it is possible to copy Buffett, but copying others may not work, as their holding data is not public.

Upon hearing this exchange, I believe that copying Buffett does not necessarily mean copying exactly what he bought, when he bought it, and when he sold it; rather, it means copying something else of his:

Copying his certain practices and viewpoints.

Or more fundamentally, directly entrusting money to Buffett for management—buying Berkshire Hathaway stock at the right time.

Duan Yongping also mentioned in the interview a point that Buffett has repeatedly brought up in his past statements:

For ordinary people, choosing individual stocks is very difficult; the best approach is actually to invest in an S&P 500 index fund.

Duan Yongping himself expressed during this interview: If his descendants are not good at investing, he would directly advise them to hold an S&P 500 index fund, so they wouldn't need to worry or stress, and could just focus on living their personal lives.

In addition, Duan Yongping talked about how he bought Occidental Petroleum as a way to copy Buffett's homework, and more straightforwardly, he bought some Berkshire Hathaway stock.

This reminded me of a story Buffett once mentioned at his shareholder meeting:

When he first started his fund, the investors were mostly his relatives and close friends.

Years later, apart from his relatives, there are still about two or three friends who have held onto their original shares of Berkshire Hathaway, and aside from donating a portion to charity, they have never sold or bought any shares.

These friends, like Buffett, have long been billionaires.

Regarding this story, I often wonder:

Did these friends who have held onto their stocks really understand investing like Buffett? Or understand the "value investing" that Buffett talks about?

I think not necessarily.

So what is the "anchor" that has allowed them to hold these stocks for decades without wavering?

I believe it can only be unconditional trust in Buffett as a person—after all, I don't understand investing at all, nor do I grasp your philosophy, but I firmly believe in you, and I trust that no matter what happens in the future, you will manage my money well and achieve success in investing.

This kind of trust is strong enough and resilient enough to withstand decades of trials and tribulations without faltering.

In contrast, I have noticed another type of person in investing:

They clearly do not understand much, and they know they don't understand much, so in this situation, they choose to copy others' homework.

But when they copy homework, they are not at ease, especially at critical moments, they will doubt whether the person they are copying is wrong? Could they be smarter at that moment? Would their alternative actions be better?

The awkward part is that they actually have no confidence in their alternative actions either. At this point, they are likely to seek new "support" to back their new ideas to copy homework.

The final result is that the homework ends up being a mishmash, and they are likely to incur losses.

After losing, they lose confidence again, and then continue to repeat the above path, year after year, in this state of internal struggle, never able to break free.

Rather than this, it would be better to focus wholeheartedly and copy the homework thoroughly, without missing a single word.