Buffett has taken a fair amount of criticism for not deploying his enormous pile of cash into the roaring bear market. Now suddenly, having an enormous pile of cash seems like a very wise thing to have. Presumably, some bargains will become available here soon and some of that cash can be deployed.
If I was a holder I wouldn't be happy that he hasn't deployed any of the cash in the current downturn. I know that Buffett isn't exactly a day trader, but the Dow did fall below 20k for a few sessions and was -35% at one point. Was that cheap enough? If not what sort of discount is he waiting for? -50% That is a discount that might only come around once every 20 years.. do you want your fund manager to be sitting on cash for 20 years? The window was brief, but it was there. People will say how can you pick the bottom, but the bear market unfolded much, much faster than anything we have previously seen, so it follows that the opportunity passed by a lot quicker too.. and most market timers have been waiting so long they blinked and missed it.
Valuations have been steadily increasing for not just year,s but decades now, and there are good reasons for this.
BRK has got cheaper because it deserves to be cheaper, holding mostly old-economy businesses that are much less well positioned to weather the current storms; an economic moat can't save you from an economic tsunami.
One of the greatest ironies is that as Berkshire's outperformance has disappeared over time, so has Berkshire's popularity and and Buffett's reputation grown. These days there isn't a person who hasn't heard of Buffett or knows his long term track record, but 20 years ago when I first started investing he wasn't quite the household name he is today.
Today, there is an annual pilgrimage to Omaha every year to celebrate... what, exactly? mediocrity? Underperformance? Excuses? Most of these people fancy themselves as contrarians who run against the grain, but they can't appreciate the irony of this cultish behaviour.
BTW, I was and still am a fan of Buffett's wisdom, but I'm more a fan of objective numbers, and Berkshire's numbers have been mediocre for a long time now.