Warren buffet buys Goldman Sachs off-market for a 20% discount during the GFC. It's not the first time he's been given a very large return because he's warren.

Warren buffet buys Goldman Sachs off-market for a 20% discount during the GFC. It's not the first time he's been given a very large return because he's warren. Comparing returns including that kind of thing to what you and I can get buying at market prices on a stock exchange is absurd. His returns come from management giving him their shareholders wealth as much as anything and have done for some time. Someone will now claim he was righteous and a white knight saving salomon's management or saving goldman's from gfc ruin or whatever. Believe that if you like but don't compare it to those who were shut out from making that same buy at the same time and same price. I'd be surprised if in the past 20 years or so if you factored out all the off-market, warren only buys he got if his returns didn't look a lot more like the S&P500 adjusted for statistical risk using standard CAPM beta measures. Saying so out loud will offend the hell out of a lot of people who really need to believe. But maybe someone will calmly and dispassionately do the calculations and show my suspicion to be wrong.