Imagine getting the chance to look over the shoulder of the
world's greatest investors as they go about their work, to get a
glimpse of whatWarren Buffett , George Soros or David Einhorn just
bought or sold.
You may be surprised to learn that there's a little-known "cheat
sheet" that can tell you this information, legally, with the click
of a button.
Once you know where to look, you can find out whatstocks Buffett
or any of your favoriteinvesting gurus are buying and selling.
These "cheat sheets" are called Form13F filings.
Institutionalinvestment managers with more than $100 million in
qualifying assets are required by the U.S.Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) to file these forms quarterly. They listinvestment
holdings.
Here's what we can learn…
By looking at certain 13F filings, you would have known that in
the third quarter of 2012, Buffett's investment firm
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B)
bought
Deere (
DE
)
,
Precision Castparts (
PCP
)
,
WABCO Holdings (
WBC
)
and
Media General (
MEG
)
.
And why should we pay attention to what Buffett's buying?
Well, to measure how much investors could have gained by
mimicking Buffett in the last year, I tried an experiment.
I wrote down the purchases from Buffett's 13F filing from Dec.
31, 2011.
At the time, he opened new positions in two securities:
DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (
DVA
)
and
Liberty Media Corp. (Nasdaq: LMCA)
.
Then I looked at the performance of both stocks.
Since then, DVA is up 46%. LMCA is up 47%.
My conclusion: There's a very good reason why Buffett is one of
the richest men in the world.
And if you happen to prefer the investing style of David
Einhorn, George Soros -- or almost any other famous investor --
here's the good news… their 13F Filings are just as easy to
find.
Action to Take -->
If you're interested in researching 13F filings on your own, then
you can go to the SEC website here.
But for a much more user-friendly website, I recommend
GuruFocus.com. (Neither I nor StreetAuthority receive any
compensation for recommending this site.)
And if you don't have time to do the research on your own, no
problem. We've got you covered.
The latest 13F filings were filed on Dec. 31, 2012. In the
ensuing weeks, check back with StreetAuthority. I'll be publishing
my latest research as soon as the data becomes available.