These days, I spent some time reading through all the transcripts of the Q&A of Munger Daily Journal (ticker: DJCO)‘s sessions at shareholder meetings during his 10 years (2014-2023) . Yes, a total of 10 years. I have summarized my personal thoughts and ideas in the article you are reading now.
Since the period from 2014 to 2023 is 10 years in total, which is a bit long, I will only list the key points, and for ease of reading, I will classify them into six categories.
Daily Journal Introduction
The Daily Journal is an American publishing and software technology company headquartered in Los Angeles, California; its primary clients are in the legal industry.
The original newspaper, the Daily Court Journal (Los Angeles), was founded in 1888. Through a series of acquisitions and organic growth, Munger built it into a group of newspapers and websites providing legal, real estate and general business information. The company publishes ten newspapers in California and Arizona. Its largest publications are the Los Angeles Daily News and the San Francisco Daily News. Among them, the Los Angeles Daily News is “the most award-winning newspaper in Los Angeles besides the Los Angeles Times.”
Journal Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, specializes in the creation of software for trial courts, appellate courts, and court system-related agencies (including prosecutors, public defenders, probation departments, and pretrial offices) in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Recommended reasons for everyone to read
First of all, Munger Daily Journal’s 10 years of shareholders’ meetings (2014-2023) are a must-read collection for U.S. stock investors.
Buffett and Munger are two of the few investors that I personally highly recommend and who deserve in-depth study. Their demeanor, personality, knowledge, investment achievements, selfless sharing, and dedication to society are obvious to all. I will not go into detail here. If you are interested, you can use their names to find dozens of articles about their achievements in these areas in my blog.
Berkshire’s annual shareholder letter is written by Buffett, and Munger plays only a supporting role in Berkshire’s shareholder meetings. Munger rarely speaks and only gives a brief response when the host Buffett designates Munger to answer. However, the Daily Journal’s annual shareholder letter is written by Munger, and Munger’s Daily Journal shareholder meeting is hosted by Munger himself.
After Wesco Financial was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway, without Wesco, shareholders shifted their focus and were able to hear many of Munger’s inside stories on Berkshire Hathaway’s important decisions at the Daily Journal’s annual shareholder meeting, including how Buffett decided on investment targets, how the two discussed key issues, and other insightful views of Munger that shareholders could not have learned at Berkshire Hathaway.
Compared with Berkshire or Weisco, the scale is much smaller, but the grand scale of the Daily Journal’s shareholders’ meeting is not much worse than that of Berkshire. There is one big difference between the shareholder meetings of the two companies: Berkshire’s shareholders are more like the Woodstock of the investment world, while the number of people attending the Daily Journal’s shareholder meeting will not be that large.
In addition to the Daily Journal’s shareholders, most of the attendees who can attend the Daily Journal’s shareholder meeting in person are Charlie. Munger’s personal admirers want to hear his views on major issues or investment problems, as well as answers to important questions related to Berkshire that cannot be heard at Berkshire shareholders’ meetings.
Key points of 10 years shareholders meetings
On Investment
- You must have the courage to bet on the good opportunity that you have finally waited for. This is my investment method.
- One year the fund I managed fell by 40% and the market fell by 50%.
- I always choose to invest in the best opportunities I can find. This has been the case in the past and will not change in the future.
- Don’t be discouraged by missing good opportunities, good opportunities always exist.
- Everyone has two or three good investment opportunities in his life. The key is to seize them.
- I have a client, an old lady, who divided all the money left to her by her deceased husband into five parts and bought five blue chip stocks in each part. She just bought and waited, but very few people do what she did.
- The secret to fishing is to fish where the fish are.
Investing in bank stocks
- Buffett said: The problem with the banking industry is that there are too many banks and too few bankers.
- Investment banking is risky, and sometimes we make stupid mistakes in areas where we excel.
- It is easy for the banking industry to inflate profits, often sacrificing long-term interests in pursuit of short-term gains.
- The meeting mentioned investment in bank stocks, and conducted an in-depth analysis using Wells Fargo and Bank of America as examples.
- Bank executives face many temptations.
Corporate
- Since 1990, the number of antitrust cases prosecuted by the Department of Justice has dropped from 20 to zero, resulting in the current winner-takes-all situation where the big get bigger.
- Investing through a company will result in higher income tax, while investing through a partnership will result in much less tax. It is certainly better to invest in stocks through a partnership than through a company, as the difference in tax payments is huge.
- Munger gave examples and detailed the five criteria for screening managers.
Cash
- My cash and stock levels are 100%.
- Buffett bought ExxonMobil simply to replace cash, that is, to find a better place to store the cash.
Munger’s thinking logic and philosophy
- As circumstances change, ideas must change as well.
- I have been busy dispelling my own prejudices.
- I’m not smarter than anyone else, I just avoid doing stupid things.
- It’s okay to worry and doubt; it proves that you are thinking.
- There are some things we think we know, but in fact we don’t, and experience changes with civilization.
- What drives the world is not greed but jealousy. Life is getting better but people’s sense of happiness is getting lower.
- When you encounter a problem, develop the habit of reverse thinking, and you will be able to solve the problem rationally.
Berkshire Hathaway
- The main reason for Berkshire’s success is that we rarely make mistakes.
- Berkshire has made about 100 important decisions to date, an average of about two per year.
Relative articles
- “Key points from Munger Daily Journal’s 10 years of shareholder meetings“
- “Munger’s most important work “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”“
- “Charlie Munger, a great investor worth remembering“
- “Charlie Munger speaks at 2023 Daily Journal Shareholders Meeting“
- “Buffett’s 2025 Berkshire Shareholder Letter“
- “Buffett’s 2024 Annual Shareholder Letter“
- “Buffett’s 2023 Annual Shareholder Letter“
- “2024 Berkshire shareholders meeting transcript and video“
- “2023 Berkshire shareholders meeting transcript and video“
- “Buffett’s first TV interview“
- “Full transcript of Buffett’s interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box“
- “Outsiders, one of the greatest investment books for managment team“
- “Dear Shareholder“
- “Outsiders, one of the greatest investment books for managment team“
- “Dear Shareholder“
- “Mistakes of omission and mistakes of commission“
- “Decisive factor for AT&T and Verizon stocks valuation“
- “Seven key factors contribute Buffett success”
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