Warren Buffett wins again! At some point today Warren Buffett is set receive 13.6 million shares of Goldman Sachs (GS) for no money down. With Goldman Sach's stock changing hands for just over $158 today, that means Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) will get around $2.15 billion worth of stock making it one of Goldman's top 10 biggest stakeholders.
The shares are the final payout from a much ballyhooed deal Buffett struck with Goldman in September 2008, near the start of the financial meltdown. At the time the investment was billed as a $5 billion "cash infusion" in Goldman. The day after the the agreement was announced Goldman further infused itself with shareholder money when it doubled the size of its share sale to to the general public to $5 billion.
Through the patina of time, Berkshire's windfall is being viewed as the result of Buffett's oft-stated strategy of being "greedy when others are fearful." Coupled with Buffett's other investments at the time of the crisis, the lesson being peddled to Main Street investors is how the key to making money is to buy stocks when the markets are at their most volatile.
Related: Buffett Untarnished: Even Kass Couldn’t Slay the Dragon, Says Hagstrom
As is the case with so many things about the Oracle of Omaha, the legend and the facts have a complicated relationship. As Lee Munson of Portfolio LLC points out in the attached video, Buffett has a bigger playbook than the folks at home. "People have to remember that while it's wonderful that we have a cheerleder for American Capitalism, this is guy has his own set of rules."
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