Interview by CNBC's Becky Quick on Wednesday, 24 Oct 2012, with Warren Buffett:
CNBC: "Last Word" is sort of a free word association game that we've been playing lately.
I say a word and you tell me what it makes you think of and the question we get most frequently about you coming on is what should they be buying right now.
If I say buy, you say...?
Warren Buffett: I say 'hold'.
The idea that the European news or slowdown or anything like that ... if you own a good farm run by a good tenant, you wouldn't sell it because someone says this a news item happening in Greece.
If you owned an apartment house and you can raise your rates a little and it was well located and you had a good manager, you wouldn't dream of selling it.
If you had a good businessperson, the local MacDonald franchise, you wouldn't think of buying or selling it every day. When you own stocks, you own pieces of businesses.
They're wonderful businesses. You can pick the best businesses in the world. To buy or sell on current news is just crazy.
You're in a wonderful business. You have people running it for you. You know you're going to do well over five or ten years.
And to think news events should cause you to try to dance in and out of something that's a wonderful game, it's a terrible mistake.
So get into a bunch of wonderful businesses and stay with them.
CNBC: I said buy and you changed it to hold. Does that mean don't sell?
Warren Buffett: If you haven't got them yet, you buy them consistently over time so you average over time.
I've been buying all my life.
I bought my first stock when I was 11 years old. It was about three months after Pearl Harbor and they had the Death March at Bataan. All of the news was terrible. It was a great time to buy stocks. I should have held that stock forever. I have been buying stocks ever since.
Previous story: Our visit to Warren Buffett's Berkshire AGM: Wow!
Click on visual above to get to the excellent CNBC video.
I say a word and you tell me what it makes you think of and the question we get most frequently about you coming on is what should they be buying right now.
If I say buy, you say...?
Warren Buffett: I say 'hold'.
The idea that the European news or slowdown or anything like that ... if you own a good farm run by a good tenant, you wouldn't sell it because someone says this a news item happening in Greece.
If you owned an apartment house and you can raise your rates a little and it was well located and you had a good manager, you wouldn't dream of selling it.
If you had a good businessperson, the local MacDonald franchise, you wouldn't think of buying or selling it every day. When you own stocks, you own pieces of businesses.
They're wonderful businesses. You can pick the best businesses in the world. To buy or sell on current news is just crazy.
You're in a wonderful business. You have people running it for you. You know you're going to do well over five or ten years.
And to think news events should cause you to try to dance in and out of something that's a wonderful game, it's a terrible mistake.
So get into a bunch of wonderful businesses and stay with them.
CNBC: I said buy and you changed it to hold. Does that mean don't sell?
Warren Buffett: If you haven't got them yet, you buy them consistently over time so you average over time.
I've been buying all my life.
I bought my first stock when I was 11 years old. It was about three months after Pearl Harbor and they had the Death March at Bataan. All of the news was terrible. It was a great time to buy stocks. I should have held that stock forever. I have been buying stocks ever since.
Previous story: Our visit to Warren Buffett's Berkshire AGM: Wow!