You know it’s a bad time for personal investors when Warren Buffett is in the red.

… the 44-year performance of Berkshire’s book value and the S&P 500 index, shows that 2008 was the worst year for [Berkshire Hathaway].

With the Class A and Class B Berkshire Hathaway shares down ~37% in 2008, and currently down ~42% from it’s all time highs, some have begun to question the “Oracle of Omaha” and his famous buy & hold strategy since the last decade has proven to be a traders-only stock market.

I find that rather foolish since he routinely flirts with title “World’s Richest Man”, but no doubt that the market hasn’t behaved in a manner which Buffett, and almost everyone else, has found difficult to successfully navigate.

Personally, I found some comfort reading his newsletter.  If the most famous investor in the world is having problems, I guess it’s OK for me to feel better about my Roth IRA being in the crapper.

Berkshire Hathaway 2008 Annual Letter to Shareholders

berkshireletter 2009

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