Recently, Fang Sanwen, the founder of the financial media platform Xueqiu, interviewed the famous investor Duan Yongping in the United States.

I watched the nearly two-hour interview as soon as it was available, and I would like to share a few segments from the interview that left a deep impression on me in a series of articles.

Fang Sanwen asked Duan Yongping if one can copy others' homework in investing.

Duan Yongping replied that one can copy Buffett, but copying others may not work because the holding data of others is not public.

Upon hearing this exchange, I believe that copying Buffett does not necessarily mean copying exactly what he bought, when he bought it, and when he sold it; rather, it means copying something else of his:

Copying his certain practices and viewpoints.

Or more fundamentally, directly entrusting money to Buffett for management—buying Berkshire Hathaway stock at the right time.

In the interview, Duan Yongping once again mentioned a viewpoint that Buffett has repeatedly expressed in his past statements:

For ordinary people, choosing individual stocks is very difficult; the best way is actually to invest in an S&P 500 index fund.

Duan Yongping also expressed in this interview that if his descendants are not good at investing, he would directly advise them to just hold the S&P 500 index fund, thus eliminating the need for worry and effort, allowing them to live their personal lives well.

In addition, Duan Yongping talked about how he bought Occidental Petroleum as a way to copy Buffett's homework, and more straightforwardly, he bought some Berkshire Hathaway stock.

This reminded me of a story Buffett once mentioned at his shareholder meeting:

When he first started his fund, the investors were mostly his relatives and close friends.

Years later, apart from his relatives, there are still about two or three friends who have held onto the original shares of Berkshire Hathaway, and aside from donating a portion to charity, they have never sold or bought any other shares.

These friends, like Buffett, have long been billionaires.

Regarding this story, I often wonder:

Do these friends who have held onto the stocks really understand investing like Buffett? Or do they comprehend and grasp what Buffett means by "value investing"?

I think not necessarily.

So what is the "anchor" that has allowed them to hold these stocks for decades without change?

I believe it can only be unconditional trust in Buffett as a person—after all, I don’t understand investing at all, nor do I grasp your philosophy, but I firmly believe in you, and I trust that no matter what happens in the future, you will manage my money well and achieve success in investing.

This trust is strong enough and resilient enough to withstand decades of trials and tribulations without wavering.

In contrast, I have found another type of person in investing:

They clearly do not understand much, and they know they do not understand much, so in this situation, they choose to copy others' homework.

But when they copy, they are not at ease, especially at critical moments; they will doubt whether the person they are copying is wrong. Could it be that at that moment, they are smarter? Would their alternative actions be better?

The awkward part is that they actually lack confidence in their alternative actions as well. At this point, they are likely to seek "support" for their new ideas by finding new subjects to copy.

The final result is that the homework ends up being a mishmash, and they are likely to incur losses.

After losing, they lose confidence again and continue to repeat the above path, year after year, in this state of internal conflict, never able to break free.

Rather than this, it would be better to focus and thoroughly copy the homework, leaving no detail overlooked.

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