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Research due to be published in the CFA’s Financial Analysts Journal claims to demystify Warren Buffett’s astonishing long-term success, and shows how he has achieved his incredible run of returns. In a nutshell, the Buffett “secret sauce” is leveraging up low beta, cheap, high quality stocks. This approach has allowed Buffett to generate a high information ratio - a ratio used by analysts to show risk-adjusted returns relative to a benchmark - over a multi-decade career, and returns which have generated significant value over a passive investment strategy. Using the same analytical ratio as a starting point - albeit over a shorter time period - we identify investment trust managers in the UK who have generated returns with similar characteristics, and then examine their investment style. We then consider whether Buffett’s “secret sauce” is past its sell by date; could it be that the approach which worked so well for him in the past is dated now, in a world where innovative disruption is occurring at an ever-faster pace?
