To buy a single share in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, you will need $A131,500.00. When he took control of the company in 1965, its share price was US$16. Under his management, the share price has returned 629,311% to its stock holders. Owning over 400,000 Berkshire shares, it is no surprise that Buffett is the second richest person in the world - with only Bill Gates, his bridge partner and close friend - standing in his way. Buffett has made his $60bn fortune strictly from investing in the stock market, using the simple fundamental technique of value investing: Buy low, Sell high, or in some cases, don't sell at all.

Nicknamed the "Oracle of Omaha", Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30 1930, son of Howard, a stockbroker turned politician and Leila, a housewife. From a young age, Warren Buffett openly expressed a desire to be rich and displayed an amazing understanding for numbers and money. Despite being naturally shy, he was known to impress his friends by memorising huge masses of numbers and calculating complex sums in his head. ...Read Full article

It is a known fact that fund managers do not (on average) outperform the market. Infact with fund managers all investing in the same market it is logical that half will get above average returns and half will be below average.

The main service a managed fund can provide is a reduction in risk. They do this through diversification (through holding a large portfolio of stocks) or by investing in a lower risk portfolio of stocks (but consequently for a lower expected return)....Read Full article