‘The next Warren Buffett doesn’t exist’

Finally, the markets are far more researched than they ever were in the past. Buffett is famous for voraciously reading reports and accounts to find the next business to back. From the start of his career, he scoured financial statements to unearth assets that had yet to be exploited. That is possible if you are very good at scanning balance sheets and if no one else is taking the trouble. But there is far more information around now than there was when Buffett was starting his career. The hedge funds and private-equity houses are all looking at the same information and trying to spot the same opportunities. Artificial intelligence will streamline that process even more.

It is hard to imagine that a couple of guys in Omaha, no matter how smart they were, could spot something that the rest of the world had somehow missed. Buffett’s reputation is completely deserved. But it seems unlikely there will ever be another investor who does quite as well as he did. The investment world has changed too much for anyone to turn themselves into one of the five richest men in the world simply by investing well. The next Buffett doesn’t exist – and there is no point in looking for him.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek’s magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.