David Rosenthal: preference

Transcript context

…The biggest piece of positioning from what I've heard is that it's a consumer product with a powerful brand name, very low propensity for people to switch, there’s a high lock in. There is a strong moat there. In fact it may even be the most valuable brand in the world. Now that we've planted that seed, I would like to go and once again read the quote from the 1995 annual meeting. What we're trying to find is a business that for one reason or another, it can be because of the low cost producer in some area, it can be because it has a natural franchise because of surface capabilities. It could be because of its position in the consumer's mind. It can be because of a technological advantage, or any reason at all, that it has this moat around it. I don't think that there is any better description of why you would want to buy and hold Apple and that exact quote from him 21 years before. It’s so great. Here's the thing, this is nitpicking because at the end of the day investing, it doesn't matter—I played baseball growing up. My dad used to say to me, if you're listening. Hi dad. I was learning mechanics on how to swing properly. I love this quote, he used to say, look, if you could hit 300 in the big leagues, nobody would care if you stood on your head when you swung. All that matters is you hit 300 but until you learn how to hit 300, you should probably do it the right way. Investing is the same way. Nobody cares what your thesis is. Nobody cares if you're right or wrong. Nobody cares why you bought the stock. At the end of the day, you just want to be in a position to be right. Warren got himself in a position to be right. That said, I don't think he understands anything about how Apple works or what it does or why all of this works. He has a quote at the 2018 annual meeting. He says, I didn't go into Apple because it was a tech stock. I don't think that it required me to take apart an iPhone or something and figure out what all the components were or anything. I think it's much more the nature of consumer behavior. Yeah, he's in it for the M1. He’s really impressed by the architecture.…

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