Read decisions in sequence
Compare an explanation with later letters to see which assumptions held up and which changed.
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Perimeter Books / Investing
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters
Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway
The company’s publicly available archive of annual shareholder letters.
Free online letter archive
Original letters in the company’s free archive.
Inside the book
A company’s thinking, over time.
Berkshire’s shareholder letters offer a sequence of business decisions recorded across changing economic conditions. The free archive lets you move year by year instead of relying on quotations removed from their original setting. Read each letter alongside the corresponding annual report, then compare the discussion with what happened in later years. This is a primary-source reading project: the writer is explaining the company’s choices to its owners. Perimeter’s questions below are prompts for your own analysis, rather than a substitute for the full letters or financial statements.
Who it’s for
Readers who want to study a company through its own dated disclosures, compare decisions over time, and build a primary-source research habit.
Ideas to examine
Take these into your reading.
Connect the narrative to the numbers
Check the financial statements before treating a memorable passage as the whole investment case.
Keep the original setting
Ask whether a lesson depends on Berkshire’s scale, structure, capital, or opportunities at the time.
Your research notebook
Questions worth keeping.
- Which claim in this letter can I check against the matching annual report?
- What would I have believed at the time, before knowing the later outcome?
Save this title to add your own notes and reading progress.
The ideas, in conversation
Hear from the author.
Conversations are produced by the linked publishers and may cover the author’s broader work.
Go back to the evidence
Connect the book to your research.
Read a letter beside the matching annual report. Distinguish reported results from commentary and expectations.
The SEC’s public filing search for company disclosures and offering documents.
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