In college, except for the obligatory courses, I avoided science, math, and accounting — all the normal preparations for business. I was on the arts … - Peter Lynch

If you find a stock with little or no institutional ownership, you’ve found a potential winner. Find a company that no analyst has ever visited, or that no analyst would admit to knowing about, and you’ve got a double winner. When I talk to a company that tells me the last analyst showed up three years ago, I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. It frequently happens with banks, savings-and-loans, and insurance companies, since there are thousands of these and Wall Street only keeps up with fifty to one hundred.

Since the early 1980s, the Berkshire annual reports have informed shareholders of the performance of the holdings of the company and new investments, updated the status of the insurance and the reinsurance industry, and (since 1982) have listed acquisition criteria about business Berkshire would like to purchase. The report is generously laced with examples, analogies, stories, and metaphors containing the do's and dont's of proper investing in stocks.

Understand the nature of the companies you own and the specific reasons for holding the stock. (“It is really going up!” doesn’t count.)