Luck looks like genius

In 1929, US stock markets collapsed in part due to a rise in margin buying – using borrowed money to buy stocks. Even Benjamin Graham burned his fingers on leveraged bets. He learnt the hard way that getting rich through luck doesn’t count as investing skill. This week, Graham's most famous student has written something that extends this lesson in an unexpected direction. Warren Buffett, now 95 and stepping down from Berkshire Hathaway, recently published what may be his final extended letter to shareholders. In it, he makes a candid admission that most successful people avoid: "Through dumb luck, I drew a ridiculously long straw at birth." He goes on to detail the various ways fortune smiled upon him, from the timing of his birth to the people he happened to meet. Here's what struck me most about Buffett's reflection. He's spent six decades being lionised as the world's greatest investor, yet he&