An old clip of Warren Buffett has resurfaced on X after being reposted by user Investment Wisdom, reigniting a timeless conversation around one of the Oracle of Omaha’s favourite themes: the dangers of emotion-driven investing.
In the video, Buffett stresses that the biggest enemy of long-term wealth is often not market volatility, but the investor’s own emotional impulses. “If you are emotional about investments, you’re not going to do well. You may love the stocks that go up, and hate the ones that go down. You may have all these feelings about the stock, [but] the stock has no feelings about you: it’s going to reflect what the company behind the stock does.”
The post shares a 58-second clip from the 2017 HBO documentary “Becoming Warren Buffett,” capturing his advice to avoid emotional attachments to stocks, as they solely reflect underlying company performance.
A Timeless Lesson From a Timeless Investor
Buffett’s authority on the subject is unmatched. As chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, he has spent more than six decades building one of the most successful investment records in history. His disciplined value-investing philosophy—shaped during the 1950s under the mentorship of Benjamin Graham—has turned Berkshire into a multinational heavyweight and made Buffett one of the world’s richest men.
Crucially, his approach has always been rooted in rationality over impulse. Buffett has famously avoided getting caught up in manias, bubbles, trend-chasing or panic-driven selloffs. His long-term perspective, often spanning decades, is a defining contrast to the sentiment-heavy culture of modern retail trading.
In the resurfaced clip, he underscores this distinction again: “You may have all these feelings about the stock, [but] the stock has no feelings about you: it’s going to reflect what the company behind the stock does.” The reminder is particularly relevant in an era where investors often anchor their confidence—or fear—on price screens rather than business fundamentals.
He goes on to emphasize that investment decisions should be insulated from emotional interference. According to Buffett, “My investment decisions don’t have emotion in them… we have plenty of emotions for other situations. But business and investment decisions, if you’ve got emotions in the equation, you’re going to do a lot of dumb things.”
The renewed virality of the clip reflects how perennially relevant Buffett’s views remain. Despite the rise of algorithmic trading, meme-stock culture and high-frequency speculation, the core principles of disciplined investing remain unchanged. A stock will ultimately mirror the performance of the company it represents—not the hopes, fears or sentiment of the investor holding it.
As the clip continues to circulate on X, it is serving as both a reality check and a moment of grounding for investors navigating an increasingly complex market landscape. In typical Buffett fashion, the message is simple, direct and enduring: detach emotion, trust fundamentals, and let reason—not impulse—drive your investment choices.
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