Jeff Mathews

Hedge Fund Founder

& Author

   "Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha"

• A look back at 2008 and what made it Warren Buffett’s worst year—ever
• Why 2008 was only the second down year for Berkshire since Buffett took control in 1965, and only the second down year in Buffett’s investing career since he began managing other people’s money in 1956
• What caused 2009 to begin so badly for Buffett, with the collective profit of his stock investments in companies like Coke, Wells Fargo, Washington Post falling down to zero
• The correlation between now and the last systemic financial crisis in 1974
• Why Buffett’s long term track record is so remarkable: nearly 500 times better than the S&P 500
• How to follow Buffett’s investment methods in a relatively easy way, given his annual letters to shareholders and his annual “Woodstock for Capitalists” shareholders meeting in Omaha
• Why a 5-hour conversation with Buffett and Charlie Munger will show anyone that Charlie Munger is more important to the success of Berkshire Hathaway than many people realize
• The most important question surrounding Buffett: what happens when he’s gone.

Jeff Matthews founded Ram Partners, LP, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT, in 1994. A graduate of Lehigh University, Matthews embarked on his career in 1979 when he worked as an analyst for Merrill Lynch. He has held positions at Aetna, Penn Central Corp., and the Rocker Partners, LP, hedge fund.

He began his distinctive financial blog, Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up, in 2005. It is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal’s blog roll and enjoys a loyal following among Wall Street analysts, traders, portfolio managers, and investors from around the world. Matthews has written for a variety of trade publications including TheStreet.com, Computer Reseller News, and Motley Fool, and has appeared on CNBC's Kudlow and Company to discuss current business events.

He is the author of Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha: A Hedge Fund Manager's Dispatches From Inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (McGraw-Hill, 2008), an entertaining and informative insider look at Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder’s meeting, the “Woodstock of Capitalism.” CNBC.com called this look at the Oracle of Omaha “very easy to read and full of classic Buffett-isms.”