Finding stocks following performance of certain investor, like BRK.B for Warren Buffett

Question

Is there convenient way to find stocks that track investment performance of certain individuals? Like for example, if I want to track performance of Warren Buffett's investments I would follow Berkshire Hathaway stock (either class A or B) and in general I can get tracking that's "good enough".

Now, let's say I want to do same thing for David Tepper or Carl Icahn... how would I proceed to find stocks that track their performance? I don't necessarily want to track those two (because from what I understand David Tepper runs private fund so he doesn't have stock that tracks him the way BRK tracks Buffett) — I was just using them as an example.

If there is no definite website/page to help with this, how should I start compiling the list (like 1. Warren Buffett - BRK, 2. Carl Icahn - ??)?

EDIT: I've posted comment on only answer, but to prevent similar responses, I'm including what I wrote here in question also. Most important:

I am not looking to recreate or mimic Buffett's portfolio. I will just buy BRK.B.

But I don't want to invest 100% of my money into BRK.B. I want to spread it to other investors that are more into sectors I value. So, how do I proceed with finding stocks that "track" performance of other well known investors like how BRK.B "tracks" Buffett's performance?

Answer 1

Remember that unless you participate in the actual fund that these individuals offer to the public, you will not get the same returns they will.

If you instead do something like, look at what Warren Buffett's fund bought/sold yesterday (or even 60 minutes ago), and buy/sell it yourself, you will face 2 obstacles to achieving their returns:

1. The timing difference will mean that the value of the stock purchased by Warren Buffett will be different for your purchase and for his purchase. Because these investors often buy large swathes of stock at once, this may create large variances for 2 reasons: (a) simply buying a large volume of a stock will naturally increase the price, as the lowest sell orders are taken up, and fewer willing sellers remain; and (b) many people (including institutional investors) may be watching what someone like Warren Buffett does, and will want to follow suit, chasing the same pricing problem.

2. You cannot buy multiple stocks as efficiently as a fund can. If Warren Buffett's fund holds, say, 50 stocks, and he trades 1 stock per day (I have absolutely no idea about what diversification exists within his fund), his per-share transaction costs will be quite low, due to share volume. Whereas for you to follow him, you would need 50 transactions upfront, + 1 per day. This may appear to be a small cost, but it could be substantial. Imagine if you wanted to invest 50k using this method - that's $1k for each of 50 companies. A $5 transaction fee would equal 1% of the value of each company invested ($5 to buy, and $5 to sell). How does that 1% compare to the management fee charged by the actual fund available to you? [note that in the 4 years since I posted this answer, the increasing prevalence of fee-less transactions on many platforms has greatly reduced this issue]

In short, if you feel that a particular investor has a sound strategy, I suggest that you consider investing with them directly, instead of attempting to recreate their portfolio.

Answer 2

Since nobody seems to have an answer, here is the list I've come up with so far:

• Warren Buffett — BRK.B
• Tom Gayner — MKL
• Carl Icahn — IEP

I'll keep adding to the list — also feel free to edit or comment if can add to the list.

Answer 3

A couple points, first you don't point out what investors you want to invest with, and second BRK.B does not track anything; it is just a very small slice of his entire holdings BRK.A minus the voting rights.

One solid way to go would be to buy BRK.B and also a tech ETF like QQQ, or XLK, ..or both.

Answer 4

Since the vast majority of fund managers/big investors run private entities, it's not possible to track their performance. It's possible to look at what they are holding (that's never real-time information) and emulate their performance.