Is Warren Buffett still right about investing?

Warren Buffett has criticized present- day markets, saying it's hard to find value when everyone is gambling. My next guest says value investing still has a place in today's investing world as the key to unlocking value is patience. Let's bring in Tyrone Ross, Jr., CEO of 401 Financial. Always good to see you, Tyrone. Um, and so, you know, when when Warren Buffett talks, we tend to listen. And you know, he has been on record. I mean, he gave an interview this week in which he reiterated these comments, but he he's talked a lot in recent years about what he calls the casino-like atmosphere that he thinks has come to equity markets. I mean, you deal with a lot of um you know, younger clients. How do they how do they feel about value investing? Do they see it as something that is sort of outdated? >> They do. I think value investing is something that needs more education. And I think there are a lot of young investors that have a lot more options that older investors didn't have and is chasing the next shiny object unfortunately. Um, and if every firm has a brokerage now, they're rolling out some type of prediction market or some type of, you know, perpetual decks to trade and futures. It's it's insane. So yeah, I think value investing still has a place, but I think it's incumbent upon fiduciaries to educate a new generation or what that means to find value um and have some patience and hold long term. >> I mean and and Buffett has also said, you know, it's tough for him to find value in the market. I mean, certainly we've seen that because um Bergkshire Hathaway has not been deploying as much capital in recent years. So So how do you look for it? How do you advise clients to look for it? What we've done actually is started to again educate clients on what value investing is. I think 12% over the last 5 years or so. So definitely not going to excite grandma at Thanksgiving. But I think we've also started to look overseas um expose clients to VT which is a mix of all the the companies here and globally to kind of start to show them investing beyond our shores and try to find value outside of US markets which we feel is fairly valued right now pretty rich if you will but that's really it is more of an education it's a conversation and not what is the next thing that's going to go up 100% in the next six months >> right um and on the flip side of that you have like the casino like atmosphere in stocks and then you have like actual casino when you're talking about prediction markets, right? And something I was thinking about this morning, Tyrone, um it was so interesting when like crypto got to the acceptance level enough that you had folks like you um coming in from the advisory side um saying like you want to allocate x% of your portfolio to this. Are we at a point where you would do that for prediction markets? like do your clients come because you want to limit the risk right so are is that a conversation that you're having at all >> it's not a conversation that we are having and I don't think it's a conversation uh financial advisor should be having right now um obviously listen what clients want to do away from the advisor they should let their advisor know but I think it's also prudent upon financial adviserss to say what is the right thing to do in the scope of a client's long-term goals and and just what's just pure gambling and I don't think any adviser, any fiduciary for that matter wants anything to do with gambling. Um so yeah, I think it's it's tricky here. We don't discuss it. We haven't had the opportunity to and if it if we did, I would express the sentiments that I just shared with you. >> Gotcha. No allocation towards to towards gambling. Um that makes sense. Um that said, you know, he I think Buffett too has talked about crypto as gambling, right? Um and so as somebody who is steeped in the crypto world, h how do you think about that? >> Well, this is the part where the audience goes hypocrite. Now he's about to [laughter] >> um so it's very similar in this regard. If you are a short-term trader and you are trading crypto, to me, yes, that is gambling. Um, long-term investing on any asset class to me has a plan. There is a process of when to get in and get out. And crypto as a new and novel asset class falls into that bucket. Now, folks would still argue, well, it's new and novel. There's not a lot of track record. There is gambling yet, but I could say the same thing in equities as well. So, I think long-term being, you know, very constructive on your views of why you're investing, when you're going to get out, making sure your financial plan is in place. I think crypto has its place as a long-term investment, but anything that you're going to trade with the hopes of getting rich quick will be and should be considered gambling. >> Um, and finally, I I want to ask you about your how you're thinking about Bitcoin prices right now because we've seen them kind of bump along the bottom here. Um, what are you hearing from clients? Are you know, are they um sort of true believers or at least patient enough that they're going to hang on through this? Yeah. So, again, our clients, like us, tend to be crypto hippies. They're true believers. They're not going to leave. I personally believe that we go lower and a lot lower. Um, I don't know when, and I don't know what that catalyst will be. It could be the Clarity Act not getting passed. I don't know. But I do think we're not out of the woods yet. And I think that's a good thing for the space long term. I think so long as Bitcoin kind of hangs out above $60,000, that's not good long term. I'd love to see us go scrape the bottom at 3540,000, wash out all of the excess and crap that doesn't belong, and then I think we can start to push higher when you start to see all of the major announcements and things that are happening now. Um, those announcements usually happen right at at the, you know, in in a bull market, if you will, that is really roaring. But to see some of these announcements in a bare market, you can see it's going to be the tide that turns the hand when we go higher. But yeah, we we're going to we we can and should go lower. And I think that'll be accretive for the space. >> Are you and clients adding here? Are you waiting for that further drop? >> Well, we we tell folks the dollar cost average, right? So, they'll, you know, average in on the way down. But, yeah, I think I I mean, personally, I again, I would it needs to go lower. I'm backing up the truck. I might sell this couch behind me. But, um, but we do have clients actively and constructively getting in, um, in relation to what their other goals are. But yeah, this is the with you know being down 50% or so off the highs, it is good to accumulate a position here and continue to dust dollar cost average in >> Tyrone. Good to see you. Thanks so much. Thank you for having