I beat Buffet! You can too!

A little over 5 years ago after reading articles that most professionally managed mutual funds cannot even beat the S&P over time, I decided to see if an individual investor using the right tools and a lot of discipline could beat the professionals. I wanted to retire soon and manage my own investments so I needed to be conservative. I didn't want to swing for the fences or just sit in an S&P 500 ETF and go with the flow. My mission was simple:

• Be conservative
• Don't swing for the fences
• Trim losses immediately
• If there isn't anything good to buy today then don't
• Try to add value to active management by beating the S&P 500 for all time periods
• Use the right tools
• Be disciplined

I read Forbes Best of the Web and discovered Barchart as a recommend stock screener and Marketocracy as the best virtual portfolio site and started my Barchart Van Meerten New High portfolio (VMNHI). The results for the period ending 8/31/2010 are in so how did I do?

Total Return of the S&P 500

• 1 year 4.91%
• 2 year -14.17%
• 3 year -23.79%
• 5 year -4.56%

Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway - Warren beat the S&P over 5 years by 46.69%

• 1 year 17.04%
• 2 year -4.29%
• 3 year 8.88%
• 5 year 42.13%

Barchart Van Meerten New High portfolio (VMNHI)

• 1 year 26.77%
• 2 year 11.04%
• 3 year 38.82%
• 5 year 74.12%

Simply put, where would you be if you invested $100K in each of these 3 funds over the last 5 years? What would your portfolio be worth?

1. S&P 500 ETF $954,400
2. Buffet's BRK.A $142,130
3. VMNHI $ 174,720

I share with you all my trades and the reasons behind them in my blogs. Follow me, learn how to invest and stay ahead of the professionals and indices.

Jim Van Meerten is an investor who writes on investing here and on Barchart Portfolio Blogs. Please leave a comment below or email JimVanMeerten@gmail.com.

Disclosure: No positions in the stock mentioned at the time of publication