Warren Buffett is the 20th century’s greatest investor. More than that, he is a showman, explaining multibillion dollar investments with metaphors that make him sound like a ruminative Nebraskan corn-farmer leaning on a five-bar gate. This weekend, he hosts the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting in Omaha (rechristened “Woodstock for Capitalists”). His investors may feel aggrieved by the fall in share price. They may even be unreceptive to his folksy one-liners. But they should worry less about what he is doing and fret more about what they will do without him.

Since 1965, the assets-per-share of Berkshire Hathaway have grown by an average of 20.3 per cent a year. This is more than twice the return from the S&P 500 (including dividends) in that time. His “value investment” strategy is simple; he tries to spot bargain acquisitions and he holds them. All that matters to him is whether what he buys is intrinsically worth what he pays for it – not whether it achieves short-term capital gains.