The New York Times is wrong about Buffett's alpha  Published:
Apr 7, 2014 4:56 p.m. ET   Why you shouldn't use statistics to
calculate an investor's alpha    IanDogan, PhD   Try premium
service for free. Getty Images  I am not a member of a "Warren
Buffett cult" that thinks he is an investing God. I admire
Warren Buffett for the right reasons; I will explain why I am a
big fan in a little bit.  The New York Times' Jeff Sommer
published an article two days ago. He first talked about Warren
Buffett's amazing long-term track record, which should be pretty
easy to deduce from his net worth. Then he went on to say the
following:  For four of the last five years, Mr. Buffett has
been doing worse than the typical, no-frills S&P 500 index fund
— so much worse that it's unlikely to be a matter of a string of
bad luck. Mr. Buffett has begun to behave like an investor with
no alpha at all. Both sobering facts — Mr. Buffett's long-term
outperformance and his recent stretch of mediocrity — appear in
high relief in the ana