原文信息：

• 标题：1963 November Letter to Partners
• 作者：Warren Buffett
• 发表时间：1963-11-06
• 链接：Buffett Partnership Letters 1957-1970
• 中文翻译参考：RanRan
• 整理：孙萧萧

BUFFETT PARTNERSHIP, LTD.

810 KIEWIT PLAZA

OMAHA 31, NEBRASKA

November 6, 1963

1963 年 11 月 6 日 

To My Partners for 1964:

致 1964 年合伙人：

Enclosed is the usual assortment of Thanksgiving reading material:

随函附上丰富的感恩节读物： 

(1) Two copies of an amended partnership agreement for 1964. The one with the General Provisions attached is to be kept by you (exactly the same as last year) and the other single page agreement is to be signed, notarized and returned to us. Partners in Omaha may come in and obtain the notarization at our office.

(1) 两份修订的 1964 年合伙协议。一份包含一般条款（内容和去年的完全一样），由你保留；另一份是只有一页纸的协议，请你签字、公证并寄还给我们。奥马哈的合伙人可以直接来我们的办公室公证。 

(2) A copy of that priceless treatise, "The Ground Rules,” I would like every partner to read this at least once a year, and it is going to be a regular item in my November package. Don't sign the partnership agreement unless you fully understand the concepts set forth and are in accord with them -- mentally and viscerally.

(2) 一份价值连城的论文，“基本原则”(The Ground Rules)，我希望每位合伙人每年至少读一遍，我会始终把这篇文章放在 11 月份的阅读材料中。“基本原则”中阐述的理念，请做到彻底理解、完全认同，不但要心里明白，还要融入血液里，否则请勿签署合伙协议。 

(3) Two copies of the commitment letter for 1964, one to be kept by you and one returned to us. You may amend this commitment letter right up to midnight, December 31st, so get it back to us early, and if it needs to be changed, just let us know by letter or phone.

(3) 两份 1964 年的承诺书，一份由你保留，一份寄回。你可以在 12 月 31 日零点之前修改承诺书，所以请尽早返还，如果需要更改，提前写信或打电话给我们即可。 

Any withdrawals will be paid immediately after January 1st. You may withdraw any amount you desire from $100 up to your entire equity. Similarly, additions can be for any amount and should reach us by January 10th. In the event you are disposing of anything, this will give you a chance to have the transaction in 1964 if that appears to be advantageous for tax reasons. If additions reach us in November, they take on the status of advance payments and draw interest at the rate of 6% until yearend. This is not true of additions reaching us in December.

所有提现将在 1 月 1 日之后立即支付。提现金额没有限制，最低 100 美元，最高所有权益。同样，追加投资金额也没限制，但应在 1 月 10 日之前存入。你可以选择在 1964 年完成这笔交易，或许能节省一些税款。如果追加资金在 11 月份存入，则视为预先存入资金，在年底前享受 6% 的利息。12 月份存入的追加投资无利息。

Complete tax information for your 1963 return will be in your hands by January 25th. If you should need an estimate of your tax position before that time, let me know and I will give you a rough idea. We will also send out a short letter on taxes in late December.

1 月 25 日之前，各位会收到完整的税收数据。如果你需要提前知道自己的估算税收数据，请联系我，我会大概估算一下。我们还会在 12 月末向合伙人寄出一封关于税项情况的简短信函。

At the end of October, the overall result from the Dow for 1963 was plus 18.8%. We have had a good year in all three categories, generals, work-outs and controls. A satisfactory sale on a going concern basis of Dempster Mill Manufacturing operating assets was made about a month ago. I will give the full treatment to the Dempster story in the annual letter, perhaps climaxed by some lyrical burst such as “Ode to Harry Bottle.” While we always had a built-in profit in Dempster because of our bargain purchase price, Harry accounted for several extra servings of dessert by his extraordinary job. Harry, incidentally, has made an advance payment toward becoming a limited partner in 1964-- we consider this the beginning, not the end.

截止 1963 年 10 月末，道指上涨 18.8%。我们的低估类、套利类、控股类三类投资今年表现都很好。大概一个月前，按照持续经营公司的标准，我们出售了登普斯特农具机械制造公司的经营资产，我们对这笔交易很满意。我会在年度信中详细介绍登普斯特的情况，或许还会情不自禁的高唱“哈里·博特尔 (Harry Bottle) 赞歌”。虽说我们因为买的便宜，买到登普斯特时就把钱赚了，但是哈里做了很多优秀的工作，为我们这笔投资的收益增色不少。顺便提一句，哈里已经预先存入资金，将在 1964 年成为我们的有限合伙人，我们的合作没结束，这才开始。

However, 1963 has not been all Dempster. While a great deal can happen the last two months and therefore interim results should not be taken too seriously, at the end of October the overall gain for the partnership was about 32%. Based on the allocation embodied in our agreement, this works out to plus 25 1/2% for the limited partners before monthly payments to those who take them. Of our approximate $3 million gain, something over $2 million came from marketable securities and a little less than $1 million from Dempster operating assets. The combined gain from our single best general and best work-out situation approximated the gain on the Dempster operating assets.

1963 年，除了登普斯特，其他投资表现也很出色。到年底还有两个月，什么事都可能发生，别把阶段性业绩太当回事。10 月末，合伙基金整体收益率是 32%。按照协议中的分成规定，不计算部分合伙人选择的每月利息，有限合伙人的收益率是 25.5%。在我们 300 万美元的收益中，200 万美元是有价证券贡献的，100 多万美元来自出售登普斯特经营资产。我们最赚钱的一笔低估类投资和最赚钱的一笔套利类投资收益之和接近出售登普斯特经营资产的收益。

You should be aware that if our final results relative to the Dow for 1963 are as favorable as on October 31st, I will regard it as an abnormal year. I do not consider a 13.2 percentage point margin to be in the cards on a long term basis. A considerably more moderate annual edge over the Dow will be quite satisfactory.

大家要清楚，如果我们能将 10 月 31 日与道指的相对优势保持到全年，我会认为这是反常的一年。我认为不可能长期取得相对道指 13.2 个百分点的优势。只要能每年比较温和地大幅领先道指，我就很满意了。

Cordially Warren E. Buffett

沃伦 E. 巴菲特谨上

P/S. Last year we announced there would be no prizes for the last ones to get the material back to us. This continues to be our policy. Save us some last minute scurrying by getting your agreement and commitment letter back pronto. Give Bill or me a call if we can be of any help. Thanks!

又及：去年，我们通知大家，最晚寄回资料的合伙人没奖。从今往后，始终如此。请火速寄回合伙协议和承诺书，以免我们最后关头抓狂。如需任何帮助，请联系我或比尔。谢谢！