For long-term-oriented investors, Warren Buffett is something of an icon. In less than seven decades, he took roughly $10,000 in seed capital and turned it into more than $79 billion in net worth.
However, Buffett hasn't needed fancy computers, technical analysis, or any quantitative analysis to figure out which stocks to buy. Rather, he's stuck to the simple investing strategy of looking for businesses that have sustainable competitive advantages, and buying those companies when he perceives them to be trading at a discount. Buffett has been the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B) for nearly 50 years, and when he buys stock, he tends to hang on for years or decades at a time. The average top-10 holding of Berkshire Hathaway has been held for 7.5 years.
