Warren Buffet just invested $44 billion in Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. Should you follow, or go contrary?

Betting against Buffet (which is essentially betting against the market in this case) is a bit like betting against the house. In the short-term you might do okay, but the long-term trends are against you. Your question is should you go with Buffet or bet on a short-term pullback - well, I suppose that depends on your time horizon and your willingness to take on risk.

Buffet isn't making a short-term bet, so I wouldn't just jump into the market now because he is if you are looking at the short-term. In fact, if you believe strongly and your time horizon is short-term, you might want to bet the other way. Just last October, Buffet wrote an op-ed for the NY Times saying he was buying stocks (nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17buffett...).

If you went along with him, you would have actually lost money by April of this year. Of course, you'd be up 10-15 percent at this point and seemingly on your way to nice long-term profits. Buffet realizes that in the short-term the market often acts irrationally (getting overbought or oversold), but in the long-term, companies with solid balance sheets and good cash flows will generally be a nice investment.

If I had the money you bet I would follow, Not only would I invest in BNSF but also would in UP .. I watched their stocks from from 30 cents a share to 30$ a share in one week when I was recommending my friends to invest.. I was like thank you UP great timing! :) .. Not sure if any of my friend did or not.. Railroad stocks can be jumpy but if you really pay attention to it.. You could be the next Vanderbilt.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.