friday is mine treggs, page-120

"and recently, Gates has bought a large amount of Berkshirre (sic) Hathaway shares, enabling Buffet to have access to his personal fortune again so he can re-invest..."

Actually, Bill Gates has been on the board of Berkshire Hathaway for a number of years now. If you have a look at the directors, all have a tidy amount of stock in the company. A sort of prerequisite of Buffett's and Munger (who both have well over 90% of their entire wealth in the company.)

"I reckon Buffet has bought before the market has bottomed... but he is getting prices that us retail punters could never get on the open market."

This is true. He is never one to time markets and would not know when the bottom is. But why would one care? After all this passes (as history shows) and cycles swing, those still invested gain to win. He just does it so much better than the rest of us.