Lessons From the Man Who Sells to Buffett

To learn which stocks Sherman has been buying recently, I visited my favorite site for SEC filings, 10KWizard.com, and looked for his firm's last two Form 13F filings. These are reports that managers of more than $100 million must file quarterly that list all holdings in dollars and shares.

If you put the two quarters' lists on the same spreadsheet, and line up the stocks alphabetically on the same row, you can calculate which ones he has been adding to and withdrawing from, and which ones have been added as new. I pay particular attention to ones where he's bought more shares, but the value has dropped -- indicating you can possibly pay less than he did.

And here's something to look forward to after the holidays: Sherman slyly says there will be "a surprise" in his Feb. 15 report.