原文信息：
- 标题：1963 November Letter to Limited Partners
- 发表时间：1963-11-06
- 翻译：诚明散人
- 整理：诚明散人
BUFFETT PARTNERSHIP, LTD.
810 KIEWIT PLAZA
OMAHA 31, NEBRASKA
November 6, 1963
To My Partners for 1964:
致我1964年的合伙人：
Enclosed is the usual assortment of Thanksgiving reading material:
随信附上常见的感恩节读物：
(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）一式两份已经修订的1964年合伙协议。附有总则的一份由你们保存（与去年完全相同），另一份单页协议需签字、公证并交还给我们。奥马哈的合作伙伴可以来我们的办公室办理公证。
(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）一份无价之宝——“基本规则”，我希望每位合伙人每年至少阅读一次，这将是我11月份包裹中的常规项目。除非你完全理解其中的概念，并在身心上与之保持一致，否则不要签署合伙协议。
(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）1964年的承诺书一式两份，一份由你们保存，一份交还给我们。你可以在12月31日午夜之前修改这份承诺书，因此请尽早交还给我们，如果需要修改，只需通过信函或电话通知我们即可。
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.
任何撤资都将在1月1日后立即支付。你可以提取100美元至全部资产的任何金额。同样，增资也可以是任何金额，并应在1月10日之前交给我们。如果你正在处置某些投资，而且可以得到某些税收优势，这或许可以让你把交易放在1964年。如果增补款在11月到达我们这里，它们就具有预付款的地位，并按6%的利率计息，直到年终。而12月份到账的款项则不属于这种情况。12月份到账的增资不计利息。
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.
你将在1月25日之前收到1963年的完整报税信息。如果你在此之前需要对你的纳税情况进行估算，请告诉我，我会给你一个大致的估算。我们还将在12月底寄出一封有关税收的简短信件。
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.
截至10月底，1963年道琼斯工业指数的总体结果为正18.8%。这一年，我们在“Generals”“Workouts”和“Controls”这三种类型的投资上都取得了不错的成绩。大约一个月前，在持续经营的基础上，我们非常满意地出售了Dempster Mill Manufacturing公司的经营资产。我将在年度信中全面介绍Dempster的故事，也许会以“Harry Bottle颂”这样的抒情诗作为高潮。虽然由于我们的低价收购，我们在Dempster公司一直有内在的利润，但Harry的出色工作让我们多吃了几份甜点。顺便说一句，Harry已经为1964年成为有限合伙人支付了预付款——我们认为这是开始，而不是结束。
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 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.
然而，1963年的主角并不全部都是Dempster公司。虽然最后两个月可能会发生很多事情，因此不应过于看重临时业绩，但截至10月底，合伙公司的总体收益约为32%。根据我们的协议，在“月度支付”之前，有限合伙人的收益为25.5%。在我们大约300万美元的收益中，有200多万美元来自有价证券，不到100万美元来自Dempster的经营资产。我们在单一最佳“Generals”和“Workouts”投资中获得的综合收益与出售Dempster资产的收益相近。
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.
你们应该知道，如果1963年我们相对于道指的最终结果与10月31日一样好，我会把他看作异常的一年。我认为，从长远来看，13.2个百分点的差距是不可能实现的。不过，高出道指相对较低的收益已经令人满意。
Cordially
Warren E. Buffett
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!
附注：去年，我们宣布对最后将材料交还给我们的人不予奖励。这仍然是我们的政策。请尽快寄回你的协议和承诺书，省得我们在最后一刻手忙脚乱。如果我们能帮上忙，请给Bill或我打电话。谢谢！