Allan Mecham: The 400% Man

SmartMoney Magazine recently profiled Allan Mecham, a 34-year old college drop-out turned value investor at Arlington Value Management, who returned a cumulative 400% return over the twelve years ending December 31, 2011 (including  the astonishing 11% in 2008 and 59% in 2009 when the market was cratering). Rather than investing in unknown microcaps that soar after being “discovered” by the mainstream financial community, much of Mecham’s returns have been earned from large caps.

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You can then read the follow-up article called The 400% Man's New Big Bet

[L]ast year he levered up the fund and has invested half the money in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. 
“Able to borrow at around 1.5%, we levered (Berkshire) into a 50%+ position,” he wrote in his annual letter to shareholders. “Though not advocates of leverage, we believe the low cost and modest amount, combined with [Berkshire's] iron-clad safety and cheap price, makes our action sensible.”
There is some method to the madness. Mecham, a long-term Buffett disciple, argues that Berkshire Hathaway stock, on its own, “provides ample diversity, with exposure to disparate businesses (more than 70), sectors, and asset allocations.” Berkshire’s assets include a ton of cash-generative businesses, a book of blue-chip public stocks valued at more than $75 billion, and nearly $40 billion in cash, he says.

He was also interviewed by The Manual of Ideas starting from p7. Check here.