The gain in intrinsic value could be modeled as the value added by a business above and beyond the charge for the use of capital in that business. The gain in intrinsic value was analogous to the economic-profit and market-value-added measures used by analysts in leading corporations to assess financial performance. Those measures focus on the ability to earn returns in excess of the cost of capital.
5. Risk and discount rates. Conventional academic and practitioner thinking held that the more risk one took, the more one should get paid. Thus, discount rates used in determining intrinsic values should be determined by the risk of the cash flows being valued. The conventional model for estimating discount rates was the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), which added a risk premium to the long-term risk-free rate of return, such as the U.S. Treasury bond yield.
Buffett departed from conventional thinking by using the rate of return on the long-term (for example, 30-year) U.S. Treasury bond to discount cash flows.13 Defending this practice, Buffett argued that he avoided risk, and therefore should use a “risk-free” discount rate. His firm used almost no debt financing. He focused on companies with predictable and stable earnings. He or his vice chair, Charlie Munger, sat on the boards of directors, where they obtained a candid, inside view of the company and could intervene in managements’ decisions if necessary. Buffett once said, “I put a heavy weight on certainty. If you do that, the whole idea of a risk factor doesn’t make sense to me. Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” He also wrote: