Actually, Buffet has time and again said that if he had only 0.5-1.0 million to manage he could consistently get 50% a year. His greater capital does give him special access to management, but also greatly restricts where he can invest. I'm part of a fund that does automatic value investing based on an analysis of the fundamentals of the universe of stocks, and you can do quite well for yourself. Here Graham's "the intelligent investor" is still the bible