英文早读第34篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
Investment Companies during the First Half:
投资公司在上半年度：
Past letters have stressed our belief that the Dow in on pushover as a yardstick for investment performance. To the extent that funds are invested in common stocks, whether the manner of investment be through investment companies, investment counselors, bank trust departments, or do-it-yourself, our belief is that the overwhelming majority will achieve results roughly comparable to the Dow. Our opinion is that the deviations from the Dow are much more likely to be toward a poorer performance than a superior one.
过去的信中强调我们相信道琼斯指数对于投资表现是难以打败的对手。某种程度上，投在股市的资金，无论投资行为是通过投资公司，投资顾问，银行信托部门，或者自己做，我们都相信绝大多数会实现和道琼斯指数大致相当的结果。我们的观点是和道琼斯指数的偏差更加可能是落后的表现而不是领先的。
To illustrate this point, we have continually measured the Dow and limited partners' results against the two largest open-end investment companies (mutual funds) following a program of common stock investment and the two largest closed-end investment companies. The tabulation in Appendix C shows the five-years' results, and you will note the figures are extraordinarily close to those of the Dow. These companies have total assets of about 3.5 billion.
为了说明这一点，我们继续衡量道琼斯指数和LP收益，比较两个投资股市的最大的开放式投资公司（共同基金）和两只最大的封闭式投资公司。在附录C的列表中展示了五年的结果，你将会注意到数据非常接近道琼斯指数。这些公司拥有总资产大约35亿美金。
In the interest of getting this letter out promptly, we are mailing it before results are available for the closed-end companies. However, the two mutual funds both did poorer than the Dow, with Massachusetts Investors Trust having a minus 23% overall performance, and Investors Stock Fund realizing a minus 25.4%. This is not unusual as witness the lead artical in the WALL STREET JOURNAL of June 13, 1962 headed "Fund vs. Market." Of the 17 large common stock funds studied, everyone had a record poorer than the Dow from the peak on the Dow of 734, to the date of the article, although in some cases the margin of inferiority was minor.
为了让这封信及时出来，我们在封闭式公司的结果拿到之前就寄出了他。然而，这两只共同基金都弱于道琼斯指数，马萨诸塞投资者信托整体表现-23%，投资股市基金实现了-25.4%。并不罕见看到1962年6月13日的华尔街月刊在头版中标题为“基金对比市场”。在17家调研的大型股市基金，每一家从道琼斯指数高峰的734开始到那篇文章日期时都表现更差，尽管某些基金的劣势比较小。
14.overwhelming：压倒；压垮；使应接不暇；征服；压倒性的；势不可挡的；无法抗拒的
15.roughly：粗略的；大致；大约；凹凸不平的
16.deviation：偏离；背离；偏差
17.illustrate：说明；（用示例、图画等）解释；显示……存在；加插图于；给（书等）做图表
18.extraordinarily：非常；格外；异常地
19.promptly：立即；迅速；马上；及时地；准时地
20.inferiority：低等；劣等；劣势
21.ironically：讽刺的是；令人哭笑不得的是；说反话的
