Dennis Gartman, the short-term trader, can't let his recent criticisms of Warren Buffett, the long-term investor, rest. Earlier this week, Mr. Gartman called Mr. Buffett – widely regarded as the greatest living investor – an “idiot” because of recent investment setbacks. He later qualified those comments on CNBC.

On Wednesday morning, in his daily Gartman Letter, he again addressed Mr. Buffett's track record:

 “When asked at a speech in Oregon recently, in an off-the-cuff interview with a reporter there, of our opinion of Mr. Buffett's investment style we said that for the past three years it has been abjectly wrong. We said so because Berkshire's valuation has fallen in lockstep with the market itself, and that Mr. Buffett seemed unwilling to do what was necessary to defend his shareholders from the ravages of the bear market.”

 “Let us make no mistake about it: over the past five decades, Mr. Buffett has been the manager's manager; an incredible manager of huge sums of money, who has made many of his investors inordinately wealthy. But those who've bought into Berkshire in the course of the past nineteen months have been served rather poorly, with little explanation as to why other than this has been a bear market and their shares have suffered as have most other shareholders in most other funds and companies. But this is Warren Buffett; this is the Oracle of Omaha; we had expected something better.”

However, Mr. Gartman failed to address what is possibly his biggest beef with Mr. Buffett – that the Oracle is a long-term investor who has repeatedly said he has no idea where stocks are headed in the short term.

Last October, when Mr. Buffett wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times expressing bullishness toward U.S. stocks, he said: “I can't predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven't the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month – or a year – from now.”

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