Mohnish Pabrai: What Happened When Charlie Munger Reviewed My Entire Portfolio?

During this Q&A session with Guy Spier at VALUEx BRK 2024, Mohnish Pabrai shared an anecdote about an intimidating experience with Charlie Munger. During their first meeting, set up by Warren Buffett, Charlie examined a printout of Pabrai’s entire portfolio.

Despite not using computers, Charlie’s friend or assistant had prepared the printout. As Charlie reviewed each stock, he shook his head disapprovingly, especially at Sears Holdings.

This critical review made Pabrai feel extremely low. The next day, before the market opened, Pabrai sold his Sears stock based on Charlie’s disapproval. This encounter highlighted Charlie’s influence and the impact of his investment wisdom on Pabrai.

Here’s an excerpt from the session:

Pabrai: One of the most intimidating moments of being with Charlie, the intimidation stayed with me almost till the end.

The first time I met him, Warren had set my wife and me to meet him for lunch. We met him at the California Club. Charlie comes to that lunch, reaches into his coat pocket, and pulls out this printout from Guru Focus.

You know, he’s never been on a computer, so Dorothy must have printed that out for him.

It has my entire portfolio, and he’s looking at one stock after another. He’s looking at one stock and saying, you know, and I felt so low, lower than the lowest low life.

He’s looking at some and just shaking his head.

Then he gets to Sears Holdings and says, “Sears,” and again shakes his head. I looked at the clock. It was past 1:00 in California, so I couldn’t do anything.

But before the market opened the next day, I put my sell orders for Sears. That was quite an intimidating moment, but that was Charlie. So that was great.

You can watch the entire discussion here: