The recent Pabrai Wagons Fund Shareholder Call Replay offers a rare, unfiltered look into how Mohnish Pabrai actually builds portfolios, and nowhere is that clearer than in his discussion of cloned bets.
Rather than framing cloning as a shortcut or derivative tactic, Pabrai positions it as a disciplined entry point that often leads somewhere very different from where it begins.
In his own words, “Well, they’ve come from all over the place but I would say that as you know that I am the shameless cloner and I would say all our turkey positions are cloned.”
That admission is not defensive. It is foundational. The process starts with imitation, but it does not end there.
Pabrai explains how one cloned position can act as a trigger for much deeper work. “One of the things about the interesting thing about cloning is that our original interest in coal came from console energy being bought by David Einhorn and it being his second largest position. And that sent me down the rabbit hole of coal.” The cloned idea serves as an invitation, not a conclusion.
What follows is where differentiation emerges. “And when we went down the rabbit hole coal and we studied everything in coal, we ended up basically moving away from console and ending up with, you know, Alpha and Warrior etc.” The final portfolio looks nothing like the original clone, yet the clone was essential to getting there.
Pabrai is explicit about this evolution. “So Alpha, Warrior, Mongolian Mining, etc. are not cloned positions, but they came from original interest in a coal position that we cloned.” The distinction matters. The origin may be borrowed, but the endpoint is earned through independent analysis.
This pattern repeats across sectors. “And similarly I think that the drillers we were interested in Valeris coming from copy but then you know we broadened the horizon now we have bets that are not copy bets.” Cloning opens the door, but curiosity pushes the work further.
Even outside commodities, the method holds. “So I think that the home builders have also come from looking at other investors I admire,” he notes, before acknowledging, “the auto dealerships I think we’ve probably, I can’t point to who I was looking at but I’ve seen it in portfolios.” Some ideas remain closer to their source, others evolve substantially.
Importantly, Pabrai does not over-sanitize the process. “I mean most of it is cloned so that’s just the way it is but it’s a good question.” The statement strips away pretense and replaces it with honesty. Cloning is not a flaw in the system; it is the system’s starting engine.
The Pabrai Wagons Fund Shareholder Call Replay deserves close attention from serious investors seeking to understand how borrowed ideas can still lead to original portfolios.
You can watch the entire call here:
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