We’ve just been reading Seth Klarman’s latest speech at the Harvard Business School. During the speech Klarman provides some great insights into the problems with a short-term orientation in investing. Here’s an excerpt from the speech: Consider corporate time horizons. It’s a choice to attempt to maximize corporate results over … Read More
Howard Marks: Avoiding All Losses Can Render Success Unachievable Almost As Readily As Can The Occurrence Of Too Many Losses
In his 2014 memo – Dare To Be Great, Howard Marks says successful investing includes dealing with some losses saying: “To succeed at any activity involving the pursuit of gain, we have to be able to withstand the possibility of loss. A goal of avoiding all losses can render success … Read More
Aswath Damodaran: The One Thing You Need To Do To More Accurately Value Businesses
Here’s a great presentation with Aswath Damodaran and the team at Google. During the presentation Damodaran reveals the one thing investors need to do to more accurately value businesses. Here’s an excerpt from the presentation: So here’s my final point about valuation. One of my favorite movies of all time is … Read More
Michael Burry: Measuring Money Managers By ‘Relative Performance’ Harms Their Ability To Invest Intelligently
Seth Klarman has often spoken about the nonsense of measuring fund managers by their ‘relative performance’. That is, measuring the performance of their investments against various market benchmarks. A quick read through Michael Burry’s Scion Capital shareholder letters shows that he’s also not a fan of relative performance as a … Read More
Stanley Druckenmiller: What Should Investors Do If They’re In A ‘Slump’
Here’s a great interview with investing legend Stanley Druckenmiller at Real Vision in which he discusses the importance of investors knowing whether they’re currently ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ with regards picking investments. He also provides some great insights into what you should do if you find yourself in an investing slump. … Read More
Nassim Taleb: In Investing The People You Understand Most Easily Are Necessarily The Bull***tters.
Here’s a great passage from Skin In The Game by Nassim Taleb in which he discusses how easily investors can be hoodwinked by smooth talking salepeople promising outsized returns and, how often the best investing advice comes from those least able to explain it best. Here’s an excerpt from the … Read More
Jim Chanos: “Being Short With A Good Short Seller Who’s Producing Nominally Minor Positive Returns In A Bull Market Enables You To Be More Long”
One of our favorite Jim Chanos interviews is one he did with FT Alphachatterbox in which he explained how short selling provides ‘long-side’ investors with an insurance policy saying: “Being short with a good short seller who’s producing nominally minor positive returns in a bull market enables you to be … Read More
Howard Marks: Going To Cash Under Almost All Circumstances Is Stupid!
Here’s a great interview with Howard Marks at Goldman Sachs in which Marks discusses why going to cash under almost all circumstances is stupid, and why market timing is impossible. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Interviewer: Now that Oaktree is now $120 billion, and I understand not all pools … Read More
Charlie Munger: Moral Investing – We Could See It Was Like Putting $100 Million In A Bushel Basket And Setting It On Fire As We Walked Away
Here’s a great video with Charles Munger and Warren Buffett at the 2005 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in which they discuss the moral distinction between buying a stock and a company. Here’s an excerpt from the video: CHARLIE MUNGER: Yeah. I think he’s asking in part, are there some businesses … Read More
Jim Simons: Investing Is a Very ‘Gut Wrenching’ Business But You Can Find Things That Are Predictive
Here’s a great video interview with Jim Simons in which he discusses how his early success came more from luck than strategy. He also discusses how gut wrenching investing can be, how the efficient market theory is wrong, and how machine learning is only as good as the humans operating … Read More
Joel Greenblatt: Redefining ‘Traditional’ Value Investing So That It Never Goes Out Of Favor
Here’s a great interview with Joel Greenblatt at Bloomberg in which he discusses the types of businesses he’s currently looking for and how he’s redefined the ‘traditional’ value investing strategy so that it never goes out of favor’ Here’s an excerpt from the interview: We try to stick to companies … Read More
Charlie Munger: That Decision Has Cost Me Now About $5 Billion
Here’s a great recent interview with Charlie Munger & Li Lui in which Munger recalls one of his greatest investment mistakes that cost him $5 Billion. Here’s his recollection: Munger: Let’s take a simple question. As I said in that book. They offered me three hundred shares in Belridge Oil, which … Read More
Bruce Greenwald: How Smart Investors Can Take Advantage Of Overconfident Investors – Which Is Most Of Us!
We’ve just been watching Bruce Greenwald’s 2014 presentation at the International Post Keynesian Conference in which he illustrates how smart investors can take advantage of overconfident investors, which is most of us, saying: Human beings are constituted and cannot stop themselves from believing they know what they know with a … Read More
Joel Greenblatt: Today’s Opportunity Set Is Significant
We’ve just finished reading Joel Greenblatt’s Q318 market commentary in which he says: U.S. Equity Markets Remain Very Expensive (based on our 28 year valuation history) Valuations are high Markets are speculative The Large Disparity Between Growth & Value has continued Outperformance of growth and momentum driven indexes over value … Read More
Murray Stahl: “Perhaps A Superior Method To Reduce Portfolio Risk Could Be To Have No Diversification. If You Had Only One Holding”
We’ve just been reading the latest Q318 market commentary by Murray Stahl which discusses the possible benefits of concentrating ones portfolio to achieve outperformance. His article illustrates how this concentrated approach led to some serious outperformance by three of the greatest investors of all time, Warren Buffett, Charles Munger, and … Read More
Howard Marks: Markets Have Flipped From Being All Good to All Bad
Here’s a great video with Howard Marks at Bloomberg. During the interview Marks says: “I think, as it often does, the market has flipped from being all good to all bad. Prior to October the 4th it was ignoring some possible problem sites and now it’s obsessing about them. That’s … Read More
Mohnish Pabrai: The Ten Commandments of Investment Management
We’ve just been watching a recent presentation with Mohnish Pabrai at the Carroll School of Management – Boston College. Pabrai is discussing his ten commandments of investment management as follows: 1. Thou shall not skim off the top [fees] 2. Thou shalt not have an investment team 3. Thou shalt … Read More
Mark Sellers: So You Want To Be The Next Warren Buffett
Some years ago hedge fund manager Mark Sellers of Sellers Capital gave a great speech to a group of Harvard MBA students titled – So You Want To Be The Next Warren Buffett? How’s Your Writing? Sellers did not mince his words when he discussed the difficulty of becoming a great investor … Read More
Stanley Druckenmiller: Algos Have Taken The Rhythm Out Of The Market
Here’s a great video with Stanley Druckenmiller at Real Vision discussing the impact that algorithms are having on his investing strategy saying: “These algos have taken all the rhythm out of the market and have become extremely confusing to me.” Here’s an excerpt from that video: Druckenmiller: I’ve also struggled … Read More
T Boone Pickens – 6 Timeless Lessons For Investors
Earlier this year T Boone Pickens wrote a great article at Forbes called – Ninety Years Of Lessons Learned: T. Boone Pickens’ Letter To The Class Of 2018. In it he provided six key lessons, or what he calls ‘Booneisms’, which are very useful in the world of investing. Here’s … Read More