Cliff Asness and the team at AQR recently released a great paper titled – It Was the Worst of Times: Diversification During a Century of Drawdowns. The paper uses nearly 100 years of data to evaluate the effectiveness of diversifying investments during the worst of times for most portfolios. Here’s the summary and … Read More
Howard Marks: Latest Memo – The Seven Worst Words In The World
Howard Marks has just released his latest memo which focuses on today’s economic environment compared to 2008 saying: “Thus the idea for this memo came from the seven worst words in the investment world: “too much money chasing too few deals.” Here’s an excerpt from that memo: I have a … Read More
Peter Lynch: Even The Great Investors Need A Little Bit Of Luck
Here’s a great interview with value investing legend Peter Lynch in which he discusses how he made his first stock pick a 10-Bagger. This illustrates the point that all investors, even the great ones, need a little bit of luck, in terms of timing. Here’s an excerpt from that interview: … Read More
Howard Marks: 6 Classic Investment Mistakes That Every Investor Should Avoid
In his 2006 memo titled ‘Pigweed’ Howard Marks provided investors with six classic investment mistakes that every investor should avoid using the real-life case study of hedge fund – Amaranth Advisors. Amaranth Advisors was an American multi-strategy hedge fund founded by Nicholas Maounis and headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. During its peak, the firm had up to … Read More
Michael Mauboussin: Five Common Mistakes That Investors Make
Here’s a great video by Michael Mauboussin in which he highlights five common mistakes that investors make. These are: 1. “First is it is really important to try to minimize your own mistakes.” 2. “The second big mistake is the failure to understand regression toward the mean.” 3. “The third … Read More
Murray Stahl: We Find Things That Nobody Wants To Buy For A Reason That Is Not Related To Fundamentals Of Valuation
One of the investors we like to follow closely here at The Acquirer’s Multiple is Murray Stahl, CEO of Horizon Kinetics. Stahl has a particular knack of finding investment opportunities in ‘special situations’. In this interview with Ticker he discusses areas where investors can find these opportunities saying: “In a … Read More
Richard Zeckhauser: Mere Mortals Should Not Try To Imitate Warren Buffett or Bill Miller
Some years ago Richard Zeckhauser, a professor of political economy and bridge player, wrote a very interesting paper called – Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable (UU). His paper discusses how the wisest investors have earned extraordinary returns by investing in the unknown and the unknowable (UU). But they have done so on a reasoned, sensible … Read More
Michael Burry (1999): It Seems To Me That AAPL Is Incredibly Undervalued @ $1.59
Back on 5/17/1999 Michael Burry, a self confessed value investor, wrote a post on an investing message-board called – The Silicon Investor. His post detailed his valuation on AAPL stock, which at that time traded at around $1.59. Currently the stock trades at around $218. Here’s an excerpt from that post: … Read More
Howard Marks: One Thing That Makes Great Investors Great
Here’s a great interview with Howard Marks from his own series called – The Marks Investor Series. In this Q&A session Marks discusses what makes great investors great. Here’s an excerpt from that interview: I think we can lump the explanation under the heading of emotion. You mentioned Seth Klarman … Read More
Ken Fisher: Time In The Market Beats Timing The Market – Almost Always
Ken Fisher, founder of Fisher Investments, wrote a great article in USA Today which illustrates the importance of spending time in the market as opposed to trying to time the market, in order to achieve outstanding results. Here’s an excerpt from that article: Riding all of the stock market’s ups … Read More
Francis Chou: Value Investors Must Remain Confident When Your Strategy Does Not Appear To Be Working
One of the value investors we like to follow closely here at The Acquirer’s Multiple is Francis Chou, founder of Chou Associates Fund. Chou recently released his 2018 semi-annual report in which he urged value investors to stick with their value investing principles in the current market environment saying: “The … Read More
WSJ: How Did Warren Buffett Respond To Lehman and AIG When They Asked For Help In 2008
Here’s a great video from the WSJ in which Warren Buffett discusses the 2008 financial crisis, how he was approached by both Lehman Brothers and AIG when they asked for help, and why he turned them down. Buffett recalls being contacted by AIG saying: On Friday, preceding the weekend, I got … Read More
Bill Nygren: Intangibles Are The Key To Business Valuation Today
Bill Nygren, Portfolio Manager at The Oakmark Funds, has just released a video which highlights the importance of considering intangibles when valuing businesses today saying: “The linkage between book value and business value has been broken because so many important assets today are intangibles and don’t even show up on … Read More
Charlie Munger: Look For Businesses Using The Cancer Surgery Formula
In a 1995 edition of The Outstanding Investor Digest, Charlie Munger recounted the types of business models that he and Warren Buffett like to invest in. Most noteworthy is what he calls the ‘cancer surgery formula’ model saying: “I’ve had many friends in the sick-business-fix-up-game over a long lifetime. And … Read More
Bruce Flatt (Brookfield): “Being Contrarian And Not Being Where The Crowd Is Going – Is Hard To Do – But The Most Lucrative If Accomplished”
Here’s a great presentation from Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management, speaking to the folks at Google about – Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing. Flatt makes some great points on the importance of going against the crowd and maintaining a contrarian approach to investing saying: “We’ve always tried to adhere … Read More
David Einhorn: Greenlight Capital’s Big August Loss Compounds 2018 Woes
Here’s an article at Institutional Investor which discusses David Einhorn’s ongoing underperformance. According to this article at Reuters – Billionaire investor David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital hedge fund, whose bets on car companies General Motors and Tesla both moved against him in August, lost 7.6 percent this month, leaving the fund … Read More
Howard Marks: At Oaktree We Say, “Well Bought Is Half Sold.”
One of our favorite books from our list of 50 Of The Best Investing Books Of All Time is – The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, by Howard Marks. There’s one passage in particular in which Marks highlights the importance of buying at the right price without consideration … Read More
Chuck Royce: Deep Value Investing Using Enterprise Value To EBIT As A Valuation Metric
One of the investors we like to follow closely here at The Acquirer’s Multiple is Chuck Royce and his team at The Royce Funds. The Royce Funds recently released their commentary (see video below) on the success that they’re having with their deep value investing strategy using Enterprise Value to EBIT … Read More
Seth Klarman: Value Investing In Bull Markets
According to CNBC (August 22, 2018) we are currently in the midst of the longest bull market in history, since World War II: The current bull market rally, which started March 9, 2009, became the longest one on record since World War II on Wednesday by avoiding a 20 percent … Read More
Mario Gabelli: There Are No Such Things As “Can’t Miss” Stocks. Habits evolve, Technologies Change, And Companies Mature. It’s A Cycle As Old As Capitalism Itself
Mario Gabelli recently released his Q2 2018 shareholder letter. Gabelli reported for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, the net asset value (“NAV”) per Class A Share of The Gabelli Value 25 Fund increased 3.2% compared with increases of 3.4% and 1.3% for the Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) 500 Index and the … Read More