Dan Loeb recently released his Q32018 shareholder letter in which he discusses the difficulty of investing in the market this year, the current market environment, and how he plans to invest in the future. Here’s an excerpt from that letter: In the hit NBC television show The Good Place, (spoiler … 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
Aswath Damodaran: Investors Have Three Choices When It Comes To Investing In Marijuana Businesses
Aswath Damodaran has just released his latest video in which he discusses the businesses that are involved in the marijuana market and the three choices that investors have when assessing their investment choices in this space saying: “If the marijuana market is likely to grow strongly, it should be a … 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
Cliff Asness: What Type Of Diversification Works Best During The Worst Of Times
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
John Rogers: How To Beat The Index By 100 Basis Points Every Year
Here’s a great interview with John Rogers and Charlie Bobrinskoy from Ariel Investments. The Ariel portfolio is currently valued at $8.91 Billion, and has been regularly beating the index by 100 basis points per year. So how do they do it? Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Don’t you hear all … 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