Tag Archive

In his latest 2023 Annual Shareholder Letter, Tom Gayner explains how he calculates the intrinsic value of his company’s shares. The Markel Group believes their company has two main components of value: Orange: This represents the investment portfolio and is calculated by dividing the total investments and cash minus debt by … Read More

In this interview with The Knowledge Project, Tom Gayner explains why you shouldn’t sell a winning investment. The two main reasons include: 1. The high opportunity cost of reinvesting: Selling implies realizing capital gains and paying taxes, reducing the reinvested capital To justify selling, the new investment’s potential return must … Read More

In this interview with The Value Perspective, Tom Gayner provides a great analogy of why GAAP accounting is like a map that can lead you astray. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: Is where I’m sort of pointing out what I believe to be some of the current flaws … Read More

During his recent fireside chat at the Ben Graham 10th Annual Conference, Tom Gayner explained why you should never be in a hurry to sell. Here’s an excerpt from the chat: Gayner: Sell well, I tell the story about my grandmother, and if some of you know me, you might … Read More

During his recent Omaha Brunch, Tom Gayner was asked about what discount rate he uses when assessing potential investments. Here’s his response: Gayner: So first, about interest rates and what do we use as a discount rate when we’re looking at making decisions, economic decisions, whether that’s pricing an insurance … Read More

During his recent interview on the RWH Podcast, Tom Gayner discussed investing lessons from Jerry Seinfeld and the downhill luge. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: Well, I think that’s true, and in fact the comedian Jerry Seinfeld has a great routine about the involuntary luge and just like … Read More

During his recent interview with The Business Brew, Tom Gayner discussed finding bargains on the new high/new low lists. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: Let me clarify. So that new high and new low list statement, what I said was, in my earlier life I used to read … Read More

One of the best resources for investors are the publicly available 13F-HR documents that each fund is required to submit to the SEC. These documents allow investors to track their favorite superinvestors, their fund’s current holdings, plus their new buys and sold out positions. We spend a lot of time … Read More

In this interview with The World According To Boyar Podcast, Tom Gayner discusses what makes Warren Buffett great, having spent time with him as a board member of The Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: I’ve been very fortunate in that I started going to Omaha back … Read More

During his recent interview on The Boyar Podcast, Tom Gayner discusses some great reasons for not selling a stock. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: Well if I can find the next Berkshire or the next Home Depot, not that much. One or two ideas a year really power … Read More

During his recent interview with Boyar, Tom Gayner discussed the key to success in investing is to survive. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Host: You’ve been in this business for quite a bit and one of your early mentors told you the key to the success in the investment … Read More

In his recent Q2 2022 Earnings Call, Tom Gayner provided his insights on how he thinks about capital allocation. Here’s an excerpt from the call: Gayner: The pace and amount of share repurchasing we’re doing is more than we’ve ever done at Markel before. And I’ll talk — again as … Read More

In his recent interview with GabelliTV, Tom Gayner discussed the similarities between Markel and Berkshire. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: Tactically, just to clarify. So yeah, we have a lot of names and people obviously… Buffett’s talked about the twenty punches and concentration and all that sort of … Read More

In his latest 2021 Letter to Shareholders, Tom Gayner discusses his win-win-win philosophy to building an exceptional business. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: Several years ago, we laid out our aspirational goal to “Build one of the world’s great companies.” We defined that as a company driven by the … Read More

In his recent interview with Barry Ritholz, Tom Gayner discussed the idea of not selling your winners. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: RITHOLTZ: So there are two data points I’m kind of fascinated about. One is, in your public investments, your 10 largest holdings, they’re almost half your portfolio. … Read More

In this interview on the SNN Network, Tom Gayner explains why interest rates are like an inverse correlation to curfew. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: Yes I do think there are a lot of things in today’s market that cause me to to scratch my head. Not the … Read More

Earlier this year on the Good Investing Talks Podcast, Tom Gayner explained why successful investing is not about the win, win, win, and more about not losing. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: We all want to be the best. But there’s a really bizarre thing in the world of … Read More

In his latest interview on the Good Investing Talks Podcast, Tom Gayner discusses a number of topics including his capital allocation framework, signal vs noise in the portfolio, and becoming a better investor. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Gayner: I think the first and foremost lesson that you get … Read More

In his recent interview on The Investors Podcast, Tom Gayner discussed the art of investing, why indexing has been overdone, and his four lenses for finding companies that deliver outsized returns. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: Stig Brodersen: Let’s start there. You famously identified four pillars in your investment … Read More