As Stan says, the only risk that we as portfolio managers can truly control is the price that we pay for our investments. In other words, we must make a purchase only when all of our research tells us that there is a margin of safety. I agree with everything Stan says in this video including limiting the amount of assets that the firm has under management.… Continue reading
David Einhorn appeared on the Charlie Rose Show on December 6, 2010. I think Einhorn is a brilliant securities analyst. He has done a remarkable job providing high risk-adjusted returns for over a decade for the limited partners in his hedge fund, Greenlight Capital. He is a value investor like Buffett, Klarman, and many other successful investors, and he buys securities and sells others short in order to… Continue reading
I have been writing for several weeks that I would write a review of Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist. I believe it is the most important book of 2010 if only to shake us out of the rigid pessimism brought on by the events of 2008. I will write one, but there have been many who have made the book a focus of their analysis this year.… Continue reading
James Montier is an outstanding strategist who now works for GMO. He spoke last month at the CFA Institute’s European Investment Conference.
The attached blogpost summarizes his talk. The money quote:
So where do the new normal proponents get it wrong? Montier argued that they are confusing the distribution of economic outcomes — and the forecast… Continue reading
David Einhorn appeared on Consuelo Mack’s WealthTrack program on November 19, 2010. If I can locate the video, I will embed it here. Until then, I have attached the transcript:
I met my friend, Kate Schapiro, five years ago when I joined the Annual Conference Committee of the CFA Institute. Kate now chairs the committee. She was interviewed by Joe Kernen on CNBC’s Squawk Box last week. I could not agree more with her opinion about Japan. That is not a top-down view, but one that has been driven by a bottom-up selection process. There appears to be… Continue reading
John Rogers of Ariel is a value investor who often appears on CNBC’s Squawk Box. This transcript is posted here because it was distributed by an employee of the CFA Institute for free on LinkedIn. If anyone at the CFA Institute objects I will take it down. (Update 12/3/10: I was contacted by someone at the CFA Institute who requested that I link to the article on their… Continue reading
On May 1, 2006, Seth Klarman gave an interview for a class at Harvard, Psychology of Leadership.… Continue reading
Andy Kessler spun a nice yarn in his book, Running Money. It was about the trials and tribulations of Kessler and his partner in creating a hedge fund, finding investors, raising capital, investing capital, and negotiating with and rejecting seed funders who wanted a large stake in their management company in exchange for a small amount of capital. It all took place in the middle of… Continue reading
