Buffett Partnership Letters: 1962 Part 2

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July 16, 2012

This is a continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters. Please see our previous articles for more details. Slightly off tangent random fact: in 1962, Buffett into new office space stocked with – hold on to your knickers – “an ample supply of Pepsi on hand.”   Volatility “It should […]

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Compounding Outsourced

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July 11, 2012

“I’m a value investor, which says I want to buy 50-cent dollars, but given my firm’s predilection for serving the needs of taxable investors, I also want that dollar to tax-efficiently compound in value over long periods of time. That means the businesses must have great capacity to reinvest, which is not all that common…I […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1962 Part 1

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July 8, 2012

This is a continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters. Please see our previous articles for more details. There are 3 separate letters detailing the occurrences of 1962: July 6, 1962 – interim (mid-year) letter December 24, 1962 – brief update with preliminary tax instructions January 18, 1963 – annual […]

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It’s Still A People Business

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July 5, 2012

I recently read an interview in Inc. Magazine on leadership and people management with Bob Sutton, a Stanford professor. Sutton’s audience is mainly corporations and other businesses, but his comments are directly applicable to the investment management business. After all, whether we like it or not, the investment management business is still a business that […]

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Wisdom from David E. Shaw: Part 2

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July 2, 2012

Here is Part 2 of our summary (focused on portfolio management tid bits, of course) of an interview with David E. Shaw in Peter J. Tanous’ book Investment Gurus. For additional background and context, please see Part 1.   Risk, Hedging “The purpose of a portfolio optimizer is to trade off risk and return in […]

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Howard Marks’ Book: Chapter 2

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June 29, 2012

Below is a continuation of portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ recent book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 2 “Understanding Market Efficiency (and It’s Limitation)”: Risk “I have my own reservations about the theory [efficient market hypothesis], and the biggest one has to do with the way it links […]

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Wisdom from David E. Shaw: Part 1

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June 26, 2012

Previously, we summarized an interview with Michael F. Price from Peter J. Tanous’ book Investment Gurus. We now move to the near opposite end of the investment style spectrum, to an interview in the same book with David E. Shaw, the ingenious and unorthodox founder of D.E. Shaw, a well-known and renowned quant fund. Although […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1961 Part 4

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June 23, 2012

This post is a continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters. Please refer to the initial post in this series for more details. For those interested in Warren Buffett’s portfolio management style, I highly recommend the reading of the second 1961 letter in its entirety, and to check out our […]

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Howard Marks’ Book: Chapter 1

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June 20, 2012

In his recent book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Howard Marks of Oaktree writes about a lot of different investment topics. I’ve done my best to lift out relevant portfolio management details. Without further ado, below are highlights from Chapter 1, titled “The Most Important Thing Is…Second-Level Thinking.” Portfolio Management […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1961 Part 3

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June 16, 2012

This post is a continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters. Please refer to the initial post in this series for more details. For those interested in Warren Buffett’s portfolio management style, I highly recommend the reading of the second 1961 letter in its entirety, and to check out our […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1961 Part 2

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June 13, 2012

This post is a continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters. Please refer to the initial post in this series for more details. During 1961, Buffett started to write semi-annual letters because his clients told him the annual letter was “a long time between drinks.” The second of the two […]

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What’s Benchmark Got To Do With It

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June 10, 2012

In the April 14th edition of the Economist, there’s an article titled Gavea Investments: A Shore Thing, about a $7Bn Brazilian Macro hedge fund run by Arminio Fraga. The following passage grabbed my attention especially after the recent post on Seth Klarman and the topic of a proper benchmark given the increasingly global implications of […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1961 Part 1

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May 21, 2012

This post is a continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters. Please refer to the initial post in this series for more details. During 1961, Buffett started to write semi-annual letters because his clients told him the annual letter was “a long time between drinks.” The summary below is derived […]

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James Montier on Tail Risk Hedging

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May 15, 2012

James Montier always provides a wonderful blend of value and behavioral principles, as well as humor in his written work. His books (I’m the proud owner of a signed copy of Value Investing) and articles are always worthwhile reads (and available for free on the GMO website once you create an account). Here is a tail risk […]

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Invisible Hands Encore

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May 11, 2012

Many thanks to Adam Bain of CommonWealth Opportunity Capital for tipping PM Jar about this chapter in Steve Drobny’s Invisible Hands. “The Pensioner” interviewed “runs a major portfolio for one of the largest pension funds in the world.” He seems to define risk (for the most part) as volatility. Regardless of whether you agree with […]

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Klarman-Zweig Banter: Part 2

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May 7, 2012

Here is Part 2 of tidbits from a conversation between Seth Klarman and Jason Zweig. Part 1 and the actual text of the interview is available here. Time Management “…sourcing of opportunity…a major part of what we do – identifying where we are likely to find bargains. Time is scarce. We can’t look at everything.” […]

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Klarman-Zweig Banter: Part 1

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May 2, 2012

Seth Klarman of Baupost is a great investor. Jason Zweig is a great writer. When combined, we get a great Klarman-Zweig Interview published Fall 2010 in the Financial Analyst Journal (Volume 66 Number 5) by the CFA Institute. Here is Part 1 of tidbits from that conversation. Part 2 is available here. Volatility Graham and Dodd’s […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1959 & 1960

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April 28, 2012

This post is a continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters. Please refer to the initial post in this series for more details. Benchmark “My continual objective in managing partnership funds is to achieve a long-term performance record superior to that of the Industrial Average…Unless we do achieve this superior performance there is […]

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Lessons from Jim Leitner – Part 3 of 3

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April 25, 2012

Here is Part 3 on the wonderfully insightful interview in Steve Drobny’s book The Invisible Hands with Jim Leitner, who runs Falcon Investment Management, and was previously a member of Yale Endowment’s Investment Committee. Leitner is an investor who has spent considerable time contemplating the science and art of investing, making money opportunistically across all asset classes, unconstrained, […]

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Lessons from Jim Leitner – Part 2 of 3

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April 22, 2012

Here is Part 2 on the wonderfully insightful interview in Steve Drobny’s book The Invisible Hands with Jim Leitner, who runs Falcon Investment Management, and was previously a member of Yale Endowment’s Investment Committee. Leitner is an investor who has spent considerable time contemplating the science and art of investing, making money opportunistically across all asset classes, unconstrained, […]

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