Posts Tagged ‘Benchmark’

Howard Marks’ Book: Chapter 19

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November 11, 2014

This concludes our series on portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 19 “The Most Important Thing Is…Adding Value” Trackrecord, Compounding, Capital Preservation “It means relatively little that a risk taker achieves a high return in a rising market, or that a conservative investors […]

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Baupost Letters: 2000-2001

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July 1, 2014

This concludes our series on portfolio management and Seth Klarman, with ideas extracted from old Baupost Group letters. Our Readers know that we generally provide excerpts along with commentary for each topic. However, at the request of Baupost, we will not be providing any excerpts, only our interpretive summaries. For those of you wishing to […]

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Elementary Worldly Wisdom – Part 1

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April 8, 2014

The following are portfolio management highlights extracted from a gem of a Munger speech given at USC 20 years ago in 1994. It’s long, but contains insights collected over many years by one of the world’s greatest investment minds. Caustically humorous, purely Munger, it is absolutely worth 20 minutes of your day between browsing ESPN […]

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PM Jar Exclusive Interview With Howard Marks – Part 1 of 5

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June 17, 2013

“Investing is an art form. Take the hundred greatest painters, their paintings look nothing alike. The definition of great is not uniform.” When asked about the art on the walls, he answers he is not a collector, merely an admirer. There’s no corner office with custom or museum-quality furniture. There’s no glaring display of power […]

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Baupost Letters: 1998

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May 25, 2013

Continuation in our series on portfolio management and Seth Klarman, with ideas extracted from old Baupost Group letters. Our Readers know that we generally provide excerpts along with commentary for each topic. However, at the request of Baupost, we will not be providing any excerpts, only our interpretive summaries, for this series. Hedging, Opportunity Cost, […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1967 Part 2

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March 2, 2013

Continuation of our series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. For any business, tapping the right client base and keeping those clients happy is crucial. To do so, Buffett believed in the establishment of mutually agreed upon objectives, and keeping his clients abreast of any changes in […]

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The Math of Compounding

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January 16, 2013

Here is an interesting piece from Ted Lucas of Lattice Strategies (2010 Q4 The Oracle of…Risk Management) on the complementary relationship between compounding and capital preservation, plus a few other insightful topics of discussion. Compounding, Capital Preservation “Losses are linear, but the appreciation required to recover from losses scales exponentially as they deepen. Thought experiment: Imagine a […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1965 Part 3

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January 14, 2013

Continuation of our series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. Control, Volatility “When such a controlling interest is acquired, the assets and earnings power of the business become the immediate predominant factors in value. When a small minority interest in a company is held, earning power and […]

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Wisdom from Steve Romick: Part 3

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September 3, 2012

Continuation of content extracted from an interview with Steve Romick of First Pacific Advisors (Newsletter Fall 2010) published by Columbia Business School. Please see Part 1 for more details on this series.   Creativity, Team Management “G&D: We also noticed that you recently hired Elizabeth Douglass, a former business journalist with the LA Times, which we found interesting […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1963 Part 2

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August 17, 2012

Continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. Topics covered include: Benchmark, Hurdle Rate, Expected Return, Volatility, & Team Management.   Benchmark, Hurdle Rate “At plus 14% versus plus 10% for the Dow, this six months has been a less satisfactory period than […]

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Baupost Letters: 1995

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August 1, 2012

Here is the first installment of a series on portfolio management and Seth Klarman, with ideas extracted from old Baupost Group letters. Our Readers know that we generally provide excerpts along with commentary for each topic. However, at the request of Baupost, we will not be providing any excerpts for this series.   When To […]

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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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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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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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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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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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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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