Posts Tagged ‘Capital Preservation’

Edge Is Everything

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October 17, 2017

I have been meaning to read Ed Thorp’s new book A Man for All Markets. Short on time in recent weeks, I settled instead for a succinct interview with Thorp in Jack Schwager’s book Hedge Fund Market Wizards. Below are highlights in which Thorp shares his thoughts on position sizing and risk management. Key takeaways: (1) […]

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Columbia Interview with Kingstown – Part 1

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July 3, 2017

Greetings! It has been a very long time since our last PM Jar article. In 2015-2016, a variety of opportunities emerged in the marketplace, and I was busy actively investing and implementing PM Jar concepts at Marram Investment Management. If you are curious about this implementation process and its outcome, here’s a link to Marram’s […]

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BlueCrest’s Michael Platt

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December 19, 2015

Michael Platt and BlueCrest Capital have been in the headlines recently as the latest hedge fund billionaire to return external capital and morph into a private partnership / family office. Below are portfolio management tidbits from Platt’s interview with Jack Schwager in Hedge Fund Market Wizards. Capital Preservation, Risk, Team Management “I have no appetite […]

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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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Howard Marks’ Book: Chapter 17

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August 9, 2014

Continuation of portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 17 “The Most Important Thing Is…Investing Defensively” — a rather apt topic given today’s market environment. Psychology, Capital Preservation, Expected Return, Risk, Opportunity Cost “What’s more important to you: scoring points or keeping your opponent […]

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Montier on Exposures & Bubbles

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July 12, 2014

Below are some wonderful bits on bubbles and portfolio construction from James Montier. Excerpts were extracted from a Feb 2014 interview with Montier by Robert Huebscher of Advisor Perspectives – a worthwhile read. Cash, Expected Returns, Exposure “The issue is…everything is expensive right now. How do you build a portfolio that recognizes the fact that cash […]

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Howard Marks’ Book: Chapter 16

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March 11, 2014

Continuation of portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 16 “The Most Important Thing Is…Appreciating the Role of Luck.” Luck, Capital Preservation “We have to practice defensive investing, since many of the outcomes are likely to go against us. It’s more important to ensure […]

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Asymmetry Revisited

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November 22, 2013

Return asymmetry is a topic that emerges over and over again on PM Jar. It’s a topic that spans across investments strategies and philosophies (see the end of this article for links to previous PM Jar articles on return asymmetry). This is no coincidence – creating (positive) return asymmetry over time is the hallmark of […]

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Mind of an Achiever

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April 20, 2013

In the competitive world of investing, each of us should constantly be seeking out competitive advantages. Personally, I believe that a certain degree of competitive advantage can be found in the cross-pollination of different schools of investment thought. Many in the value school often deride trading strategies, but they cannot deny the existence of those […]

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The Inner vs. Outer Scorecard

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February 21, 2013

We all have egos in the psychological sense – defined as “a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance.” It’s the degree that denotes the positive or negative association that’s often attached to the term “ego.” There are two passages below, one from Howard Marks and the other from Warren Buffett, that share a common denominator: […]

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Howard Marks’ Book: Chapter 9

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February 7, 2013

Continuation of portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 9 “The Most Important Thing Is…Awareness of the Pendulum” Psychology, Risk, When To Buy, When To Sell As the title of this chapter gives away, much of Marks’ comments emphasize the importance of awareness of market […]

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Baupost Letters: 1997

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February 4, 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. Mandate, Trackrecord, Expected […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1965 Part 4

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January 19, 2013

Continuation of our series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. AUM, Trackrecord, Sizing “…I believe that we have done somewhat better during the past few years with the capital we have had in the Partnership than we would have done if we had been working with a […]

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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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Howard Marks’ Book: Chapter 7

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January 11, 2013

Continuation of portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 7 “The Most Important Thing Is…Recognizing Risk” Risk, Capital Preservation, Compounding “…Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Bill Miller and Julian Robertson. In general their records are remarkable because of their decades of consistency and absence of disasters, […]

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Stanley Druckenmiller Wisdom – Part 1

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December 8, 2012

Druckenmiller is a legendary investor, and protégé of George Soros, who compounded capital ~30% annualized since 1986 before announcing in 2010 that his Duquesne fund would return all outside investor capital, and morph into a family office. Many of our Readers reside in the House of Value, but I believe that value investors can learn […]

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Buffett Partnership Letters: 1963 Part 4

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September 12, 2012

Continuation in a series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. Compounding, Capital Preservation “Since the whole subject of compounding has such as crass ring to it, I will attempt to introduce a little class into this discussion by turning to the art world. Francis I […]

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More from Ted Lucas

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September 5, 2012

In this piece, Ted Lucas of Lattice Strategies discusses the relationship between correlation and diversification, as well as the intricate task of building investment portfolios that remain resilient during market drawdowns, yet retain upside participation during bull markets. To explore some of his other writings, they are all archived on Lattice Strategies’ website. Risk, Capital Preservation, […]

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Wisdom from Steve Romick: Part 2

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August 24, 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.   Capital Preservation, Conservatism “Most of our financial exposure is on the debt side. We were able to buy loans with very strong collateral, […]

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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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