Below are excerpts (Part 2 of 4) from Thirty Years: Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors by Michael Mauboussin, which contains lots of insightful commentary on how behavioral psychology can greatly impact one’s likelihood of investment success. Creativity “I believe…that diverse input combined with rigor can lead to insight. This is all very consistent […]
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 […]
Continuation of portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 18 “The Most Important Thing Is…Avoiding Pitfalls” Risk, Volatility “…trying to avoid losses is more important than striving or great investment successes. The latter can be achieved some of the time, but the occasional failures […]
A few months ago, a friend sent me this gem of an article titled Some Thoughts On Becoming An Independent Fund Manager. Perfect light reading (and reflection) for Labor Day Weekend – grab an alcoholic beverage and enjoy!
“I believed if we delivered high double-digit returns at relatively low volatility, the rest of the business would take care of itself. I have been cured of that illusion.” –Andy Redleaf, Whitebox Anyone who believes that investment acumen alone is enough to build a successful investment management business should read the article below. Excerpts are […]
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 […]
The following anecdote comes from WkndNotes by Eric Peters (a treasure trove of humor and investment insight) and touches upon Tesla. Our readers know that PM Jar does not discuss ideas, and we have no intention of jumping into the Tesla debate or to declare ourselves Musk-lovers. The reason why we are showcasing this excerpt is because […]
Investing is hard on the psyche. Events don’t always make sense, yet external pressures often demand that you make sense of everything seemingly random. This can lead to frustration stemming from cognitive dissonance — the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. Perhaps this is why I enjoyed reading […]
Below is Part 5 of PM Jar’s interview with Howard Marks, the co-founder and chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, on portfolio management. Part 5: Creating Your Own Art “You can glean insights from many places and then assemble them into your own formula. You can’t copy somebody else. Well you can – but that’s not […]
Readers know that I’m a fan of Ted Lucas of Lattice Strategies. He recently wrote a piece (Applied Risk Strategy 1-21-13 – Humble Confidence and Creativity) discussing the impact of overconfidence on performance, as well as why a good risk management process should involve anticipating how assets behave in certain environments (in other words, predicting […]
Continuation of our series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. Creativity, Trackrecord “…although I consider myself to be primarily in the quantitative school…the really sensational ideas I have had over the years have been heavily weighted toward the qualitative side where I have had a ‘high-probability insight.’ […]
Below are my personal notes (portfolio management highlights) from Charlie Munger’s Q&A Session during the 2013 Daily Journal Shareholders Meeting this Wednesday in Los Angeles. Opportunity Cost After the meeting, I approached Munger to ask him about his thoughts on opportunity cost (a topic that he mentioned numerous times while answering questions, and in previous […]
Part 2 of portfolio management highlights extracted from an August 2010 WealthTrack interview with Consuelo Mack (in my opinion, WealthTrack really is an underrated treasure trove of investment wisdom). Be sure to check out Part 1. AUM, Compounding, Subscription, Redemptions “MACK: There’s a saying on Wall Street…that size is the enemy of performance… BERKOWITZ: …we think about […]
Part 3 of highlights from an insightful interview with Lisa Rapuano, who worked with Bill Miller for many years, and currently runs Lane Five Capital Management. Selectivity, Hurdle Rate, Opportunity Cost, Sizing “We do not own many stocks, and anything we buy has to improve the overall portfolio and/or be better than something else we already own…I’ll […]
Before my November vacation, I will leave you with a juicy Baupost piece compiled through various sources that shall remain confidential. Instead of the usual excerpts or quotes, below are summaries of ideas and concepts. Creativity, Making Mistakes False precision is dangerous. Klarman doesn’t believe that a computer can be programmed to invest the way […]
The following excerpts (of Q&A) were extracted from the Ruane Cunniff Goldfarb Investor Day Transcript. For those with a little free time, I highly recommend the reading of the entire transcript. These guys are masters at dissecting businesses and identifying the heart of any topic. Psychology, Creativity Question: About 36 years ago, shortly before Benjamin […]
A friend sent me a fund letter a few months ago, and I ruminated over whether to post the following excerpt. Ultimately, I felt compelled to share it with our Readers given its beautifully written and reflective thoughts. It indirectly illustrates the competitive nature of this business. The author of this article (and many more […]
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 […]
The content below is extracted from an interview with Steve Romick of First Pacific Advisors (Newsletter Fall 2010) published by Columbia Business School. Be sure to browse the other quarterly newsletters containing interviews with well-known investors. Many thanks to my friend Janice Davies of Karlin Asset Management for tipping PM Jar on this useful link. For more information on Steve […]
Investing is full of paradoxes. For example, in this zero-sum game, everyday we walk a fine line between arrogance (conviction that we are right) and humility (possibility that we may be wrong). We’ve written in the past about the importance of self-awareness. Self-aware of our mental weakness(es). Self-aware of our (perceived) strengths. Self-aware of how […]