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 […]
I have a new (intellectual) crush: Stanley Druckenmiller. If you don’t share my feelings, you will after you read his Jan 2015 speech at the Lost Tree Club. Portfolio management related excerpts below: Diversification, Sizing “I think diversification and all the stuff they’re teaching at business school today is probably the most misguided concept…And if […]
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 […]
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 […]
The following is Part 2 of 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 […]
This is a continuation in our series of portfolio construction & management highlights extracted from Seth Klarman’s Margin of Safety. In Chapter 13 (Portfolio Management and Trading) – Part 3 below, Klarman shares his thoughts on a number of portfolio construction and management topics such as risk management, hedging, and correlation. Portfolio Management, Risk “The challenge of successfully managing an […]
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. Sizing, Catalyst, Expected […]
Below are some portfolio management highlights from a recent interview (July 2013) with Bob Rodriguez and Dennis Bryan of First Pacific Advisors in Value Investor Insight. Especially intriguing is Bob’s description of his ongoing experiment related to the effects of diversification on portfolio returns. Diversification, Sizing, Volatility “Your portfolio today has fewer than 30 positions. […]
Continuation of portfolio management highlights from Howard Marks’ book, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, Chapter 14 “The Most Important Thing Is…Knowing What You Don’t Know” Mistakes, Sizing, Diversification, Leverage, Opportunity Cost “…the biggest problems tend to arise when investors forget about the difference between probability and outcome – that is, when […]
Summaries below are extracted from a speech Michael Price gave at the 2013 (June) London Value Investor Conference. If you have read our previous article based on an interview Peter J. Tanous conducted with Michael Price many years ago, you’ll find that Price’s portfolio management philosophy has not changed much since then. Many thanks to […]
Below is Part 4 of PM Jar’s interview with Howard Marks, the co-founder and chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, on portfolio management. Part 4: The Art of Transforming Symmetry into Asymmetry “If tactical decisions like concentration, diversification, and leverage are symmetrical two-way swords, then where does asymmetry come from? Asymmetry comes from alpha, from superior […]
Below is Part 3 of PM Jar’s interview with Howard Marks, the co-founder and chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, on portfolio management. Part 3: The Intertwining Debate of Diversification and Concentration “Diversification in itself does not add or subtract value, it only affects the probabilities.” PM Jar: During times when you are overwhelmed by opportunities, […]
The following excerpts are derived from Jack Schwager’s interview with Bill Lipschutz in The New Market Wizards. Lipschutz helped build and ran Salomon’s currency desk for many years – here is a 2006 EuroMoney Article with additional background on Bill Lipschutz. There are number of worthwhile portfolio management tidbits here, mainly the relationship between making mistakes, […]
Below are excerpts from an article written by Michael Mauboussin in 2006 on the importance of position sizing (Size Matters). For fans of the Kelly formula, this is a must-read. Mauboussin highlights a few very important flaws of the Kelly formula when applied to our imperfect, non-normally distributed world of investing. Sizing, Diversification “To suppose […]
Ever experience those humbling moments when you read something and think: “Wow, this person is way smarter than me” – happens to me every single day, most recently while reading a Feb 2013 Whitebox client letter during which Andy Redleaf & Jonathan Wood devoted a refreshing amount of text to the discussion of portfolio management […]
Previously, we summarized an interview with Michael F. Price & an interview with David E. Shaw from Peter J. Tanous’ book Investment Gurus. Below are highlight from yet another fantastic interview, this time with Peter Lynch, the legendary investor who ran Fidelity’s Magellan Fund from 1977-1990, compounding at ~30% annually during that period. When To Buy, Volatility, Catalyst […]
Portfolio management highlights extracted from Ruane Cunniff Goldfarb’s Sequoia Fund 2012 Annual Letter. These letters always make for pleasant reading, with candid and insightful commentary on portfolio positions and overall market conditions. Risk Free Rate, Discount Rate “Valuations for stocks are heavily influenced by interest rates, and particularly by the risk-free rate of return on […]
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 […]
Continuation of our series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. Conservatism, Volatility “Proponents of institutional investing frequently cite its conservative nature. If ‘conservatism’ is interpreted to mean ‘productive of results varying only slightly from average experience,’ I believe the characterization is proper…However, I believe that conservatism is […]
Continuation of our series on portfolio management and the Buffett Partnership Letters, please see our previous articles for more details. The 1965 letter is a treasure trove of insightful portfolio management commentary from Warren Buffett. This is the Buffett for purists – the bright, candid young investor, encountering intellectual dilemmas, thinking aloud about creative solutions, and putting […]