Posts Tagged ‘Volatility’

Columbia Interview with Kingstown – Part 2

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July 18, 2017

Below is Part 2 of excerpts from an interview with Kingstown Capital Management (Michael Blitzer and Guy Shanon) conducted by the Columbia Business School Graham & Doddsville newsletter publication. Patience, Volatility, Clients “The longer we do this, duration of capital and time horizon has actually become more and more of a competitive edge. We’ve always […]

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Cross-Pollination: Volatility & Options

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February 1, 2015

In our continual search for differentiation in this fiercely competitive investment biosphere, we remain intrigued by the idea of cross-pollination between investment strategies. After all, regardless of strategy, all investors share a common goal: capital compounding through the creation of return asymmetry over time. Fundamental investors often shy away from options and volatility, labeling them […]

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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 18

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October 7, 2014

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 […]

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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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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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Cliff Asness on Volatility, Risk & Loss

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May 18, 2014

The debate on the relationship between volatility, risk, and permanent impairment of capital rages on. Below are some thoughts on the subject from Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, extracted from an article titled “My Top 10 Peeves” published earlier this year in the Financial Analysts Journal. “Volatility” Is for Misguided Geeks; Risk Is Really […]

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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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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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A Chapter from Swensen’s Book

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February 27, 2014

Given his reputation and the title of the book, we would be remiss not to feature excerpts from David Swensen’s Pioneering Portfolio Management. Below are portfolio construction & management highlights from Chapter 6: Portfolio Management. The manager anecdotes in this chapter are fairly interesting too, providing readers a window into how an institution (Yale/Swensen) evaluates its […]

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Wisdom From James Montier

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February 1, 2014

I have a confession to make: I have a huge crush on James Montier. I think the feeling might be mutual (see picture below, from a signed copy of his book Value Investing: Tools and Techniques for Intelligent Investment.) Jokes aside, below are some fantastic bits from his recent essay titled “No Silver Bullets.”     […]

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Klarman’s Margin of Safety: Ch.13 – Part 3

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January 13, 2014

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 […]

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Bob Rodriguez’s Diversification Experiment

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September 22, 2013

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. […]

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Michael Price & Portfolio Management

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July 21, 2013

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 […]

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PM Jar Exclusive Interview With Howard Marks – Part 2 of 5

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June 19, 2013

Below is Part 2 of PM Jar’s interview with Howard Marks, the co-founder and chairman of Oaktree Capital Management. In the excerpts below, Marks discusses his approach to the art of investing: transforming symmetrical inputs into asymmetric returns. Be sure to read Part 1: An Idea of What Is Enough. Part 2: Real World Considerations “You shouldn’t […]

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Bill Lipschutz: Dealing With Mistakes

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June 10, 2013

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, […]

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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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Mauboussin on Position Sizing

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May 1, 2013

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 […]

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Wisdom from Whitebox’s Andy Redleaf

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April 12, 2013

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 […]

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Wisdom from Peter Lynch

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March 10, 2013

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 […]

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