Most people only want to look at the upside. How much money can I make? How big of a return can I get? Big wins are important.
Few people ask, “How much can I lose?”
You should always play offense and defense with your portfolio. Continue Reading…
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Happy Hour: Work Simply
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For some reason, the idea of contrarianism has popped in my head these past few days (probably from something I read but can’t remember what). The idea of a contrarian view gets tossed around a lot in investing.
Understandably, if you want to outperform most investors you need to invest differently, independent from most investors. You’re betting against the crowd, which is not an easy thing to do. It can feel like you’re trying to walk into a stadium just as the game is letting out. Most people understand this concept, but few actually follow through with it successfully because they give up before they get to their seat. Continue Reading…
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Howard Marks on Risk, Predictions, and History
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Earlier this summer, Howard Marks did an episode of the Masters in Business podcast. Several topics were covered from risk control, market cycles, predicting the future, and understanding the past.
There was some mild interest in my notes on a previous presentation Marks gave on his investment philosophy. So I went back and organized my notes from this interview as well. Continue Reading…
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Happy Hour: Mindless Selling
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In the last post, I covered a few of Seth Klarman’s investing principles from a presentation he gave to a Columbia MBA class. He briefly discussed one place he looks for opportunities. Klarman likes to take advantage of mindless selling.
One of the downsides of mutual funds and index funds are the rules defining what a fund can and can’t own. The rules dictate what gets bought or sold. Klarman offered up a couple examples: Continue Reading…
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Seth Klarman on Absolute Returns, Risk, and Timing
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Seth Klarman addressed a Columbia MBA class back in 2010. Someone was nice enough to record it (you can find the video at Valuewalk).
His presentation covered his investing principles, which have defined his success over the years. I pulled out three of his principles below. Continue Reading…
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Happy Hour: Mispriced Moats
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Sanjay Bakshi is the latest to do a Talk at Google (link to the video). Bakshi, an MBA professor, teaches about behavioral financial and valuation.
In the talk, Bakshi discusses five areas where the market misprices a moated business because it’s given the wrong label: Continue Reading…