If you are going to be a great investor, you have to fit the style to who you are.
My natural state is an outsider. I’ve always felt outside the group, and I’ve always been analyzing the group.
It is ludicrous to believe that asset bubbles can only be recognized in hindsight.
I have always believed that a single talented analyst, working very hard, can cover an amazing amount of investment landscape, and this belief remains unchallenged in my mind.
I didn’t offer transparency. I provided one quarterly report in letter form. That was all you got. I basically demanded that if you’re going to invest in my fund you need to accept my terms. The terms not being super highs, but just, I’m not going to cater to you.
The borrowers will always be willing to take a great deal for themselves. It’s up to the lenders to show restraint, and when they lose it, watch out.
I just really like to find my own ideas.
I think a lot of funds get their ideas from Wall Street. I just like to find my own ideas. I read a lot. A lot of news. I just follow my nose. A lot of times it’s a dead end, but sometimes there’s value there.
Early on, people invested in me because of my letters and then, somehow, after they invested, they stopped reading them.
Read every line item until you get it.
Everything I do in investment is just very different.
My positioning with my investors was always, I need three to five years.
The late 90s almost forced me to identify myself as a value investor, because I thought what everybody else was doing was insane.
My natural state is an outsider, and no matter what group I’m in or where I am, I’ve always felt like I’m outside the group and I’ve always been analyzing the group.
People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results.