Category: Portfolio Management

Investment Philosophy

Saber Capital Investor Letter – 2017 Mid-year Update

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I recently wrote my mid-year investor letter to my clients at Saber Capital Management. I thought I’d share that letter with readers, since I posted it to my firm’s website. If you’re interested, you can view the letter here (it is also embedded below): Saber Capital Investor Letter – 2017 Mid-year Update If you’re interested in receiving future Saber Capital investor letters, you can get on Saber’s email distribution list using the form on the sidebar of our website: Saber […]

Investment Philosophy

Saber Capital 2016 Investor Letter

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I recently wrote my annual investor letter to my clients at Saber Capital Management. I thought I’d share that letter with readers, since I posted it to my firm’s website. If you’re interested, you can view the letter here: Saber Capital Investor Letter – 2016 Review I am also in the process of updating my firm’s website. This page will occasionally be updated with investor letters and other write-ups, notes, and commentary: Saber Capital Letters and Commentary If you’re interested in […]

Investment Philosophy

Two Important Investment Principles

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I was recently reading through some old investor interviews from the excellent Graham and Doddsville newsletter from Columbia Business School, and I came across an interview from Glenn Greenberg of Brave Warrior (formerly Chieftain Capital). A couple years ago I commented on a talk that Glenn Greenberg did at Columbia, where he discussed his investment approach. My own investment approach tends to fall in line with Greenberg’s investment philosophy as well as his portfolio management approach. Despite a few misses […]

Portfolio Management

A 1977 Warren Buffett Interview From the WSJ Archives

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Someone I’m connected with on Linkedin sent me this old article from 1977 in the Wall Street Journal on Warren Buffett. I thought I’d share it here, along with a few highlights. It’s an article I haven’t seen previously. There isn’t much new here, but I thought it was quick read with a couple passages worth commenting on. One thing I don’t recall Buffett ever describing were the pressures of money management that he felt while running his partnership. This […]

General Thoughts

The Market Value Fluctuations of the 10 Largest Companies

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I thought I’d put up a quick post with an interesting chart that might provide some food for thought. Considering the volatility in the past few days that was created by the surprising results of the “Brexit” referendum where the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, I thought this might be a timely topic to think about. In the past I’ve discussed how sometimes even the largest cap stocks can get mispriced from time to time (see here and […]

Portfolio Management

Unconventional Investments

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I was glancing through the Berkshire letters from the late 1990’s because I recall Buffett briefly mentioning his large silver position he acquired and I was trying to see if Buffett referenced the specific cash cost of production. He didn’t in the letter—only mentioning that Berkshire acquired 111 million ounces. He has mentioned in other interviews that silver was in fact below the cost of production—a supply/demand imbalance that can persist for a while, but not forever. Buffett felt comfortable […]

Investment Quotes

Buffett on Taxes (1965 version)

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“One of my friends—a noted West Coast philosopher—maintains that a majority of life’s errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do.” – Warren Buffett, 1965 BPL Partnership Letter I’ve read a few things lately discussing the benefits of designing a “tax-efficient” investment strategy. I’ve said this before, but I think there is a significant misunderstanding on the tax benefits of a low-turnover portfolio, and there is an even larger misunderstanding on the concept of turnover itself. […]

Portfolio Management

Drivers of ROE in the Context of Portfolio Management

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Someone on the Corner of Berkshire and Fairfax board recently posted this comment referencing Buffett’s well-known piece on inflation from 1977. In the article, Buffett describes the variables that drive a company’s return on equity. There are only five ways that a company can improve returns: Increase turnover Cheaper leverage (reduce interest charges) More leverage (increase the amount of assets relative to a given level of equity) Lower income taxes Wider margins Notice three of the five drivers of ROE have […]

Case Studies

Risk and Portfolio Management Similarities between Joel Greenblatt and Stanley Druckenmiller

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I have been busy over the past couple of weeks. My wife gave birth to twins about two weeks ago, and now that I am back in the office, I am catching up on some reading. While we were in the hospital for about a week, I did have some time to do some reading, and I have some comments on two annual reports of current holdings of mine—JP Morgan and Markel—which I may turn into brief posts. But briefly, […]

General Thoughts

A Few Thoughts on Reducing Unforced Errors

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This weekend I came across a link to an excellent Manual of Ideas interview with Allan Mecham that I’ve read before, but I decided to read through it again. There are a few key points that Mecham brings up that I think are really worth repeating, so I thought I’d highlight them here. Investing is not easy, but it should be simplistic. Here are some points worth keeping in mind: Understand What You Are Buying The first is the concept of understanding a […]