Top 10 Brilliant Quotes from Bill Ackman | Investing Strategy

What is Bill Ackman’s Investing Strategy?

Bill Ackman is a legendary activist investor & billionaire,  he is known for making big bets against the consensus & being right! 

His strategy was originally influenced by Warren Buffett & he considers himself value investor at heart, but it’s clear his strategy is much bolder & more fitting to an activist investor. 

Investing Strategy:  Activist Investor, Short Seller, Contrarian, Value Investor

What did Bill Ackman major In?

Bill Ackman surprisingly studied Social Studies at Harvard College. In 1988 He achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude. In 1992, he received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Bill Ackman Background

Bill Ackman’s father is Larry Ackman who is now on the advisory board for the Pershing square foundation. Bill Ackman was Married to Karen Ann Herskovitz between (1994 and 2017) and Neri Ocman from 2019.

Top 10 Investing Quotes by Bill Ackman

10. Persistent

Bill Ackman is extremely persistent & outspoken, when he believes he is right. This can work positively when it pay’s off (MBI Case) but can also work negatively when thinks don’t work out (Herbal Life). See Unpacking Bill Ackman’s 10 Best & Worst Trades 

9. Focused Portfolio

Although diversification is heavily touted as the best investment strategy by business school’s, many legendary investors believe the opposite.

Warren Buffett & Bill Ackman both ideally would like to put more money into their best idea where they have real insight than in their 2nd and 3rd best.

This goes against conventional wisdom but actually makes sense as your “circle of competence” can only be so large. It is close to impossible to know everything about everything. 

8. Invest into free cash flow generating businesses

This is a classic part of the Benjamin Graham & Warren Buffett investing strategy, look for businesses which generate good free cash flow and with a strong moat.

Free Cash Flow is the cash left after all capital expenditure. You can think of free cash flow as the “cash left in the till” available to pay out to shareholders as a dividend or buy back stock.  

7. Invest into Businesses with a Competitive Advantage

“We invest into businesses with a durable competitive advantage” A moat is a competitive advantage which can keep competitors out. This could be a Network Effect (Facebook), Economies of Scale (Amazon) , Monopoly (Google) , Technology (Tesla) etc. 

6. Independent Thinker

“I’m always prepared to do the right thing, regardless of what others think of me” . Being an independent thinker is a crucial trait for investing success, at some points you may need to better against the consensus and ignore the noise from outside media & criticism. This is not just great advice for investing, but also life. 

5. Be prepared to look silly.

“In Investing you can look silly for a long period of time before being proven right”. When you make bold bet’s against the consensus, be prepared to look silly for very long periods of time, people may criticise and call you crazy…this is normal.

For example in Bill Ackman’s battle against MBIA (Bond Insurer) he believed the bonds of the company were wrongly rated and would crash.

He first opened a position shorting the companies stock in 2002.  Then after many years of battling both MBIA and outside criticism he was proven right when the 2007 financial crisis caused the stock to plunge. Read more here: Bill Ackman’s Trades

4. Be Rational

“I am not emotional When Investing, you have to be completely rational & ignore the noise”

When the Legendary Investor Warren Buffett was asked about his number one reason for success, he stated it wasn’t IQ, but being “rational”. Although this may seem easy to do and obvious it is not so easy when Fear and Greed take hold. 

3. Activist Investing

“We look for companies which have lost their way, with new management, enormous value can be created”. An Activist investor such as Bill Ackman looks for companies where a change a management could produce significant shareholder value. Ackman then has the goal of getting enough board seats to change management control by buying up vast amounts of stock or doing a “Leveraged buyout”.

2. Rejection is the pathway to success

“If you want to be successful make sure being rejected doesn’t bother you at all”. Rejection is a necessary part of the success, although emotional it can be tough at the time the logic is strong.

JK Rowling was Turned Down By 12 Publishers before finding success With Harry Potter. Warren Buffett was rejected from Harvard Business School! Alibaba founder Jack Ma worked in KFC & learn’t English as a tour guide before founding the billion dollar company. 

1. Do what you love!

Life is short and to get the most out of it, doing what you love really does help. Warren Buffett often talks about doing a job you would do for free if you had to.

For investors like Bill Ackman and Warren Buffett, it is clear they love the game of researching & investing into great companies.

Want to Learn how to invest?

Many members of the Motivation 2 Invest community also have this passion and this drive to learn more each day. If you want to learn how to become a great fundamental investor or just join our thriving VIP Group. Check out the link here: https://www.motivation2invest.com/product/stock-investing-course/  

 we open the course to a limited number of members each month so be sure to reserve your spot now. Good Luck! 

Investor Bill Ackman | Top 10 Best Quotes