Baillie Gifford | James Anderson’s Top 10 Investing Quotes

Baillie Gifford | James Anderson’s Top 10 Investing Quotes

Baillie Gifford is a UK based Investment firm which specialises in investing into founder led growth companies.  The firm is an exceptional growth stock picker and were early shareholders in many stocks such as Amazon, Tesla and Alibaba.

Investment Strategy:

James Anderson’s investment strategy focuses heavily on companies growing their revenues very fast, even if profitability is hindered in the short term.

 In addition the firm likes to invest into companies which are “Founder Led” where their founders have “skin in the game” a substantial number of shares in the company.

This ensures great investment decisions are made with the benefit of shareholders in mind.  Examples of these exceptional founders include: Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Elon Musk (Tesla) , Jack Ma (Alibaba) and many more! 

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Investment Strategy: Growth stocks, Qualitative, Long term. 

Baillie Gifford’s investment strategy focuses upon disruptive innovation very similar to Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest.

Exceptional Returns:

Baillie Gifford’s flagship fund the FTSE 100 listed Scottish mortgage investment trust (SMT) , (Very boring name) has previously achieved some outstanding & exciting results.  In the past 20 years, the fund has delivered investors over 1,700% in returns!  Baillie Gifford Fund performance Baillie Gifford Fund performance. Source: Baillie Gifford

James Anderson Retirement:

James Anderson was the prime investment manager at Baillie Gifford has recently retired in 2021. After some outstanding returns on stocks like Tesla stock which was the largest position in the fund making up approximately 10% of the portfolio for SMT. 

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Top 8 Investing Quotes

1. Invest Long Term

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

“In the Long Run, the value of stocks is the Long run free cash flows, but we have the barest clues what these will be” – James Anderson (Baillie Gifford).

Investing for the Long Term requires immense vision, faith and great projections. As the value of a company is the future cash flows discounted back to today. A bet on the future is a bet on uncertainty. 

2. Embrace Uncertainty

Baillie Gifford Fund Performance Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust

Baillie Gifford Fund Performance Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. Credit: www.motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

“We should respect & endure uncertainty to identify where extreme upside might occur & observe patiently” – James Anderson (Baillie Gifford).

Uncertainty is apart of the future, embrace the volatility both in terms of downside & upside opportunities. As the Great Investor Howard Marks states, “It’s hard to know where we are going, but we should know where we are”. 

3. Test Your Beliefs

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

“It is critically important to test all our beliefs. This applies more strongly to our general contentions than our individual stock decisions.”

In life living by our beliefs is important, but we should also test them as they may be no longer valid. Thus when the facts change so should you opinion.

For example, Billionaire investor Howard Marks was previously sceptical on Cryptocurrency before seeing some Merit as a potential inflation hedge. 

4. Listen to Experts

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

“Most investors don’t listen to experts, they listen to the media fearmongering” – James Anderson (Growth Investor).

Baillie Gifford has a strategy of looking at the facts & listening to real technical experts. This is may sound like common sense but is actually revolutionary in the Hedge Fund industry.

This doesn’t mean “experts” like the sound bites you see on CNBC, which generally promotes fear like most of the Media. This means research papers in technical areas.

5. Invest into the Future

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford bought Tesla stock at Just $6 Per share, it then surpassed $600 in 2020 (Split adjusted) and at the time of writing has surpassed $1000, giving Tesla a Market Cap of over $1 Trillion.

  James Anderson & Baillie Gifford studied academic research papers which noted the decline in Battery prices & increases in performance.

These technology improvement traits are common in many Industries from Semiconductor chips in the late 90’s (Moore’s law) to Solar Panel cost declines etc. Ark Invest focuses on Wrights Law which predicts cost declines in many technologies as the quantity produced scales. 

Battery cost decline wrights law

Battery cost decline wrights law. Credit: https://ark-invest.com/wrights-law/

6. Understand Change

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

“The Secret to Successful Investing is understanding change, how it happens, how much it happens & it’s implications” – James Anderson (Growth Investor).

Change equals opportunity, this could be a change in Consumer Habits, a Change in technology, costs etc. Many of these “Changes” occurred during 2020, which results in many exceptional investment opportunities. We covered plenty in our Stock Research Group. 

7. Corporate Extinction

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

“A great corporate extinction is coming, 69 of the top 100 companies won’t survive because of revolutions in Energy, AI & Technology” – James Anderson (Growth Stock Investor). 

Many new tech companies are disrupting legacy industries, Anderson says a “Great Corporate Extinction” is coming which is a bold claim.

  • Amazon Disrupted the commerce Industry
  • Uber Disrupted the Taxi Business
  • Youtube Disrupted Television
  • Square is Disrupting the payment industry
  • Tesla is disrupting the Auto Industry

8. Be Eccentric

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

Baillie Gifford Fund James Anderson Investor. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Baillie-Gifford

“We need to remain Eccentric & become more prepared to be radical” – James Anderson (Growth stock investor) Baillie Gifford has an Eccentric investing style of buying into innovative technology companies early.

James Anderson has urged the firm not to become complacent and still be more radical moving forward. 

 

James Anderson Quotes Gallery

Chris Hohn The Man who earned £1 Million/Day | 8 Investing Secrets in Quotes

Chris Hohn The Man who earned £1 Million/Day | 8 Investing Secrets in Quotes

Sir Chris Hohn is a Billionaire, know as “The UK’s most powerful Hedge Fund Manager”.

Hohn is an activist investor with a focus on Value Investing. Hevhas made headlines recently for earning a stratospheric £1 Million per day in 2020. 

Fun Fact: Hohn has pledged over $2 Billion to charity, which earned himself a knighthood in 2014.

Investing Strategy: Activist investor, Focused, European.

How to Earn £1 Million per day?

In 2020, a year of crisis for many, Sir Chris Hohn paid himself a daily salary which was 9,000 time greater than the UK average! 

Exact figures show Hohn earned £940,000 per day in 2020, a stratospheric salary. 

Hohn’s total pay amounted to £343 Million ($459 Million) and is cited as the single largest amount ever paid to single person in the UK.

Where did the money come from?

Hohn’s runs a hedge Fund called, the Children’s Investment fund (TCI) which recorded a 66% jump in profit during the year. The Fund has £1.4 Billion in assets under management ($1.94 Billion).

Chris Hohn Quotes (6). www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes (6). www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

How Chris Hohn Become Wealthy?

Sir Christopher Hohn was born in 1966 in Surrey the UK. He came from humble beginnings, his Father was a Car Mechanic who was Born in Jamaica originally and his mother was a Legal Secretary.

Hohn started his Career in Private Equity (Apax Partners) and in 1996 he went to Wall Street to Manage the Perry Capital hedge fund, Hohn earnt approximately £75 million ($100 million) over his two years with the company, according to the Financial Times.

As an Activist Investor, Hohn earned a reputation for being an aggressive investor and was well-known for picking boardroom rights. 

In 2003, Hohn created his own Hedge Fund,  Children’s Investment fund in 2003.  Today Hohn has a Net Worth of an estimated $5.9 Billion.

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Children’s Investment Fund

The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) is a Charity linked Hedge Fund which donated regularly to  The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, run by his now ex wife.

The funds original setup transferred of 0.5% of the fund’s assets each year, with a extra 0.5% of assets for every year which the fund achieved returns of greater than 11%. 

As Chris divorced from his wife the fund now no longer donates money to the foundation on a contractual basis, though it may do so on a discretionary basis.

Fighting Climate Change

In Recent years Chris Hohn has become a major proponent of stopping Climate Change and has  launched the “Say on climate” initiative.

According to Reuters , this will make companies disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and could even force hundreds of US and European companies to slash their emissions if an annual shareholder vote agrees. 

UK Chancellor connection

Surprisingly the UK Chancellor (Rishi Sunak) used to work for Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager (Chris Hohn). He doesn’t include this on his LinkedIn Profile.

Chris Hohn Quotes (12)

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Top 8 Investing Quotes by Chris Hohn

1. Live Modest

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

“Chris Leads a Modest lifestyle, rents a home, drives a Prius and has worn an old Swatch for years” . Despite being a Billionaire Chris Hohn leads a modest & frugal lifestyle.

From this quote by the Guardian, it seems he doesn’t live flash and buy lots of jets, expensive cars (although he may own them in a low key fashion). At first glance his style seems very similar to Warren Buffett, who has lived in the same modest house since 1955.  

2. Focused Bets 

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

“By Concentrating our capital in a few good ideas it [hedge fund] can outperform” – Chris Hohn (Billionaire Investor)

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

Warren Buffett, Bill Ackman, Chris Hohn and many more greats believe in focus. 

They 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. 

3. Be a Long Term Investor

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

“It is painful to lose money, the key for us is to be long term investors” – Chris Hohn (Billionaire Investor).

Many great investors all openly admit to not being able to time the short term moves of the Stock Market & thus investing long term is the key to success.

In the words of the father of value investing Benjamin Graham “In the short run the stock market is a voting machine, in the long run it’s a weighing machine”.

4. Activist Investor

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

 “Although activism can be disruptive, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing for economies” – Chris Hohn (Activist Investor). Hohn is a true Activist Investor similar to Bill Ackman or Carl Ichan.

Activist Investors fight for shareholders and can even replace management in order to increase the shareholder value of the business. Although they ruffle some feathers, there is no doubt they are a vital part of the investment ecology. 

5. Volatility is NOT Risk

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

“Permanent Loss of Capital is our definition of Risk” – Chris Hohn . Modern Investment Analysis touts Risk as volatility or “Beta”, this is how much a particular stock price moves relative to the index.

Many Legendary investors from Warren Buffett to Ron Baron and Chris Hohn disagree with that statement. They prefer to really on good old fashioned common sense which really say that Risk is the likelihood of you losing your capital permanently.

6. Cash Flow Is King

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

“We invest into high quality companies with predictable cash flow” – Chris Hohn (Billionaire Investor).

Quality companies with high returns on capital and a great market position often produce predictable cash flow. Investing Legend Bill Ackman has a similar quote. The goal of a value investor is to “Buy cash flows cheap”.

7. Value the Company

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

“The value of a company is not in one years cash flows but in 20 years” – Chris Hohn

The goal of investing is to lay out cash now, with the view to get more back in the future.

Thus the value of a company is the future cash flows of the business discounted back to today, (as a dollar in the hand is worth more than a promised future dollar). Thus there are three parts to business value, Cash Flows (current), Growth (of cash flows) and Risk (to cash flows).

8. Do your Research

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

Chris Hohn Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/Chris-Hohn

“Hohn has always been a deep value investor, tireless researcher who can make canny judgements” – Chris Hohn.

I see many people blindly buying stocks without having any clue about the business, you may get lucky in the short term but long term this is dangerous. As Benjamin Graham once said “Speculation is akin to gambling”. 

Want to Learn how to invest?

 If you want to learn how to become a great fundamental investor or just join our insightful Stock Research Platform. Check out the link here: Investing Strategy Course

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

 

Chris Hohn Quotes Gallery

Billionaire Sam Zell | 15 Secrets to Success in Quotes

Billionaire Sam Zell | 15 Secrets to Success in Quotes

Sam Zell is one of the greatest Real Estate investors of all time! Known as the “King of Real Estate” he has is a Billionaire with a net worth of $6 Billion according to Forbes.  Zell is also nicknamed the “Grave Dancer” as he buys when everybody in the real estate world is getting killed! 

The investment firm Zell founded in 1969, Equity Group Investments expanded from Real Estate to own a variety of different businesses from the Schwinn bicycle company, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and much more. 

You could think of Zell as a “Poor Man’s Warren Buffett” who buys undervalued assets…if “poor” is a net worth of $6 Billion! Sam Zell was named one of our Top 20 Greatest Investors of all time.

Personal Life & Wife:

Zell has been married three times and divorced twice, he has three children from his first marriage and an adopted daughter  from his second marriage. His third wife is Helen Zell. Sam Zell and his wife Helen Zell live in Chicago, Illinois but also have homes in Sun Valley, Idaho and Malibu, California.

Is Sam Zell Self Made?

Yes! Sam Zell is a true self made success story who followed “The American Dream”. Zell had humble beginning as the son of Polish Emigrants which fled Nazi Germany in 1939. 

His father was a grain farmer in Poland & then a Jewellery seller in America. From young it was clear Zell had a strong entrepreneurial tendency. As a boy he started buying Playboy Magazines in the city and selling them to friends for a massive 600% mark-up! 

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (18)

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (18).Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com

How did Sam Zell Make his Money?

Sam Zell made his money using his entrepreneurial Spirit, buying undervalued assets and identifying supply & demand imbalances.  After making money selling Playboy magazines as a Boy…Zell went to college. In college, he asked the landlord of a 15 unit student housing building if he could manage the property in exchange for a free room & board.

Zell learnt a lot from the experience about refurbishing properties and he began buying distressed properties, renovating them and then renting to students. 

Afterwards Zell branched out from student rentals to commercial properties to residential units, resorts and even manufactured homes.  Zell began incorporating his different types of holdings into real estate investment trusts (R.E.I.T).

He organized his different real estate investments into various trusts which allowed him to sell them off as he wished. A notable example is the whopping $36 billion sale to investment giant Blackstone.

Sam Zell & Bitcoin?

Sam Zell has a sceptical stance towards Bitcoin he stated during an interview with business insider:

” I am very sceptical, frankly, of bitcoin. Ultimately, it may be the answer or one of the answers. But right now, it’s a world that’s extraordinarily populated by chameleons and other fast-talking characters. I don’t believe everybody involved in it are the kind of people I’d like to follow.”

In another Interview with Bloomberg Zell, stated

I think all the discussions about Cryptocurrencies are in response to the whole question of “Are Fiat currencies diminishing in value?”

Sam Zell buying Gold

Sam Zell stated he was concerned with the stimulus & money printing going in the US and the Inflation is “Reminiscent of the 1970’s”. Thus despite decades criticising Gold, Zell has finally started to buy.  Zell Stated during an interview with Bloomberg in May 2021.

“The first act would be to distinguish between growth & inflation, I’m very concerned at the level of money we have dispersed. I’m very concerned at the level debt we have created to support it”

“You read about lumber prices, we’re seeing it all over the place [INFLATION], we are seeing it in our businesses the bottle necks in our businesses pushing up prices. 

“If we keep doing what we are doing right now, I think it is 10 or 15 years away. If we lose the reserve status, I could see a 25% reduction in our standard of living.”

Ray Dalio Quotes MOTIVATION 2 INVEST (17)

Ray Dalio Quotes MOTIVATION 2 INVEST (17)Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Ray-Dalio

“I think the whole issue of Fiat currencies is a real issue, the United States is not the only country printing too much money, obvious one of the natural reactions is to buy gold, which is what I’ve done for the first time in my Career.”

Zell goes onto to discuss how he was a former critic of Gold:

“It feels very funny [buying gold] , I have talked in the past about “why would you want to buy gold?” it has no income and costs to store and yet when you see the debasement of the currency, you say what am i going to hold onto. “

Sam Zell Quotes & Success Secrets

1. DON’T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5)

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Zell often talks about his: “11th commandment, Thou Shalt not take oneself seriously” Thus being willing to laugh & joke at yourself, seems like a great rule for success & of course a happy life! 

2. GO ALL IN

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Zell often talks about: “Going all in as Life is not a dress rehearsal.”  We get one shot at life and we’re here for such a short space of time, thus making the most of every situation seems like a great Key to success. Warren Buffett offers similar advice & suggests “Don’t Sleepwalk through life”

3. PRIZE LOYALTY

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Loyalty defines your character & is a great trait to look for in others. Zell gives a warning about choosing who you associate with wisely: “if you lie with dogs you will wake up with fleas!”

4. Investing is a bet on Tomorrow

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“In Investing your making a bet on tomorrow, How rational is the future you expect” – Sam Zell. The value of a business or real estate property is the “future” cash flows discounted back to today.

Thus you are “making a bet on tomorrow”, the trick is to analyse how rational & likely your assumptions are.

Many great investors such as Billionaire Howard Marks suggest doing a Scenario Analysis, looking at the best case, worst case and most likely case. In addition to being aware, just because something can happen doesn’t mean it will happen. 

5. Be a Problem Solver

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“Entrepreneurs see problems & solutions…most people just see problems” – Sam Zell Being a problem solver is the great to many great entrepreneurial successes if you can find ways to help solve peoples “pain points” and do things “better, faster, cheaper” then you are on for a winner.

As an investor you are looking to invest into businesses which solve a real problem for people ideally a “Hair on fire problem”, a problem so essential people need to buy your product.

6. NEGOTIATE WELL

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Negotiation is one of the most underrated arts in business, people assume it is about being a “Tough ass” or taking a “strong position”, but that is not what true negotiation is about. Skilled negotiators have high emotional intelligence (EQ) and spend alot of time thinking about the other person “across the table” , their needs, wants, perspectives & desires.

The bible of Negotiation is by “Ury Fisher” at Harvard they wrote the books “Getting to yes” and “Getting past No”. There are so many gems in those books for great negotiation, such as having a strong BANTA (Best alternative to a negotiated agreement).

  Sam Zell Suggests: “Spend alot of time thinking about the person across the table, their MOTIVATION & PRIORITIES!”

7. Supply & Demand

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“If you find an opportunity where Supply is constrained & demand is increasing…invest” – Sam Zell.   Sam Zell tells the story of when he walks into his college class “Economics 101” and on the black board is written the words “Supply & Demand” , since then he has taken this principle and run with it.

Billionaire Investor Charlie Munger suggests “Take a simple idea & take it seriously”  . It is clear that is Sam Zell has done.

8. Be a Contrarian

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (11)

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (11). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com

“When everyone else is going left look right” – Sam Zell (Billionaire) . A successful trait of many great investors from Warren Buffett to Sir John Templeton is to be a contrarian.

This means you are using your own special insight to bet against the crowd with the goal of being right. Sam Zell applies this principle to buying distressed property when everybody else discards it as bad. 

9. Be an Opportunist 

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“I’m a professional Opportunist” – Sam Zell . An opportunist spots opportunities where others see crisis. In Mandarin, the word “crisis” means both danger & opportunity. At Motivation 2 Invest we say “Volatility = Opportunity”. 

10. Take Action

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“Trying to be right 100% of the time can lead to paralysis” – Sam Zell. If you worried about not taking action because you might be wrong… then you will never take action. The secret is to understand the likelihood of being right or wrong & in investing size your positions proportionality.

Generally you are looking for “Low risk, High reward” bets as Ray Dalio states, they won’t all be right…but you only need a few winners to become immensely successful. 

11. Invest into a Monopoly

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“I love a Monopoly or an Oligopoly at least” – Sam Zell.  The definition of a Monopoly (not to be confused with the board game) is: “exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service.”  This could be a toll road, a rail road, real estate which is in a limited area (Central New York or London) or even big tech companies like Google (Monopoly on Search).

An interesting point Legendary Investor Mohnish Pabrai pointed out was that many Monopolies will generally try to play down their position.

For example, if Google admitted they had a Monopoly on Internet search or internet advertising (Google & Facebook two largest players) then regulation would be implemented and the company Alphabet would be broken up.  Legendary Billionaire Peter Thiel states Competition is for losers. 

12. Ensure Incentives are aligned

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“Make sure all your partners share the same risk, interests aligned” – Sam Zell. When entering into any partnership it is crucial to ensure that your partners all share the same risk & have their interests aligned.

This ensures every is motivated & will pull in the same direction. In a company this can be done with stock options, bonuses, commissions etc. In a Business partnership this can be ensured by making sure everyone invests the same amount of money and takes the same risk. 

13. Assess the downside risk first

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“Assess the downside risk & simplify into components” – Sam Zell.   When making any large investment decision you should assess the risk of the investment intently and “Simplify into components”

What is the worst case scenario? How likely is this to occur? Afterwards you can do whatever you can to remove this risk & then as Legendary Value Investor Joel Greenblatt says “Let the upside take care of itself”.

14. Make Simple Quality Decisions

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“Quality of a decision is directly proportional to the simplicity of the decisions” – Sam Zell. Any idiot can make something sound complicated, a true genius can make things simple.

As Albert Einstein States: “Make Everything as simple as possible, but not simpler” . Thus bonus of simplifying things is the quality of your decisions increases. 

15. Live Efficient 

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Sam-Zell

“Live Efficient, I have the fastest Yes or No in the west” – Sam Zell. A great way to improve the decision making process is to have a framework, criteria and systems this can help to avoid making the same decision multiple times.

Then you can spend time mulling over more unique and complex opportunities rather than what your going to eat for lunch! 

Want to Learn how to invest?

Many great investors, From Buffett to Sam Zell are “Continuous learning machines”. If you want to learn how to become a great fundamental investor or just join our insightful Stock Research Platform.

Check out the link here: Investing Strategy Course

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

Sam Zell Quotes Gallery

20 Greatest Investors of all time | Famous & Historical Legends

20 Greatest Investors of all time | Famous & Historical Legends

Investing into the stock market has attracted the greatest minds in History! Many with their own unique investing style, so in this post we’re going to take a trip back through time and reveal some of the most famous & Historical investors.

Many are still active today, some are no longer with us, but in either case their immense timeless wisdom lives on & is still extremely relevant today!

After all despite the increase in technology & computer trading there is one common factor which has been present in making decisions in the stock market throughout the ages, PEOPLE.

Where there are people there is volatility & psychological biases all which create opportunities for profit. 

Greatest Investors of all time Quotes Gallery

Who is the Greatest Investor of All Time?

1. Jim Simons

In terms of pure investment returns, Jim Simons is the greatest investor of all time. Simons Medallion Fund averaged an incredible 71.4% compounded return annually between (1994 and 2014). This puts him ahead of Warren Buffett’s investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway which earned “only” 20% compounded returns annually. 

Both are incredible returns massively outperforming the S&P 500 index which averaged a 10.2% annual return.

INVESTING LEGENDS GREATEST INVESTORS RETURNS STOCK MARKET JIM SIMONS OUTLIER

INVESTING LEGENDS GREATEST INVESTORS RETURNS STOCK MARKET JIM SIMONS OUTLIER. Jim Simons (renaissance technologies) Vs Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) Credit: www.motivation2invest.com/Jim-Simons

The Scatter plot i’ve created above plots outperformance over the S&P 500 (X Axis) vs Number of Years. It is clear to see that Jim Simons is a true outlier in terms of returns.

However, Warren Buffett has an incredible return over such a long period of time nearly 60 years! 

Why this is not a fair fight?

Jim Simons is a “Quant Investor” and advanced Mathematician who has created a computer model & algorithm for trading at Renaissance technologies. So although his firm has generated better returns than any other investor, the computer algorithm is the real success story.

 

Jim Simons Quotes Gallery

2. Warren Buffett 

Warren Buffett…the man, the myth, the legend is one of the best investors of all time & a wealthy billionaire. He is the epitome of a classic Value investor.

Valuing Companies not stocks, with an extremely disciplined approach to his trades. His strategy focuses on risk minimisation & long term investing gains. 

Investment Returns:

This has paid of substantially with an annualised compounded portfolio return of approximately 20% since 1964, for his investing conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. Overall returns from 1964 to 2021 = 2,855% (approximately).

If you invested $1000 in 1964 into Berkshire, that would be worth an incredible $28,855. Close to a 29X Return!

Warren Buffett Quotes (8)

Warren Buffett Quotes (8). You can use this image if credit with clickable link: www.Motivation2invest.com/Warren-Buffett-Quotes

Warren Buffett is not just a great investor but also an incredible teacher, his wisdom, Witt and life Lessons are Legendary. Many of the greatest investors we see today stood on the shoulders of Buffett and credit him for their success. 

 

Warren Buffett Quotes Gallery

3. Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio is the Billionaire founder of the worlds largest hedge fund, Bridgewater associates. 

Dalio got his first taste of investing during the “nifty fifties” this was a major bull market and everyone was talking about stocks. 

He overhead many conversations while caddying at a golf club & thus saved up his wages before investing.

He bought his first stock, North East Airlines which immediately increased in price. After which Dalio was hooked on investing & fell in love with the opportunities.

Fun Fact: The 1950’s was a strong bull market, as it followed World War II thus pent up consumer demand was released. 

Ray Dalio Quotes MOTIVATION 2 INVEST (6)

Ray Dalio Quotes MOTIVATION 2 INVEST (6)Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Ray-Dalio

Ray Dalio’s investing Strategy has a big focus on Investing internationally and diversification across stocks, industries, asset classes etc.

all weather portfolio ray dalio 3D

all weather portfolio ray dalio 3D. Credit: www.motivation2invest.com/Ray-Dalio

Dalio is a major bull on investing into Gold, he states “If you don’t own gold, you know neither history or economics”.

This is contrary to Warren Buffett who doesn’t invest into gold as it “doesn’t produce anything”, Buffett prefers farmland.

 

Ray Dalio Quotes Gallery

4. Benjamin Graham (1894 to 1976)

Benjamin Graham (1894- 1976)  is known as the “Father of Value Investing”, a pioneer of Deep Value investing & the incredible Warren Buffett’s mentor! 

Graham wrote the book the intelligent investor of which his prodigy the Legendary Warren Buffett widely cites as the “best investing book ever written”. Graham also wrote the bible of value investing “Security Analysis”. 

Warren Buffett studied under Benjamin Graham at Columbia University and was his top student (no surprise).

Fun Fact: A series of unfortunate events led to Buffett’s encounter with Graham. As one of the richest people on this planet was TURNED DOWN by Harvard Business school in 1950.

Buffett stated: “I spent 10 minutes with the Harvard alumnus who was doing the interview, and he assessed my capabilities & turned me down,” Then Buffett Realised Graham was at Columbia and having read his books multiple times cover to cover he rang him up

“I thought you were dead! If not it would be great to study with you” , Buffett even offered to work for free for Benjamin Graham in his original investing partnership. 

Benjamin Graham Quotes The Intelligent Investor You can use this image if credit with clickable link (do follow) www.Motivation2invest.com/benjamin-graham-quotes

Benjamin Graham Quotes The Intelligent Investor You can use this image if credit with clickable link (do follow) www.Motivation2invest.com/benjamin-graham-quotes

Investment Returns:

Benjamin Graham averaged a compounded return of approximately 20% annually between 1936 to 1956. During the same period the general market returned just 12.2% annually on average.

Investment Strategy:

Benjamin Graham’s deep value investment strategies although simple were game-changing for those who adopted them, concepts include:

  • Recognising a Stock is a portion of a Business
  • Margin of Safety (Valuing a company then buying below than fair value) 
  • Mr Market (The concept that the Market is governed by a bipolar person which fluctuates from Fear to Greed) 
  • Deep Value Investing. 

Is Benjamin Graham still relevant today?

Yes! The principles outlined in books such as the Intelligent investor are still very relevant today for both business and investing, although the book is not so easy to read. 

The strategy of deep value investing has become more difficult, this is due to a few factors, from the increasing availability of strategy information, to network connection of the stock market, algorithmic trading and more. 

Many Stock Market inefficiencies tend to be plugged extremely fast these days which makes it harder to find opportunities. 

Even Warren Buffett evolved Benjamin Graham’s traditional deep value investing style to pay more for “wonderful companies at fair prices” .

This was partly thanks to the influence of another legendary Investor, who will discuss next Charlie Munger. 

 

Benjamin Graham Quotes Gallery

5. Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger is a famous historical investor with a net worth of $2.2 Billion. Munger is an exceptional value investor with great Witt, Wisdom & no filter when it comes to saying what he thinks!

Munger is also a great friend & Business partner of Warren Buffett. Buffett often jokes about himself & Munger knowing “what each other are thinking” like former Siamese Twins & they used speak on the phone almost daily. 

Munger is credited to have helped Warren Buffett invest into “Wonderful companies at fair prices”, rather than just deep value investments, using the Benjamin Graham method.

Buffett had traditionally done cigar butt strategy investing, where he looked to buy companies trading below net asset value, with “one last puff” in them. 

Charlie Munger Quote 8 MOTIVATION 2 INVEST (1)

Charlie Munger Quote 8 MOTIVATION 2 INVEST (1)

How did Charlie Munger Meet Warren Buffett?

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger first met in 1959.

The famous investors were introduced to each other at a dinner, with the referral coming from a popular family doctor of in Omaha. 

The story is Legendary, In 1957 Doctor Edwin Davis had a meeting with Buffett and agreed to allow him to manage his money…because he reminded him of someone named “Charlie Munger.”

In a CNBC Interview, Buffett stated:
“Well, I don’t know who Charlie Munger is, but I like him”

The Doctors wife, Dorothy made it her mission to connect Buffett and Munger. Two years she managed to connect the two at a dinner in 1959.

Charlie Munger, who was then a lawyer in Los Angeles, was visiting Omaha after his father, Alfred had passed away.

The two immediately made a connection and the rest of the room melted away as Buffett & Munger talked for hours. 

 

Charlie Munger Quotes Gallery

6. Philip Fisher

Phil Fisher is a great Historical Investor who pioneered the strategies of growth stock investing & a more qualitative approach to investing.

Fisher Pioneered the “Scuttlebutt” investing strategy which involves speaking to Management, Customers & even competitor companies in order to gain a special insight into a businesses quality.

Fisher looked to buy great businesses, with high returns on capital and to hold them long term, as opposed to repeatedly buying low & selling high.

Phil Fisher also focuses on Customer insight, Marketing & sales processes in his book he states:

 In the business world customers simply do not beat a path to the door of the man with the better mousetrap.

In the competitive world of commerce it is vital to make the potential customer aware of the advantages of a product or service.

This awareness can be created only by understanding what the potential buyer really wants (sometimes when the customer himself doesn’t clearly recognize why these advantages appeal to him)

and explaining it to him not in the seller’s terms but in his terms.” – Common Stocks & uncommon profits. 

Phil Fisher has a very similar approach to a modern day Legendary Investor Nick Sleep whose investment partnership produced compounded returns of 20.8% with over 40% of the fund in just one stock, Amazon!

This is the power of investing into long term compounders with great Managers.

Nick Sleep Nomad Investment Partners Letters Quotes

Nick Sleep Nomad Investment Partners Letters Quotes. Returns if invested into Tesla Stock or Amazon. Source: Motivation2invest.com

Warren Buffett is often considered to be part Ben Graham and part Phil Fisher.

Buffett stated in a 1995 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting

“I was very influenced by Phil Fisher when I read his books in the 1960’s, they are terrific books”

“I think of myself as 100% Ben graham and a 100% Phil Fisher [at the same time]

It takes more business experience to apply Fishers approach compared to Ben Graham

Ben was more of a teacher as he had no urge to make alot of money” 

Charlie Munger is also quoted to share fond thoughts on Phil Fisher at the same annual meeting in 1995.

 

Phil Fisher Quotes Gallery

7. Sir John Templeton

Sir John Templeton (1912-2008) is one of the greatest contrarian investors in history. Templeton is most famous for making bold bets against the consensus and being right! 

The Ultimate Contrarian (World War 2) Investment:

An extreme example of this includes a bold investment during World War 2! 

In 1939, WW2 was just beginning and the stock market crashed as most people were in fear (understandably).

However, Templeton saw this volatility as an opportunity.

John Templeton MOTIVATION 2 INVEST Quotes (1)

John Templeton MOTIVATION 2 INVEST Quotes (1)Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/John-Templeton-Quotes

Templeton borrowed thousands to buy 100 shares of EVERY STOCK selling for less than one dollar, during Stock Market Crash.

At that point one third of the companies faced bankruptcy, but he held his shares firm. After which all but four stocks rebounded, which made him an incredible 400% return in just 4 years! 

John Templeton MOTIVATION 2 INVEST Quotes (1) Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/John-Templeton-Quotes

John Templeton MOTIVATION 2 INVEST Quotes (1) Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/John-Templeton-Quotes

The Time of Maximum PESSIMISM is the Best time to BUY, the time of maximum OPTIMISM is the best time to SELL.

When stocks crash and fear grips the stock market, people perceive a greater risk. However, stocks are actually LESS RISKY as they are cheaper to buy…effectively stocks are on sale.

The same is true when stocks go up and euphoria is prominent, the perception from the media is now you should buy, when actually that is the most dangerous time to buy and the best time to sell. 

This is very similar to Legendary Investor Warren Buffett’s quote: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful”.

This sounds easy on paper but during the heat of a stock market crash it requires immense courage and independent thinking to buy when others are selling in fear. 

 

John Templeton Quotes Gallery

8. Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch is one of the greatest investors in History who has also inspired a generation (including myself!). 

As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments, Lynch averaged an incredible 29.2% annual return! Between 1977 and 1990.

This was consistently more than double the S&P 500 stock market index and thus this was the best-performing mutual fund in the world.

Lynch believes the average retail investor can get “one up on Wall street” which was the name of his famous book. 

Peter Lynch Investing Quotes Wall Street Legend (5)

Peter Lynch Investing Quotes Wall Street Legend (5). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Peter-Lynch-Quotes

Peter Lynch is also a great teacher similar to Warren Buffett . Lynch has the incredible skill of being able to simplify an investment strategy enough for anyone to understand.

Famous Value Investor Mohnish Pabrai, tells a story of how reading Peter Lynch’s books got him into investing. 

Mohnish was running an IT services company and decided to pick up one of Lynch’s books to read on a flight. He loved the book and saw many synergies which would help him to run his own business better.

Then decided to read another one of Lynches books,  Mohnish stated:

I was then out of Peter Lynch Books, but Lynch talked about this guy named Buffett in the book, so then I started reading his books

 

Peter Lynch Quotes Gallery

 

9. George Soros 

George Soros is a legendary Investor who is most famous for his bold Macro economic predictions & currency trades.  Soros is most famous for making $1 Billion in a single day when his bet against the British pound paid off!

This was called the “greatest Trade of all time” and he executed this with his former business partner & Trading Legend Stanley Druckenmiller. 

Investing Strategy:  Contrarian, Economics, Trader, Top Down

George Soros Quotes Motivation 2 invest (3). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/George-Soros-Quotes

George Soros Quotes Motivation 2 invest (3). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/George-Soros-Quotes

George Soros Quotes Gallery

10. Stanley Druckenmiller

Stanley Druckenmiller is a Famous Investing great with an estimated net worth of $6.6 billion.

Druckenmiller is most famous for executing what has been called the “greatest trade of all time” in which he made up $1 Billion in a single day!

This was accomplished by a bold bet against the British pound during the early 90’s when Stanley Druckenmiller was at the Quantum Fund with another Legendary investor George Soros

Stan Druckenmiller and George Soros (Quantum Fund)

Stan Druckenmiller and George Soros (Quantum Fund)

Stan Druckenmiller Quotes Gallery

11. Sam Zell 

Sam Zell is one of the greatest Real Estate investors of all time! Known as the “King of Real Estate” he has an net worth of $6 Billion according to Forbes. 

Zell is also nicknamed the “Grave Dancer” as he buys when everybody in the real estate world is getting killed! 

How to build a Real Estate Empire from Scratch?

Zell has humble beginning as the son of Polish Emigrants which fled Nazi Germany in 1939. From young it was clear Zell had a strong entrepreneurial tendency.

As a boy he started buying Playboy Magazines in the city and selling them to friends for a massive 600% mark-up! 

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (18)

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (18).Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com

In college, he asked the landlord of a 15 unit student housing building if he could manage the property in exchange for a free room & board.

Zell learnt a lot from the experience about refurbishing properties and he began buying distressed properties, renovating them and then renting to students. 

Afterwards Zell branched out from student rentals to commercial properties to
other residential units, resorts, even manufactured homes.  Zell began
incorporating his different types of holdings into real estate investment
trusts.

He organized his different real estate investments into various trusts which allowed him to sell them off as he wished. A notable example is the whopping $36 billion sale to investment giant Blackstone.

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (11)

Sam Zell Quotes Investing Real (11). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com

Sam Zell Quotes Gallery

 

 

12. Carl Ichan

Carl Icahn is a legendary activist investor who’s brash & outspoken Strategy of investing has made him a billionaire, with an estimated net worth of $16.7 Billion. 

As an activist investor Ichan analyses poorly run companies where he believes a change in management strategy will improve the company & increase shareholder value.  

To accomplish this Carl Icahn buys up a vast amount of shares in a company at opportune moments in order to gain voting rights for shareholders.

This can even result in a hostile takeover if not approved by the board of directors or stubborn management who may fear for their jobs. 

Carl Ichan Quotes motivation 2 invest. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Carl-Ichan-Quotes

Carl Ichan Quotes motivation 2 invest. Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Carl-Ichan-Quotes

Ironically many shareholders welcome Carl Ichan’s presence as an investor as they know he will hold management accountable for their decisions. 

Fun Fact: Carl Icahn is known for his public fights with another Legendary Activist Investor Bill Ackman. This occurred during the Herbal Life investment, where both activists took opposing positions & argued very personally on public TV!  

Investing Strategy:  Activist Investor, Contrarian, Value Investor

 

Carl Ichan Quotes Gallery

13. Walter Schloss 

Walter Schloss (1916 to 2012) is was of the greatest value investors in History. As a known disciple of Benjamin Graham, Schloss focused on deep value investing. 

Schloss took Ben Graham’s investment courses before going to work for him at the Graham-Newman Partnership, there he met Warren Buffett

Walter Schloss Quotes (1 (7)

Walter Schloss Quotes (1 (7). Credit; www.motivation2invest.com

Investing Returns

In 1955, Walter Schloss started his own fund and for over 45 years he delivered his investors incredible annual returns of 15.3% versus 10% for the S&P 500. 

In 1984, Warren Buffett named him as one of the Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville.

 Warren Buffett stated about Walters Schloss:

 “He knows how to identify securities that sell at considerably less than their value to a private owner; And that’s all he does …

He owns many more stocks than I do and is far less interested in the underlying nature of the business; I don’t seem to have very much influence on Walter.

That is one of his strengths; No one has much influence on him.” 

Walter Schloss closed his fund in the year 2000 and passed away at the age of 95 in February 2012. 

Walter Schloss Quotes Gallery

14 Bill Ruane

Bill Ruane (1925 to 2005) is a famous & historical Value investor who was one of Warren Buffett’s Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville.

When Buffett closed his original fund in 1969 he even referred his investors to Bill Ruane’s Sequoia Fund, this is the ultimate referral!

Bill Ruane’s fund had a Value based strategy of buying “Wonderful Businesses at fair prices” , rather than the strict Ben Graham approach of “Cigar Butt” style, deep value investing.

Bill Ruane investing Quotes (5)

Bill Ruane investing Quotes (5). Credit: www.motivation2invest.com

Investing record

Since Sequoia funds inception in 1970 they have massively outperformed the S&P 500. If you invested just $10,000 into the fund this would have grown to over $4.2 Million today! Compared with “just” $1.3 Million from the S&P 500. 

Bill Ruane Quotes Gallery

15. Jack Bogle

Jack Bogle (1929-2019) was the “Father of Index Fund Investing” as the Billionaire Founder of Vanguard. One of the large Passive investment fund providers in the world.

How Jack Bogle Founded Vanguard?

Jack Bogle started in the mutual fund business in 1951 when his senior thesis caught the eye of Walter L. Morgan, founder of the Wellington Fund.

Bogle started working at the Wellington fund and rose to become Executive Vice President in 1965 & was named one of “The Whiz Kids” by Intuitional Investor Magazine.

However, the good times didn’t last…as the bear market of 1973 led to poor performance by the Wellington Fund & caused a dispute amongst partners. This resulted in Bogles firing in 1974!

Not one to take things lying down, Bogle proposed a new company which would provide admin to the Mutual fund provider at a cost basis. This would be called the Vanguard Group and was also named “The Vanguard Experiment”.

After reading a study on efficient markets & past fund manager performance, Bogle realised that rather than trying to “beat the market” better performance could be achieved by buying the Market. 

“Rather than trying to look for a needle in a haystack, just buy the whole haystack”

Jack Bogle Investing Quotes (13)

Jack Bogle Investing Quotes (13). Credit: www.motivation2invest.com

In 1976, Bogle introduced the first index investment trust which allowed people to buy the market. This was ridiculed in the press as a “sure path to mediocrity” and “un-American”, the firm only managed to collect $11 Million during the release.

However, today index funds are a huge part of Vanguards approximately $5 TRILLION in assets under management!

Passive investing has even become more popular than active investing & this has really changed the entire investment industry.

Jack Bogle Quotes Gallery

16. Ron Baron

Ron Baron is a legendary growth stock investor, who makes big bets on high tech stocks. 

He is most famous for being an early Bull on Tesla stock and publicly placing an astronomical price target of $4,000 per share back in early 2020. This was before Tesla stock rose by over 800% that same year! 

In a 2021 interview with Bloomberg, Baron stated that He thinks Tesla CEO Elon Musk will become a “Trillion Dollar Man”. 

Ron Baron Growth Stock Investing Strategy & Quotes Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Ron-Baron-Strategy

Ron Baron Growth Stock Investing Strategy & Quotes
Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Ron-Baron-Strategy

Ron Baron invests into growth stocks with high revenue growth and a long term vision. He tends to hold these stocks for a very long term if the fundamentals don’t change.

Baron Looks for unique companies which are “changing or disrupting” an industry. For Example, Tesla is disrupting the auto industry and SpaceX is disrupting the rocket Industry with it’s reusable rockets. 

Ron Baron Quotes Gallery

17. David Dodd

David Dodd (1895 to 1988) is a legendary Value investor, who was one of Warren Buffett’s Super Investors of Graham & Doddsville! 

Dodd was a colleague of Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School and together they wrote the bible of deep value investing “Security Analysis” in 1934.

David Dodd focuses on Deep Value Investing which involves buying assets below their intrinsic value with a Margin of Safety. The strategy also involves looking for “Net-Nets” these are stocks trading below their net asset value.

David Dodd Value Investing Quotes (

David Dodd Value Investing Quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com

How Buffett Met Graham & Dodd?

In 1950, Warren Buffett was turned down from Harvard Business School (the Irony)

Buffett quoted:

“I spent 10 minutes with the Harvard alumnus who was doing the interview, he assessed my capabilities and turned me down.”

Luckily for Buffett he discovered that Benjamin Graham & David Dodd were teaching at Columbia Business School. Having read their books “Security Analysis” & “The Intelligent Investor” cover to cover multiple times.

Buffett called them up “I thought you guys were dead, but if not I would love to come and study at Columbia” . Buffett was their greatest student & top of the class (no surprise)

David Dodd Quotes Gallery

18. Howard Marks

Howard Marks is a legendary Value investor with a specialism in deep value investing & special situations, such as credit & distressed debt investing. Marks is the founder of Oak Tree Capital .

Howard Marks believes everything is governed by cycles, from investor moods to stock market crashes.

Mastering the Market Cycle Howard Marks

Mastering the Market Cycle Howard Marks

Howard Marks even wrote a best selling book on the subject called “Mastering the Market Cycle” & “the most important thing”. The later book lists “the most important things” to do when investing. 

Investing Record

Howard Marks Oaktree capital has a history of exceptional performance. 18.8% IRR (Internal Rate of Return) vs the S&P 500 Annual Return of 10.4%. This is the annualised time weighted return since October 1988.

Investing Strategy:  Value Investor, Contrarian, Small Cap, Large Cap

Howard Marks Quotes Gallery

 

19. Julian Robertson

Julian Robertson is the billionaire former hedge fund manager of Tiger Management.

Now 89 years old, Robertson likes to invest into many so called “Tiger cubs” these are former Tiger Management employees who have since founded their own Hedge Funds

Julian Robertson Hedge Fund Investor Quotes (3)

Julian Robertson Hedge Fund Investor Quotes (3). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com

Tiger Global

Tiger Global is one of the so called “Tiger Cubs” related to the investment management firm Tiger Management (Julian Robertson).

Tiger Global was founded by Coleman in 2001 with an initial check of $25 million from the great & famous investor Julian Robertson of Tiger Management.

Tiger Global is a leading hedge fund and private investment firm focused on companies in the Technology industry.

Tiger has been nicknamed the “As The World’s Biggest Unicorn Hunter
Fun Fact: A Unicorn” is a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion.

Julian Robertson Quotes Gallery

20. Bill Ackman

Bill Ackman is a legendary activist investor & billionaire, he is known for making big bets against the consensus & being right (most of the time, data later on)

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

Bill Ackman is known for his dogged persistence, when he believes he is right which can result in major win’s, but also some very public losses.

BEST BILL ACKMAN QUOTE MOTIVATION 2 INVEST Quotes (54)

BEST BILL ACKMAN TRADES Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/Bill-Ackman-Trades

Investing Returns

Bill Ackman is one of the greatest investors of all time despite his bold style. Pershing Square holdings (LSE:PSH) has achieved a 1,412.8% return between (2004 to 2021) vs the S&P 500 return of 399.2%. Figures are net of performance fee (20%).

This is a compounded annual return of 17.1% vs the S&P 9.8% (2004 to 20201). Source. Pershing square holdings Annual Report.

Latest Trades 

Bill Ackman is betting big on rising interest rates due to inflation. Unpacking Bill Ackman’s 10 Best & Worst Trades | New Trade 2021 & Downloads |

Want to Learn how to be great investor?

We have compiled together the strategies from the greatest investors of all time with our own real world investing experience to create the ultimate investing strategy course for the fundamental investor.

We open the course & our stock research platform each month for a limited time, so be sure to click through to reserve your spot.

Bill Ackman Quotes Gallery

10 Brilliant David Einhorn Quotes | Investing Strategy

10 Brilliant David Einhorn Quotes | Investing Strategy

David Einhorn is one of the worlds most successful Long/Short Hedge Fund Managers. 

As of 2013, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital returned an incredible 19.5% since its inception in 1996. With a market volatility beta of around 0.5, this means many of those returns were uncorrelated with the general stock market.

In this post i’m going to reveal the investing strategy of David Einhorn by diving into his top 10 quotes. Enjoy! 

Investing Strategy: Short Seller, Hedge Fund

10. Investing is like Poker

David Einhorn Investor quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

David Einhorn Investor quotes. Credit. www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“Texas Hold’em is about folding & waiting for that time every couple of hours when you have an advantage & can press it” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor). David Einhorn is a big poker player as you can tell from this quote. There are many similarities between Poker and investing.

You are playing against the odds, against other people and emotions play a big part. Einhorn suggests folding until you have a great opportunity.

The Legendary Investor Warren Buffett often states In Investing there are “no called strikes” (baseball), thus you can sit and watch pitch after pitch go by, until one is in your “Sweet Spot”. 

9. Look for High Return on Equity

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“Great Companies can generate alot of profit without requiring alot of capital, high Return on Equity (ROE)” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor). For every dollar a company invests you want to ensure they will likely get more dollars back in the future. Thus investing into companies with high Return on Equity (ROC) or Return on Capital (ROC) is usually a good idea.

Legendary Growth Stock investor Nick Sleep suggests putting your investment into the hands of a “Great Capital allocator” .

Examples include Jeff Bezos (Amazon) who is known for doing a variety of “bets” , not all pay off (Fire Phone!) but the ones that do can increase the companies value massively (Amazon Web Services, AWS). 

8. Analysis is the key to success

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7)

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“The loss was not bad luck, but bad analysis” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor)

Starting with a solid analysis of the business fundamentals is the key to developing a high conviction investing thesis. A Great investor once suggested if the money you invested was going to support your family, what questions would you ask? 

7. Bubbles & Crashes

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“What is uncertain is how much further the bubble will expand & what will pop it!  – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor). Bubbles are born out of greed, speculation, FOMO and herd mentality. Asset prices rise to astronomical values before crashing back to earth. From the Tech Bubble  (late 90’s) to the 2008 (Housing Bubble) and even Crypto bubbles previously.

The difficult part is timing the top of these bubbles, As the Legendary Investor Howard Marks states “Tree’s don’t grow to the sky”. 

financial crisis 2008. Collapse of Lehman Brothers

financial crisis 2008. Collapse of Lehman Brothers

6. Being Rational

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“As an Investor my job is to figure out what will happen, not what should happen” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor).

Anything can happen in the stock market, a smart strategy is to do a scenario analysis, think about the best case, worst case and most likely case. As the great investor Howard Marks states “Just because something can happen doesn’t mean it will happen”.

5. Have an Edge

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“You are looking for situations where you have an edge either psychological or statistical” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor). The key to success in the stock market is having an “Information edge”, this could be a unique insight from your own job, experience or just a different perspective.

The Legendary Investor Peter Lynch believes the average person can beat the guys on Wall Street using their “Edge”. For example, a Mother may no more about a certain baby product selling out rapidly and then could decide to research the stock. 

4. Cut your Losses

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“If we decide we’re wrong about something in terms of why we did it, we exit period” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor).

Cutting your losses can be difficult to do, due to “sunk cost fallacy”. This can result in investors pouring more into a poor position rather than cutting losses sooner. 

3. Poker & Investing 

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“Poker and Investing are both games of incomplete information. You have a set of facts & are looking for situations where you have an edge” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor)

2. High Conviction Bets

 

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“We put the biggest amount of money into our highest conviction idea and then view others relative to that” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor)

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

Warren Buffett, Bill Ackman, David Einhorn and many more both would prefer to put more money into their best idea where they have real conviction, 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. 

1. Know When to Sell Stocks

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

David Einhorn Investor quotes (7). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/David-Einhorn-Quotes

“Never invent new reasons to continue with a position when the old reasons are no longer valid” – David Einhorn (Legendary Investor). Choosing when to sell a stock is a hard decision & unique to every situation.

Here are the only four reasons i sell a stock:

  1. When the Business Fundamentals Change
  2. Opportunity Cost (Better Investment opportunity)
  3. Trim Position for Risk Mitigation. 
  4. Stock is Hugely Overvalued

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David Einhorn Quotes Gallery

Top 10 Daniel Loeb Quotes | Activist Investing Strategy

Top 10 Daniel Loeb Quotes | Activist Investing Strategy

Daniel Loeb is the Billionaire hedge fund manager of an event driven, value investing fund.

Loeb’s Strategy is that of an Activist investor as he likes to buy troubled companies, replace inefficient & bad managers and thus increase value for shareholders, he describes this as his “Key to success”.

Other Famous Activist Investors include, the Legendary Bill Ackman and Carl Ichan.

Investing Strategy: Activist Investor , Hedge Fund

1. From Chaos comes Opportunity

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“From Chaos Comes Opportunity”Daniel Loeb (Activist Investor) . This is very similar to our saying here at Motivation 2 invest, “Volatility = Opportunity”. When there is a Stock Market Crash and fear reigns in the air. Stocks can be bought cheaper and this can often mean an opportunity. The goal is to find out the situations where the Stock Market has overreacted or misunderstood a business. 

As Warren Buffett states “Be Greedy when others are Fearful and Fearful when others are Greedy”.

2. Be an Opportunist

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“Our Philosophy is to be opportunistic across different assets” – Daniel Loeb (Activist Investor)   As CNBC’s Jim Cramer says “There is always a bull market somewhere” . There is always an opportunity to invest across many different assets this could be stocks, crypto, real estate etc. The trick is identifying the opportunities which others may have not discovered yet and then placing a high conviction bet. Bill Ackman is a master of this.

3. How to start a Hedge Fund?

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“I had five family members, a few friends & $340k in life savings from 10 years working on Wall Street” – Daniel Loeb (Activist Investor) . We all start somewhere and raising the initial capital to start a hedge fund is no easy task. 

But as the Legendary Warren Buffett states “If your investing returns are good, investors will swim through shark infested waters to invest with you” this is very true. I previously interviewed a Former Hedge Fund Manager on my channel and he reveals the steps to starting a Hedge Fund.

4. Invest into the Misunderstood

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“We look for companies which are misunderstood by the market & mispriced” – Daniel Loeb. 

The Stock Market is an auction based system similar to Horse racing a “Pari-mutuel” system. Basically this means you can’t just invest into the “best horse (best company)” because as this information becomes known by the public, the odd’s change.

Thus generally the majority of famous investors look for a “mispricing” in the Stock Market. This is where the Stock Market has got it wrong or potentially overreacted, the volatility can equal an opportunity. 

5. Invest into Special Events

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“We invest when we see a special situation or event” – Daniel Loeb (Activist Investor) . A Special Situation could be a Merger/Acquisition, Stock Split, IPO, Company Default, Spinoff etc. These all offer opportunities from the volatility expected other investors which invest into special situations include: Howard Marks, Carl Ichan,Bill Ackman etc.

6. Hedge Funds have Changed

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“It took me 5 years to get $100 Million, today people are starting out of the gate with that much” – Daniel Loeb (Legendary Investor). Raising Capital is easier today than it used to be in the past. This is for a few reasons, increased wealth, increased regulation, Low Interest rates etc. 

7. Develop an Investing Instinct

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“Instinct is a type of Pattern Recognition which comes from experience of looking at companies which work” – Daniel Loeb (Activist Investor). As the Legendary Investor Peter Lynch says “The Person who turns over the most rocks wins”.

The More companies you analyse and the more investing experience you have, the more this “Instinct” for “Pattern Recognition” develops.

8. “Timing is Everything”

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“Timing is Everything in Markets” – Daniel Loeb (Activist Investor).  Timing the market is extremely difficult as the old quote says “Time in the Market is better than trying to time the market”.   As Data from CNBC & multiple studies show:

“If an investor sat out the S&P 500’s 10 best days per decade

Then returns would be significantly lower.”

Analysing data going back to the 1930’s , If an investor sat out the S&P 500′s 10 best days each decade, the total return would stand at a measly 28%! However, if an investor held through all the market crashes & volatility total returns would have been a whopping 17,715%!

9. Embrace Capitalism 

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“Capitalism without Bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell” – Daniel Loeb (Activist investor).  
During the Financial Crisis of 2008 & 2020 Pandemic many banks & businesses were bailed out and stopped from going under. Now although this may have seemed necessary at the time, there is a few risks with this. Firstly, there can be “Zombie companies” running which clogs up the free market.

Secondly, Banks & Businesses which were taking more risk before a recession (over leveraged etc) would not have been punished for their aggressive style. Thus in the future they entire banking system may continue taking more risk, because if they win (they win big) and if they lose they get bailed out. 

financial crisis 2008. Collapse of Lehman Brothers

financial crisis 2008. Collapse of Lehman Brothers.

10. Process is everything

Investor Daniel Loeb

Investor Daniel Loeb Quotes (1). Credit: www.Motivation2invest.com/daniel-loeb-quotes

“Overconfidence in a bad process is like winning at Russian Roulette, then thinking it’s a great strategy…before blowing your brains out!” – Daniel Loeb (Activist investor) . Legendary Investor Howard Marks has a similar quote. Luck plays a big part in every wildly successful outcome, thus you cannot judge your investing success purely on the outcome…the process must be analysed.

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