10 Brilliant Quotes by Jeff Ubben | Activist investing Strategy

Jeff Ubben is an activist investor & hedge fund veteran. 

As an activist investor he looks for companies which are poorly managed, he then buys enough shares to gain control & replace the management. 

The idea is to increase the shareholder value of the company. 

Previously he ran ValueAct Capital before launching his new fund Inclusive Capital Partners in 2020. 

Ubben is now seeking to raise $8 billion for his new socially and environmentally conscious fund.
He recently joined the board of Exxon Mobil to help bolster their environmental credentials. 

Investing Strategy:  ESG Investing, Activist Investor, Hedge Fund, Ethical Investing

1. Learn from your Mistakes

“Chess Masters spend their time after matches reviewing decisions that were bad” – Jeff Ubben (Activist investor)

Learning from your mistakes is a vital part of self improvement in any discipline. Self Awareness & reflection comes before self improvement.

2. Know what Risk your taking

There are Two Types of Risk, the first is called “Volatility” measured by “Beta” in academic finance. This basically compares how much a stock moves up or down relative to the market index. For example, a companies with non consistent earnings will be more volatile than mature company with more stable earnings.

Many Legendary Investors from Warren Buffett to Jeff Ubben, disagree that his is true “risk”. To them Risk is the permanent loss of principal, the money you invested. 

3. Volatility = Opportunity

“Volatility = Opportunity” – Jeff Ubben (Activist investor).

In Mandarin the word “Crisis” has two parts one means “Danger” and the other means “Opportunity”

When stocks crash, this volatility can equal an immense opportunity as stocks are on sale.

4. Hot Handed Fallacy

“Just because your last trades/shots have been winners/losers doesn’t mean the next will be. They are statistically independent. ” – Jeff Ubben (Activist investor)

“Hot Hands” is a term from Basketball & Las Vegas Casinos, someone who has “hot hands” is thought to be “on a roll” and winning consistently. Jeff Ubben points out this is a fallacy in investing. 

5. Make all the Mistakes

“The Definition of an expert is one that makes all the mistakes you can, in a very narrow field” – Jeff Ubben Activist investor

To be an expert you must make mistakes, in investing It’s best to make these mistakes with very small sums of money before the numbers get bigger.

6. Take Short Term pain, for Long Term Gain

“Big Players in Public Markets are not good at taking short term pain for long term gain” – Jeff Ubben (Activist Investor)

Most intuitional Investors & Hedge Funds “Vote with their feet” when a company releases their latest quarterly earnings report. This can offer an opportunity for the long term investor who can see past the noise. 

7. Invest Ethically

“Companies as governed today aren’t working for Society or Nature” – Jeff Ubben

Jeff Bezos once said you should invest based upon how much impact the company has on other peoples lives. Jeff Ubben is an activist investor and aims to change the way companies are run, similar to Carl Ichan or Bill Ackman.

8. Self Criticism to Self Improvement 

“Self Criticism is the secret to self improvement, negative feedback is a good thing” – Jeff Ubben (Activist investor)

Billionaire Ray Dalio likes to seek credible opinions from those who disagree with him, in order to understand his own thinking & blind spots. 

9. Be Self Aware

“The best shooters think they’re always cold & when their feelings tell them they have hot hands, they don’t listen” – Jeff Ubben (Activist investor)

10. Have a Good Investing Process

“A Good process can result in bad outcomes & a bad process can result in good outcomes” – Jeff Ubben (Activist investor) 

Although Luck plays a part in the outcome of every investment decision, a good process done consistently over time generally produces much better results!

To learn a Battle tested investment strategy, Check out our Investing Strategy Course & Stock Research Platform.

Jeff Ubben Quotes Gallery