Check out our latest Value Links (conta.cc/3j8Pb0G) which includes Howard Marks’ recent memo. In this, Marks explains the two “Sea Changes” he has seen in his career, and why a third may be upon us. We highlight the first Sea Change here: “As I’ve recounted many times in my memos, when I joined the investment management industry in 1969, many banks – like the one I worked for at the time – focused their equity portfolios on the so-called “Nifty Fifty.”

1/ We’re going to share some highlights from David Tepper’s 2007 presentation to undergrad business students at Carnegie Mellon University, where Tepper received his MBA in 1982. This talk is full of great advice and stories. 2/ As Tepper shares background on the early days at Appaloosa, it’s worth noting the uncrowded areas where he invested. “We were one of the first investors in Russia and I was over to Russia in 1996, when Yeltsin was on the tank.”

1/ We recently revisited Charlie Munger’s 2010 conversation at Harvard-Westlake School, which we had transcribed. This conversation was about the financial crisis and, as usual with Munger, is full of wisdom. Here are some of the best quotes: 2/ “I think part of the popularity of Berkshire Hathaway is that we look like people who have found a trick. It’s not brilliance. It’s just avoiding stupidity. You say it is the same thing just stated differently -- well, maybe it is the same thing just stated differently.”

1/Jim Simons rarely does interviews that end up in the public domain, but a new one was just posted. Highlights below: 2/ When asked why financial markets are such a fertile ground for math and sciences: “think of a stock – it’s a time series. It has a value every day, it goes up, it goes down… You can analyze a time series mathematically. Especially if you have hundreds or thousands of these.”

1/ I’ve been looking for this video for over a decade. Until recently, it was COMPLETELY scrubbed from the internet. This is the only interview with Warren Buffett’s wife Susie and it is an rare and remarkable window into understanding Warren. charlierose.com/videos/9236 2/ Why was it removed from the old Charlie Rose site? No idea but it is a really beautiful interview. Susie seems like an incredible person and she paints a picture of Warren that few have ever seen.

1/A great thing about investing is one can derive lessons from almost anywhere. For example Mike Tyson may have nothing to do with investing, but his press conference from last year’s Roy Jones Jr. fight shares insights into what drives those who are the greatest at their craft. 2/ Tyson was complemented by reporters for his performance after taking 15 years off from the sport. While he credits his trainers and fighters, he also acknowledges that this was because of his mentality. What are the keys to this mentality?

1/ Michael Mauboussin recently gave a great talk to Columbia Business School, discussing the revised and updated version of his book with Alfred Rappaport, Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns. We’ll share some of the highlights here 2/ To provide some background: Mauboussin was a liberal arts major in college who took one business course called Accounting for Non-Business Majors. He received a C in that course, “out of the generosity of [his] professor’s heart.”

1/ Let’s go back in time and look at Barron’s 1987 interview with Julian Robertson. It is interesting to read his thoughts on the market, and specific the names he was interested in nearly 35 years ago. 2/ At the time, Barron’s described his fund as “a wounded tiger; its major shorts were in the Japanese market when the October massacre hit everyplace else worse.” Robertson was running about $315 million, and had a team sixteen, five of whom were managing the money.

1/ Continuing our study of past Berkshire Hathaway meetings, let’s take a look at a few highlights from the 1996 meeting (note: this was the year that Berkshire’s Class B shares were created and discussed) 2/ We’ll first highlight simple advice from Buffett: “There’s a lot more to intrinsic value than book value and P/E ratios. And anytime anybody gives you some simplified formula for figuring it out, forget it. You have to understand the business.”

1/ Earlier this year, Nick Sleep published the archive of Nomad Investment Partnership’s letters onto his charity’s website. These letters have achieved an iconic status, and to find out why, one needs to look no further than at Sleep's analysis of Amazon and Costco. 2/ Sleep first wrote about Costco in the 2002 year end letter. At this time, Costco was “long criticized by Wall Street analysts for favoring customers and employees over investors (Seattle Times).” But that is exactly the reason why Sleep liked Costco.

1/ The Invest Like the Best podcast featured a rare interview with Steve Mandel and it was full of brilliant insights. The interview begins by looking at Mandel’s background with retail companies such as Walmart. 2/ In his early years, Mandel thought of Sam Walton as his idol: “I had never seen anybody before, really or since, who had the capacity to connect with people and make them feel like they were the most important thing to him.” Mandel guesses that he knew 100,000 people by name.

I can't find the exact quote but Charlie Munger once said he achieved success in three fields. One was obviously investing and the second was his law career. There was a lot of curiosity about the third, but here it is (real estate/development)... independent.com/2021/07/27/ucs… Munger has characterized the design as “our version of ship architecture on land” for its efficient use of space and for being all-inclusive — nearly everything a resident could want or need is available on site.

1/ Fascinating to go back and look at some of the old $BRK meetings. Some thoughts on 1995 below. As usual, this meeting is full of wisdom from Buffett and Munger, and it’s remarkable how consistent their ideas have remained in the 26 years since. 2/ A shareholder asked Buffett to elaborate on why they charge managers a high rate for incremental capital they employ and credit an equally high rate for capital they release. Buffett’s response puts it simply:

1/ Stanley Druckenmiller was recently the keynote speaker at USC’s Student Investment Fund Annual Meeting, and his presentation is full of wisdom. We’ve included some of the highlights: 2/ Druckenmiller first addressed the current market environment: “I believe policy makers are failing to acknowledge how unique this period is, and I think the consequences of that could be with us for years, if not decades, to come.”

1/ It's easy to find interviews with Howard Marks, but his recent presentation to Ivey Business School was particularly insightful. This interview provides an in-depth and "new" look at value investing, and we'll share some of the highlights here 2/ Marks’ working definition of value investing: “Value investing consists of quantifying what something is worth intrinsically, based primarily on its fundamental, cash flow-generating capabilities, and buying it if its price represents a meaningful discount from that value.”

1/ As many know, the world lost a brilliant investing mind last week with the passing of Yale's David Swensen. We offer our condolences to his friends and family. We also wanted to reflect on the wisdom he gifted the investment community throughout his career. 2/ Swensen is best known for revolutionizing endowment investing while growing Yale’s endowment from $1bn in 1985 to over $31bn. It’s worth briefly highlighting the history of the Yale endowment before Swensen took over:

1/Mark Leonard who is arguably one of the greatest CEOs of all-time AND also notoriously press shy did a podcast....and almost nobody has listened to it! Below are some of the highlights $CSU.TO 2/ Fun fact: $10,000 invested in $CSU.TO at their 2006 IPO would be worth nearly $1 Million today.