Warren Buffett: "The stock market is a no-called-strike game"

The stock market is a no-called-strike game.  You don't have to swing at everything -- you can wait for your pitch.  The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, "Swing, you bum!"

~ Warren Buffett, 1999 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in The Tao of Warren Buffett by Mary Buffett and David Clark

MLB 2021 Home Run Derby

Sam Stewart on how portfolio managers are pressured to own hot stocks

There's definitely pressure generated from two places.  One is the benchmark you're trying to keep up with, the other comes from investors.  If your failure to own Wirecard or Valeant has caused you to lag behind the index, you'll hear, "What, are you guys idiots?  These are companies that are working."

~ Sam Stewart, co-manager of Seven Canyons World Innovators Fund, "Why Don't More Fund Managers Detect Corporate Fraud?," Barron's, September 5, 2020

Marc Faber on dishonest central bankers

Everybody applauds the central banks.  Because of course the fund managers, they want the central banks to print money because their fees go up.  They don't want an honest central bank.  They want a dishonest central bank.  At the same time they want dishonest politicians because everybody's dishonest so they can also stay dishonest as fund managers. 

~ Marc Faber, "The End Game Ep. 8 - Dr. Marc Faber," The Grant Williams Podcast, 22:00 mark, October 7, 2020

Jim Doughan on selecting an alternative investment manager

Perhaps instead of looking for the best fishermen we should instead focus on finding fishermen that work in reliably profitable waters.  Waters that they know well.  Good fishing holes. 

There are many things that can make a fishing hole a good one.  It can be hidden so competitors can’t find it and it doesn’t get fished out.  It can be remote and hard to get there and back.  It can be too small for the big boats to get to, or too far out to sea for all but the most seaworthy vessels.  Perhaps one needs special equipment, training or licensing to safely work there.  Maybe like Maine lobstermen the fisherman can get a right to exclude others from their fishing areas.  There are a multitude of potential explanations.

~ Jim Doughan, Chief Investment Officer, Accord Family Office, "Fishing Holes: A metaphor for understanding the economic rationale for claims of edge," Context 365, November 2, 2020

Bob Rodriguez on the pressure on portfolio managers to keep playing the casino game

So long as you have [portfolio] managers willing to, shall we say, continue to keep money on the craps table with a roll of the dice, because if they don't they cannot be at the craps table. You cannot stand there at the craps table and occupy a spot. You will be moved out because they need somebody else to order drinks and lose money. So what do the managers have to do? They have to play the game. And this goes up and down the line. Better to fail with the crowd than to try to succeed away from the crowd... I think a whole generation or two are going to have to be reintroduced to reality. You have probably close to 40% or 50% of the money managers in the industry today that have never seen a normal yield curve! They've only seen a manipulated yield curve. They are learning to invest in an alternative universe. I don't believe that universe is sustainable, and which means they will be taken out. 

~ Bob Rodriguez, interview with Grant Williams and Stephanie Pomboy, The Grant Williams Podcast, 37:38 mark, May 27, 2020