Thursday, February 17, 2011

Great stuff from Tim McElvaine

I found this talk through Simoleon Sense, whose Sunday linkfest is definitely one of the betters ones out there.  I wrote about Tim McElvaine as an investor I admired a while back and his ABBA investment process.  If you are just looking for his stock picks, you can just look at the pdf of his presentation.  I don't recommend that.  The only other video I've recommended on this site is by Alice Schroeder on how exactly Buffett invests.  This talk is worth your time as well.  He is down to earth and starts off by talking about his mistakes, generally the mark of an intellectually honest and humble guy.  You can just copy the top picks of a lot of successful managers, but if you want to do everything on your own, its important to look at other people's processes and pick and choose what works for them and what you can incorporate into your process.  His ABBA process is really golden both for its simplicity and thoroughness. 

Aspiring investment analysts, starting around 39:30, he shares his advice for getting a job.  This isn't just armchair wisdom advice, because it is how he got his job with Peter Cundill.  Just on this topic, here is a real old article written by Whitney Tilson on getting a money management job that is along the same lines of what McElvaine says.

Aspiring to running a hedge fund?  At 59:30 he shares some of the nitty gritty of getting things up and running.  It's a lot less glamorous than you think. As with investing, patience is key to running a money management business.

The Q&A overall is actually really good.  There are some oil and gold questions as I would expect, but on the whole there is a good interaction.  He spends almost an hour answering questions, and only 30 on his presentation.

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