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.

Tim McElvaine - An investor I admire

Tim McElvaine is a Canadian value investor who I admire. He isn’t running a huge amount of money and the fund is only open to Canadians. I found out about him via ControlledGreed a while back and have followed him ever since. You can read more about him through media links on his own website. What I would specifically like to highlight is his ABBA investment strategy, which is essentially a Ben Graham strategy with additions similar to Seth Klarman or Warren Buffett in the 70s. I like to look at what each of the four letters stand for every time I need to regain my focus in analyzing a company. I recommend downloading the PDF version of the ABBA document and keeping it on your desk. It is a very good description at the variables that an investor should be further analyzing when looking at a business. It is a fantastic refresher every time I sit down.

McElvaine shares some investing picks on his website and simultaneously demonstrates the ABBA analysis. Being able to look at his method and what it produces is a good indicator of the quality of McElvaine’s investing ability, which I rate as very high. I find these two picks to be interesting. The first is Glacier Media, and the second is TimberWest Forest Corp. I don't have anything to add to his analysis, but I like what I have read.

Talk to Andrew about investors you admire (other than Andrew, of course)