1. “’I don’t know’ are three of the most underused words in investing.” “What’s really interesting about finance – and I think this is true for a lot of fields whether you’re in physics, math, chemistry, history, or whatever it is – the more you learn, the you more you realize how little you know.” There is nothing more fundamental to investing than understanding that risk comes from not knowing […]
David Tepper is an the founder of the hedge fund Appaloosa. Bloomberg writes that Appaloosa “invests in the equity, fixed income, and hedging markets. For the fixed income investments, the firm invests in high-yield bonds, bank loans to highly-leveraged companies, sovereign debt, debt of distressed companies, and other debt securities. It employs a fundamental analysis to make its investments.” The Reformed Broker (Josh Brown) adds: “If you had put a […]
Rich Barton started Expedia inside of Microsoft in the mid-90’s, then spun it out into EXPE in 1999 and was CEO until 2003. He is a co-founder of Zillow, Glassdoor and Trover, an investor in a range of startups and a Venture Partner at Benchmark Capital. He is also on the board of directors of Netflix, Avvo, Realself and Nextdoor. 1. “Marketplace is an important word. It takes two sides to make a marketplace.” “User-generated […]
1. “We are limited, of course, to businesses whose economic prospects we can evaluate. And that’s a serious limitation: Charlie and I have no idea what a great many companies will look like ten years from now.” “My experience in business helps me as an investor and that my investment experience has made me a better businessman. Each pursuit teaches lessons that are applicable to the other. And […]
“Don Valentine participated in the beginnings of two significant milestones: the birth of the silicon chip and the development of the venture capital industry. From humble beginnings, Valentine became a legendary salesman at Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor, before founding Sequoia Capital in 1972.” He “was one of the original investors in Apple Computer, Atari, LSI Logic, Cisco Systems, Oracle, and Electronic Arts.” 1. “[Venture capital] is all about figuring […]
“Arthur Rock was one of America’s first venture capitalists. He played a key role in launching Fairchild Semiconductor, Teledyne, Intel, Apple, and many other high-tech companies. Following an early career on Wall Street in investment banking, Arthur started his first venture capital partnership with Tommy Davis. Between 1961 and 1968, Davis & Rock invested $3 million and returned $100 million to their investors.” 1. “What attracted me first, I […]
1. “I sat down with Eric Schmidt, who had just become the CEO [of Google], and I showed him the spread sheet and I said, this job meets none of my criteria. He put his hand on my spreadsheet and he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t be an idiot.’ Excellent career advice. And then he said, ‘get on a rocket ship. When companies are growing quickly and they are […]
1. “The only way to learn how to invest is to invest. You can’t simulate it.” Getting feedback is fundamental to the learning process. Reading and learning from others is great but at some point the only way to refine your skill is to actually invest real money. Many people have taken a class in which they make trades that simulate investing. Simulation is no substitute for investing, since most mistakes […]
Joel Greenblatt is a very successful value investor and the founder of Gotham Capital, which offers four diversified long/short equity mutual funds. He has written several books on value investing identified in the notes below. 1. “One of the greatest stock market writers and thinkers, Benjamin Graham, put it this way. Imagine that you are partners in the ownership of a business with a crazy guy named Mr. Market. […]
1. “If everyone loves your idea, I might be worried that it’s not forward thinking enough.” Anyone thinking about starting a business should be searching for mispriced opportunities. While markets are mostly efficient in eliminating opportunities for extraordinary profit, there are always areas of an economy in which there are significant uncertainty. These areas are excellent places for a startup to look for opportunities. The best entrepreneurs have learned that […]