Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Some Value Investor Results for Perspective

Windsurfer shared this article with us this morning - do give it a good read. The focus is on the famed value investor - Bill Miller's - recent results, who were not spared at all by the current global crisis.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122886123425292617.html

The diagram that got my attention is this one:



Even the famed Legg Mason Value Trust lost 58% over the past 12 months, and many other Value Investors are not spared either ...

The moral of the story?

To me, "what looks cheap CAN GET CHEAPER during the Great Bear Run ..."

I'm sure there are plenty of other lessons that one can learn from that article. To me, on top of my mind, a few other quotes comes in such as ....

"Timing is EVERYTHING"

"Don't rest on your past laurels - do your homework properly AT ALL TIMES"

"Don't continue to hold on to your mistakes when it becomes clear that your original reasoning is proven wrong"

"Don't bet big on your mistakes, and this includes not blindly average down on your mistakes."

Do share.

Cheers.
at

1 comment:

  1. Jasonred79December 11, 2008 at 3:05 AM

    How about:

    It is better to miss out on a gain of 40% than to lose 40%.

    You can be correct on 8 decisions which double your money in 8 years... but it only takes 1 bear market drop of 50% to destroy 8 years of gains.

    On average, those who sold EVERYTHING at the very beginning of every bear market... would have outperformed those who followed buy and hold forever strategies by a BIG margin.

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