Sunday, February 9, 2014

Fresh mistakes, every year

Barry Ritholtz is a top financial blogger I follow closely. His column is full of insights, wits and common sense. 

Every year he put out an annual Mea Culpa where he ruthlessly examines himself and shares his mistakes publicly.  For 2013,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/my-motto-fresh-mistakes-every-year/2014/02/07/97911d22-8d3e-11e3-95dd-36ff657a4dae_story.html

What was my chief mistake?  It has to be holding too much cash.  Still scared by the 2008 financial crisis after all these years.

However, a food for thought:  the famed investor Seth Klarman is keeping 50% of his portfolio in cash and returned $4 billion to his investor, due to a scarcity of value opportunities:
http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/01/klarman-cash-letters-to-investors-2013/

A nugget of Klarman's wisdom from this article:  he "worries top-down but invests bottom-up".

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