I typically try to design my business life so that my weeks are mostly like those of my idol, Warren Buffett. That means time in the office to read, think and not many meetings. Not this week!
Sunday
Returned from six days in Greece. Investing is not just my job, but my hobby too. I love it, and don’t plan to ever retire. That said, being a portfolio manager and running your own business can be tiring. So holidays, particularly restful ones, are a must. Thank you Meganisi for recharging my batteries.
Monday
9:30am. Teed off at Sunningdale Golf Club for a Peter Alliss charity day that two friends and I were delighted to support. The charity raises money to provide powered wheelchairs for children with disabilities.
I play a little golf on summer evenings and weekends, but rarely take a day off to do so. So this was a rare treat for a great cause.
2pm. Learnt that Martin Bayfield (ex-England rugby player) is both a hilarious after lunch speaker, and also the body double for Hagrid in the Harry Potter films. Who knew?
Tuesday
11am. Met a fascinating HNW individual who plans to invest in our fund. He had done his own research and found his way to us through an AI-assisted search of fund managers. Our first AI-assisted client, it seems.
Spent some nice quiet time in the office catching up on reading and a little re-modelling of companies we already own. While I want to be finding new ideas for the fund, I spend the majority of my time looking harder at what we already own. Sometimes my conviction level changes and we might change the size of a position. Mostly I am just revisiting my thesis for why we are invested in the company and little changes.
Wednesday
10am. Flew to Munich to present at the Ben Graham Centre’s sixth European Value Investing Conference. Most readers will know who Warren Buffett is, but maybe not Ben Graham. Graham was the grandfather of value investing. He wrote Security Analysis (1934) as well as The Intelligent Investor (1949), and taught at Columbia University. His best, and most successful student was Buffett.
Graham was a deep value investor, perhaps unsurprisingly, given that he had lived through depressions and wars. Buffett, with Charlie Munger’s help, became a more growth-orientated investor, albeit one seeking value at the point of purchase. I’m a Buffett disciple and the conference is designed for all Buffett and Graham fans alike.
Had my third chicken and pickle (no butter) sandwich of the week for lunch. A long-term fixed asset on my balance sheet has recently become a troublesome current liability – my gall bladder – until such time as it can be removed, this is my diet.
On Wednesday afternoon I spent time preparing my speech. This was not my first public speaking rodeo, but that doesn’t mean there are no nerves. I’m dyslexic, which means reading a script is impossible, so instead I prepare word prompts for the points I want to make and stories I want to tell. I know such a style is more enjoyable for the listener, but it also means I’m never quite sure how each speech will come out. No wonder I’m nervous!
8pm. Speakers’ dinner. The conference organiser kindly hosted a dinner for all the speakers the night before. This was a great way to get to know a few industry peers. They all have beef wellington, my absolute favourite. I have dry chicken and rice.
Thursday
1pm. I was the last speaker of the morning and at the last minute I decide a tired audience didn’t need the 15 slides I had prepared. Instead, I opted to tell a few light-hearted stories about what it’s like to invest alongside passionate owner-managers.
Owner-managers make up around 90% of the holdings in my fund. Each is different, but their passion for the job and ownership of their businesses align their interests with ours as long-term shareholders. I pointed out that I too am an aligned owner-manager, owning around 5% of the fund units. No one fell asleep, so it can’t have been that bad. An engaged audience makes such a difference when presenting at conferences. Of the roughly 700 people there, around 50 asked thoughtful questions throughout the day.
Thank you to Dr George Athanassakos, the founder of the Ben Graham Centre, it was an honour to be asked to speak at such a prestigious event.
6pm. Had an impromptu dinner with the conference keynote speaker Tom Gayner, CEO of Markel. Markel is often called a ‘mini Berkshire’ as, for the past 35 years, Tom has built the company by openly adopting some of the great traits that Buffett’s company possesses. Over those 35 years, Markel’s book value per share has compounded at a remarkable 14% a year, from $155 to $15,530.
I’ve heard him present many times, but it was wonderful to spend some quiet time with him. That kind of long-term compounding is ultimately what we seek to generate for our own investors.
Friday
My son’s birthday. Happy birthday Ben. I refuse to reveal his age, as I cannot believe he’s not nine anymore.
12pm. I realised I had planned this trip badly, as tonight marks the start of the famous Munich Octoberfest. which I’ve never been to. But I was already on my way to the airport to fly home. I consoled myself with a small shandy and a pretzel before boarding.
Much is made of how AI has improved all our efficiency levels. Another prior technology arguably still has a bigger effect on my stock research productivity. Podcasts. When I am researching a new potential investment, as I was while travelling this week, I listened to five podcasts/management audio calls. No names as this stock is not in the portfolio yet.
Saturday
10am. Unfortunately, we received some sad family news. We had to take a trip to the vet to say goodbye to our beloved dog Roxy. Thank you for all the love you brought to our family for nearly two decades, Roxy. You can rest now.
So, not quite the quiet week of reading and thinking I usually aim for. From Greece to golf, Munich and everything in between, it was certainly a week of highs and lows. Phew, what a week.
