Zurich-based author and investor Guy Spier (@GSpier), the founder and CEO of Aquamarine Capital, joins Julia La Roche one episode 78.
In 2008, Guy and his friend Monish Pabrai bid just over $650,000 for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett. That meal with the Oracle of Omaha was a transformative experience for Guy, which he wrote about in his book, “The Education of a Value Investor,” which has sold more than 40,000 copies and has also been translated into Hebrew, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Mandarin and Spanish.
Guy completed his MBA at the Harvard Business School, class of 1993, and holds a First Class degree in PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) from Oxford University, where he studied at Brasenose College with British Prime Minister David Cameron. After completing his MBA, Guy started the Aquamarine Fund, an investment vehicle inspired by the original 1950s Buffett partnerships and run with a close replication of the original Buffett partnership rules. The focus is on investing for long-term capital appreciation and capital preservation by running a portfolio of equity investments with the goal of acquiring companies with outstanding long-term economics at a reasonable price and where there is a sufficient margin of safety between the company’s market price and its intrinsic value. Typical investors include high net-worth individuals, family offices, and private banks.
0:00 Show open
1:50 Welcome, Guy Spier
3:00 Started as a Gordon Gekko wannabe, found a ‘lifeline’ through Buffett
6:13 Reading about Warren Buffett
9:47 The pilgrimage to Omaha
11:00 Power of sending thank-you notes
17:00 Handwritten notes from Buffett
18:09 Bidding on lunch with Buffett
22:30 Lunch with Buffett was “transformational.”
27:44 The inner scorecard
30:00 Deep fear ahead of meeting Buffett
34:06 How much does the macro matter?
37:28 Siren songs of the hyped stocks
40:25 Writing with William Green
44:26 Why he changed his mind about not talking to company management
49:20 New investment process checklist items
54:15 Debt
57:10 Buffett spends time thinking about the downside
1:01:20 Content diet for investing
1:08:40 Surrounding yourself with a mastermind group
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#155 Meredith Whitney On The 'Bifurcated' Economy And Consumer, Why It Will 'Pay To Be Patient' For Young Homebuyers, And The Coming 'Silver Tsunami'
#154 Dr. Art Laffer: We Are In The Middle Of A Massive Redistribution Revolution And It's Destroying Growth
#153 Amy Nixon On Inflation Running Hot And Pivoting On The Deflationary Recession Call
#152 Brian Hirschmann: This Is Probably The Most Dangerous Time In US Financial History
#151 Whitney Tilson On The Mistake Of Predicting Doom And Gloom
#150 Alfonso Peccatiello On The Risk of a Global Recession Triggered by China's Deleveraging And The Spillover Effects Not Many Are Paying Attention To
#149 Jeff Snider: We're Still On The Same Path To Recession
#148 'Convexity Maven' Harley Bassman: The Market Is Ahead Of The Fed By A Lot
#147 Andreas Steno On Why The Resurgence In Inflation Could Mean Another Rate Hike From The Fed
#146 Darius Dale: We’re Pivoting To A Reflation Macro Regime — What It Means For Markets
#145 David Woo, Analyst Who Nailed The 2016 And 2020 Elections, Sees Huge Headwind For The Economy Ahead Of The 2024 Vote
#144 David Rosenberg: Recessionary Forces Are Building And The Economy Is Weaker Than The Narrative Suggests
#143: Danielle DiMartino Booth On The Jobs Market, The Economy, And Why The Recession Already Started
#142 Dr. Burton Malkiel On 'A Random Walk Down Wall Street,' The Best Way To Invest, And What You're Getting Wrong About 'Efficient Markets'
#141 Marc Faber On Interest Rates, Inflation, And 'QE Infinity'
#140 DoubleLine Capital's Jeff Sherman On Fed Policy, The Economy, And Why Rate Cuts Likely Won't Happen Until June Or Later
#139 'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini On The 10 Megathreats That Could Destroy Our Economy
#138 Peter Mallouk, CEO of $245B Creative Planning: 'It’s Hard To Be Anything But Optimistic Over The Long Run'
#137 Professor Campbell Harvey, The Inventor Of The Most Famous Recession Indicator — The Inverted Yield Curve — Sees Economic Slowdown In 2024
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