New Mohnish Pabrai talk at Google

[pau_]

 

Pabrai talks about commitment and consistency bias and how to be a better investor by avoiding it, with some tricks to do so, among them, ~"be fluent in the counter-thesis", and have some quick filters to avoid committing time to theses that aren't obvious.

 

Says Korea is cheap again. At the end gives a "treasure hunt" for a current position he's building in a "tire-related" company in Korea trading at 3x trailing earnings.

[LongTermView]

Great talk, I like the story about picking up discarded tickets at the race track.

 

[abyli]

Great talk, I like the story about picking up discarded tickets at the race track.

 

I don’t get it, where is his own thinking? On one hand he is talking why it is always better to focus on compounders, then he said he look for cheap and good companies.

[LongTermView]

I don’t get it, where is his own thinking? On one hand he is talking why it is always better to focus on compounders, then he said he look for cheap and good companies.

Part of it can be seen when he answers the question about when to sell. He basically says not to sell compounders unless their price becomes egregious.

[Ballinvarosig Investors]

Great talk, I like the story about picking up discarded tickets at the race track.

 

I don’t get it, where is his own thinking? On one hand he is talking why it is always better to focus on compounders, then he said he look for cheap and good companies.

When I saw this thread, I thought "here we go again", more people ragging on Pabrai.

 

He clearly said that he wants quality that is also cheap AND could potentially become a compounder. He is not interested in classic cheapness metrics like net-net, or stocks that are priced at $12 and have the possibility to go to $16. He wants things that in 10 years time could be trading for 10x what he paid for them. Not only that, but he wants to be able to put a huge percentage of his portfolio into them.

 

Personally, I could not do what he is trying to do. In fact, I think only a tiny, tiny number of people could do what he is trying to do.

[pau_]

I just thought it was an interesting talk with some good ideas about combating biases. No intention of stirring up controversy. I agree with you on the take-away re. gap between price and value not necessarily being just on asset/near-term earnings basis. Although, it sounds, from the tire example, like he is still looking for and finding the former type of value (3x earnings).

[CorpRaider]

Enjoyed it. 

[clutch]

I just thought it was an interesting talk with some good ideas about combating biases. No intention of stirring up controversy. I agree with you on the take-away re. gap between price and value not necessarily being just on asset/near-term earnings basis. Although, it sounds, from the tire example, like he is still looking for and finding the former type of value (3x earnings).

 

Thanks for sharing.

[LongTermView]

I just listened to much of it again. Here are some cliff notes:

 

Charlie Munger on Harvard Law: Overwhelmingly, the students arguing for the motion believed strongly that they were right.

 

English actor Cedric Hardwicke: I've been a great actor for so long that I can no longer remember or know what I think about any subject.

 

Even the temples and churches make you repeat things because as you shout it out, you pound it in.

 

The "best ideas" fund were the companies that the managers spent the most time on.

 

The human mind is a lot like the human egg.

 

The commitment and consistency bias: spending time on companies is likely to make me biased

 

Warren Buffett: What human beings are best at doing is interpreting new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.

 

1st hack

Just being aware of the bias.

Be fluent in the other side of the argument. If you're going long then spend time developing a thesis on why to go short.

 

2nd hack

Just say no fast.

 


3rd hack

In the quest for investments, be unreasonable.

[investmd]

 

Pabrai talks about commitment and consistency bias and how to be a better investor by avoiding it, with some tricks to do so, among them, ~"be fluent in the counter-thesis", and have some quick filters to avoid committing time to theses that aren't obvious.

 

Says Korea is cheap again. At the end gives a "treasure hunt" for a current position he's building in a "tire-related" company in Korea trading at 3x trailing earnings.

 

Thanks for sharing this. Good talk. Easy to listen to. Like the philosophy of being "unreasonable" as it relates to sticking to what appeals and letting other topics pass on - serves one well in investments but also other aspects of life.

[stahleyp]

around the 1:10 (hour and 10 minutes) mark he mentions "Preimal?" something like that. anyone know exactly what he said?

[wisdom]

Piramal -

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piramal_Group

 

In particular, he was referring to Ajay Piramal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajay_Piramal

 

[stahleyp]

thanks wisdom. I appreciate it!

[John Hjorth]

 

Pabrai talks about commitment and consistency bias and how to be a better investor by avoiding it, with some tricks to do so, among them, ~"be fluent in the counter-thesis", and have some quick filters to avoid committing time to theses that aren't obvious.

 

Says Korea is cheap again. At the end gives a "treasure hunt" for a current position he's building in a "tire-related" company in Korea trading at 3x trailing earnings.

 

I'm bumping pau_'s topic up by quoting here, based on the recent discussion going on in the EAF - Graftech topic.

 

Today is an Onslow Day for me. I feel a bit worn out, I'm tired, with no energy for doing real investment related work, nor even ability to concentrate or to focus on some reading, because the last few weeks has been hectic for me with other IRL stuff than investing.

 

So based on some tweet that I stumbled upon, I ended up listening to Mr. Pabrai at this Google Talks session. To me personally, Mr. Pabrai's approach to investing and modus operandi appears consistent, after enjoying the video this afternoon [my local time].

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

On another note - and off topic - some weeks ago, I was in a weekend in a similar state of mind, where I studied what Mr. Pabrai and his wife Harina Kapoor are pulling off at The Dakshana Foundation. This is to me just soo fantastic! - Absolutely great couple!