The Intellectual Investor

Though Vitaliy loved working from home, it came at a cost – he destroyed some good habits he built up over the last few years. In March, he worked super long hours and wanted to make sure he got enough sleep. He usually writes early in the morning, but that habit has been interrupted. He's been working proactively over the last two weeks to restore old good habits and create some new ones.

Vitaliy always looks at IMA's investment process and asks himself, “What can we do better? How can we increase returns and lower risk?" Vitaliy thinks he has found a sensible way to do both -- by purchasing index put options, where possible, on a portion of the portfolio. Vitaliy explains the math behind this choice, and why the best time to buy hurricane insurance is when no one believes there will be a hurricane.

Early in his career, Vitaliy tried to emulate Warren Buffett and spurned the use of spreadsheets. But here’s the thing: Buffett has a supercomputer in his head and Vitaliy doesn't. Vitaliy needs to visualize financial statements by building models; he feels them viscerally in doing so, whereas Buffett doesn't. In this podcast, Vitaliy expands on why rather than trying to be Warren Buffett 2.0, you should be You 1.0.

Nearly every year, Vitaliy does a Q&A-style lecture for students at universities in Denver. But since campuses are closed, he decided to take this year's talk online. This podcast is part 2 of 2 of that recording. Enjoy!

Nearly every year, Vitaliy does a Q&A-style lecture for students at universities in Denver. But since campuses are closed, he decided to take this year's talk online. This podcast is part 1 of 2 of that recording. Enjoy!

Vitaliy recently sat down (virtually) for a conversation with Gerhard Sogl from the CFA Society of the United Kingdom. They discussed IMA's approach to investing during the uncertainty of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and a framework that the IMA team uses to make sense of the situation and helps them approach investing in a rational manner.

This had never happened before. Several clients reached out to Vitaliy wondering if he had been kidnapped and someone else was making investment decisions in their accounts. The gist of their questions was: how you can go from making conservative investments to buying a dotcom-like stock that is losing money? How can this company even be a value investment? In this podcast, Vitaliy explores his firm's investment in Uber, and how it fits within a value investing framework.

Vitaliy spoke with Danielle Town of the InvestED podcast last October. Danielle is a New York Times bestselling author of “Invested”, founder of the value investing newsletter “The Invested Practice”, and co-host of the podcast InvestED with her investor father, Phil Town. She graciously allowed Vitaliy to reproduce the interview here, so have a listen to part 2 in this episode.

Vitaliy spoke with Danielle Town of the InvestED podcast last October. Danielle is a New York Times bestselling author of “Invested”, founder of the value investing newsletter “The Invested Practice”, and co-host of the podcast InvestED with her investor father, Phil Town. She graciously allowed Vitaliy to reproduce the interview here, so have a listen to part 1 in this episode.

A few weeks ago, Vitaliy and his daughter Hannah got up at 6 in the morning and drove more than an hour so she could play in her team's volleyball tournament. Hannah’s team played four other teams, and each game had two or three sets. Hannah stood on the sidelines for all the games and did not touch the ball even once. Vitaliy was really upset, at first. But what Hannah said next surprised and inspired him.

This is an announcement Vitaliy shared with his newsletter readers and he thought you, his podcast listeners, might want to hear it as well. It will be removed from this podcast stream when it’s no longer relevant. Vitaliy was finally able to do something he's tried to do but could not for ten years: he's built a dividend portfolio that’s “all-terrain” and that yields … well, you’ll have to listen to the end to find out.

While in Venice, Vitaliy, his brother, and son visited a glass factory and watched a glassblowing demonstration. The glass artist took a ball of molten glass, stuck large forceps into it, and magic happened – he pulled a horse’s head, body, legs and tail out of it. A few strokes with a metal blade and they had seen the "birth" of a beautiful glass horse. After they left the factory, Alex, Jonah, and Vitaliy walked the streets of Murano, discussing whether this fellow was practicing an art or a craft.

Vitaliy recently spoke with Andrew Horowitz at “The Disciplined Investor” podcast. Andrew graciously allowed to share Vitaliy’s part of the interview with the Intellectual Investor audience. They discussed this recession, why it’s not like any other previous one we’ve experienced, and why it’s the best thing that could’ve happened to IMA clients’ portfolios. They also talked about IMA’s game plan, its “microdosing” strategy, stocks they’re considering, and companies they think mig

In this podcast, Vitaliy shares a recent (brief) letter he wrote to clients about how he and his firm are responding to Coronavirus and the recent selloff in the stock market. After touching on the day to day at IMA, Vitaliy elaborates on how he is taking advantage of volatility to buy great businesses at wonderful prices. He hopes you enjoy it!

Vitaliy wrote the following in early February after his trip to Europe (as part of the Jet Lag Series), which started in Switzerland and concluded in Italy (Venice to be exact). Yes, the part of Italy that today is devastated by coronavirus. He missed the virus by only two weeks. In that short amount of time we have transitioned into a different world – a new era. Since then, this podcast has taken on new meaning for Vitaliy. He hopes you enjoy it.