Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom

To regular listeners, Mark Yusko needs no introduction. It was just a few months ago he appeared on the podcast to discuss Gut Instinct (And Why His Says We're Headed For A Crash). This time Mark shares his thoughts on the wild popularity of passive investing, the outright disdain for hedge fund investing and his potential 10-year bet with Warren Buffett. For notes and links related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com/Podcast.

Danielle DiMartino Booth started her career on Wall Street before shifting gears into journalism where she caught the eye of none other than the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Eventually, she found herself working as an advisor to Richard Fisher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Today, she shares her thoughts with institutional investors via "Money Strong," her weekly newsletter, and is the author of a new book, Fed Up: An Insider's Take On Why The Federal Reserve Is Bad For America. In this episode we discuss her experience inside the Federal Reserve, her qualms with its popular policies over the past few decades and her thoughts on how they could be rectified. For notes and links related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com/podcast.

Dale Wettlaufer began his career as a fool, a Motley Fool that is, where he first learned to ply his trade as an analyst. A few years later, he found himself working in the same capacity for a legitimate mutual fund rock star. Today he runs a long/short strategy under his own shingle. In this conversation, Dale discusses what he learned during his time with Bill Miller at Legg Mason and how his value investing discipline has evolved into that which he employs at his new firm, Charlotte Lane Capital. For notes and links related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com/podcast.

William White started his career at the Bank of England before moving to the Bank for International Settlements where he served as chief economist. Today he is the chairman of the Economic and Development Review Committee at the OECD in Paris. Last fall Bill received the Adam Smith prize, the highest honor of the US National Association of Business Economists, where he gave a speech titled Ultra-Easy Money: Digging the Hole Deeper? In this conversation we discuss where his contrarian economic philosophy comes from, how it leads him to worry a bit more than most about the undesired side effects of experimental monetary policy and its possible end games. For notes and links related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com.

Mark Yusko cut his teeth co-managing the endowment portfolio at Notre Dame and then putting together a team to do the same for the University of North Carolina. From there he setup a fund of hedge funds for Julian Robertson to take advantage of the talent Julian had identified at Tiger Management. Today, he oversees $3 billion at his firm Morgan Creek Capital Management. Mark is one of the most avid and astute students of value investing as a discipline I've come across. In this conversation we discuss his evolution as an investor, how and why he learned to listen to his gut and what it's telling him today: that we could be headed for a stock market crash. For notes, links and charts related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com/podcast.

Raoul Pal readily admits he had the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time very early in his investment career. After getting his start during the depths of the recession brought on by the savings and loan crisis, Raoul eventually found himself covering the hedge fund industry for Goldman Sachs. Here he was essentially mentored by the likes of Louis Bacon, Julian Robertson and Paul Tudor Jones. In this conversation, Raoul discusses the lessons he learned during this time, the greatest trade he ever witnessed and how these helped form the global macro investing framework he uses today. He also shares some of his current investment ideas along with what he sees as the most glaring and massive risk to individual investors over the coming decade. For links and charts related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com.

Helene Meisler started her career on Wall Street when a career on Wall Street, let alone being a woman on Wall Street, was a contrarian move. She eventually found her way to working for trading legend Justin Mamis and has been charting the markets by hand (yes, that means pencil and paper) ever since. In this episode, she shares the smartest lesson she's learned in her career, her favorite stock market indicators and discusses her "fat pitch" trade setup. You can follow Helene on Twitter @hmeisler and read her daily column "Top Stocks" at TheStreet.com. For notes, links and charts related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com.

"Do what you love, with people you respect while serving the greater good." These are the words Todd Harrison lives by. In this episode we discuss how this motto has served him through his career in finance which spans three decades and how it led him to his most recent venture. Back in 2012, Todd said cannabis would emerge as "the single best investment over the next decade." He's now putting his money where his mouth is in starting the first cannabis wellness-focused hedge fund in existence. He discusses his framework for evaluating investment opportunities in the space along with some of his favorite individual ideas. Follow Todd on twitter @todd_harrison and @CB1Cap for updates on the industry. For notes and links related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com.

If you have spent any time around the markets, Tom McClellan is a name you are probably already familiar with. Tom's parents invented McClellan Oscillator and McClellan Summation Index, two of the most useful of technical indicators. But Tom is also a terrific technician in his own right, carrying the torch his parents first lit back in the 1960's. He has created some of the most creative and effective stock market models I have ever seen. In this conversation we discuss both the history of these models and how Tom integrates them into his own trading process today. Tom regularly shares his wealth of knowledge and experience at mcoscillator.com. You can also follow him on twitter @McClellanOsc. For links and notes related to our discussion visit TheFelderReport.com/podcast.

Over the past 30 years, Bill Fleckenstein has managed money for Bill Gates, witnessed and profited from four epic financial bubbles and honed his palate for white Burgundy. As a dedicated short seller during the activist central bank era, Bill shares in this episode how he developed his process over time including the specific tactics he now employs to profit from declining prices. We also discuss the unique problems presented by experimental monetary policy to both the economy and financial markets. Finally, Bill reveals what he believes to be “one of the fattest pitches out there” for short sellers in the current market along with the unique risks the current environment presents to the average investor. Find Bill online at FleckensteinCapital.com and @FlecksThoughts on Twitter. For notes and links related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com/podcast.

Jim Grant calls Steven Bregman, "one of Wall Street's most interesting thinkers." I called upon him to share his thoughts on the massive and growing trend to passive investing which he calls, "the greatest bubble ever." He discusses the differences between the current bubble in the financial markets and prior bubbles, the specific distortions created in the markets and the unique opportunities they present. Perhaps most importantly, Steven reveals the little-discussed structural shift in passive investing which dramatically devalues it as a strategy and how investors have been deceived by historical return figures that are not applicable to the products they own today. We also get into his personal history in the financial industry along with his evolution as an investor and more. For notes and links related to the episode visit TheFelderReport.com.

Eric Cinnamond has been called "the godfather of small cap absolute return investing." From 1998 to 2016 he ran an equity investment strategy that handily beat the 8% average annual return of the Russell 2000 Index. But what's even more impressive is he did this while holding an average cash allocation of about 40% so his equity performance was roughly double that of the index. In this episode we discuss his background and his evolution as an investor. We also delve into his current process which entails his close study of roughly 300 companies. He reveals how he looks at business valuation and how he evaluates risk in that context. We also get into the current market environment and talk about how his discipline requires that he take an extreme contrarian position today both with his investments and his career. For notes and links regarding this episode visit TheFelderReport.com.

This episode is an introduction to Jesse Felder and his podcast, Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom. Jesse has been managing money for over 20 years. He began his professional career at Bear, Stearns & Co. and later co-founded a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Since founding The Felder Report in 2005 his writing has been featured in many major finance publications like The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, The Huffington Post, MarketWatch, Yahoo!Finance, Business Insider, Investing.com, Seeking Alpha and more. Today he lives in Bend, Oregon with his wife and two kids. Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom is a new journey for Jesse in an effort to better understand the commonalities among the greatest investors in the world and also what makes them unique. Visit TheFelderReport.com for more information including notes and links related to this episode.