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I think I'd have respected this interview a bit more if Nygren had said that his biggest mistake was buying so much WaMu vs not buying enough Apple. This would seem to meet his desire to not lose his investors' money being more important than his concern about missing a stock posting big gains. Just how many times did the interviewer thank him for making her money on her investments in his funds?
Reply to @STB65: I'm not sure if you realized this but Gurufocus asked readers to send in questions beforehand. I'm not sure of the format of the Q&A --- I think it was done via email in written Q&A format rather than a person to person interview. Gurufocus has done similar things before in the past whereby they hand a collection of written questions from readers to the Fund Manager and he/she answers them. So each question was from a different reader.
Somehow we never forget the mistakes made by our fund managers, at least I don't forget. Nygren was one of them, another were the managers of Dodge Stock fund. After I sold I never looked back. Maybe I was also wrong.
Reply to @ron: I'm with you, rightly or wrongly. I have never sensed the modesty or introspection warranted. I sensed he was reading his own clips over those boom years --- quite like Miller. Not sure I could substantiate that shot. All during that time Gabelli was getting hammered, by M* and others, over and over, for being this major greedhead or something. But his interviews felt somehow different. So did Tillinghast's. And the Parnassus guys, Yacktmans, Danoff, and McGregor, and others. Can't put my finger on it. So I bailed, D&C too, and never thought about them since.
Since inception in 1996, $10 invested in OAKLX became $80, whereas $10 invested in S&P 500 became $33. Thus he certainly has some reasons to respond the way he does. More generally, it seems that people at Oakmark, just as their offspring at ARTKX, know what they are doing.
Nope, didn't know the questions were from different people. Didn't sell either, but didn't add more. Held D&C, too. Still, I respect the guys who do well and 'fess up' at times more than the ones who ignore mis-steps. They will continue to collect my ER, even from a diminished base, so they could at least pretend to be humble from time to time.
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Just how many times did the interviewer thank him for making her money on her investments in his funds?
Didn't sell either, but didn't add more. Held D&C, too.
Still, I respect the guys who do well and 'fess up' at times more than the ones who ignore mis-steps. They will continue to collect my ER, even from a diminished base, so they could at least pretend to be humble from time to time.