No. of Recommendations: 11
In a recent Richer, Wiser, Happier podcast episode featuring Guy Spier, William Green opened with the following: "Guy launched the Aquamarine Fund back in 1997. By the end of February 2024, the fund had returned a total of 932 percent. To put that in context, this means that he’s beaten the S&P 500 Index by 157 percentage points, and the MSCI Global Index by 396 percentage points over the last 26 years or so. That record puts Guy in a tiny minority of fund managers who have outperformed the market over more than a quarter of a century."
This might be an example of marketing to an encouraging interviewer who is already an admirer and receptive audience.
I have the performance record from his recent letter. For any holding periods less than 20 years, he has underperformed the S&P. In fact the record shows that he has underperformed in "every" holding period between 1 and 20 years which is by itself pretty remarkable. All the "outperformance" is if you started your holding between 20 and 24 years ago.
I think it may be a similar case with Pabrai.
To his credit he supplies the figures pretty transparently but the marketing and positioning tells a different story. This might explain why some these managers are guarded in sharing a lot of this information publicly.
