“Every great money manager I’ve ever met, all they want to talk about is their mistakes. There’s a great humility there but and then obviously integrity because passion without integrity leads to jail. So, if you want someone who’s absolutely obsessed with the business and obsessed with winning, they’re not in it for the money, they’re in it for winning, you better have somebody with integrity.” - Stan Druckenmiller
A couple of years ago I attended an investor conference on the Gold Coast and among the presentations I attended was one given by Australia's fastest growing and recently successful fund managers. The presenter was yabbering on about their stock selection process and highlighting their global fund performance since it's inception. I can't recall the very impressive performance numbers as all I focused on was the presenter's omission of the 30% depreciation the AUD had experienced over the previous two years. Effectively the presenter had included the currency depreciation in the marketing material without acknowledgement.
The message is to avoid managers who seem a bit too clever. They know how to behave and how to treat investors. Their arguments can be convincing too. However, there are too many uncertainties in this world and even the most skilled manager is bound to make mistakes. Smart managers who think they are smart take more risk than they can handle as they often overestimate their abilities.
inspiration source: Star Magnolia