( Ron is working hard for you ! Right !)
(From Muhlenkamp Website)
We are professional investment managers. We are not accountants, auditors, brokers, custodians, financial planners, or tax experts. We do not file tax returns, prepare legal documents, or churn out black box financial plans. We seek to maximize total returns, after taxes and inflation, to our clients by taking advantage of the opportunities provided when markets periodically misprice assets.
Our motto is “intelligent investment management” to emphasize that we remove the emotion from investing. We might also be described as “no BS” or “common sense” investment managers—you get the idea. Investing other peoples’ money is a rational profession and we apply ourselves to it on a continuous basis.
We invest money for people who want their money to work as hard for them as they’ve had to work for it—and who want their money to grow over periods of time best measured in years and generations. Our clients and shareholders hire us to help protect what they have, help make it grow, and help ease their minds.
Regards,
Ted
Let's See How Hard Ron Is Working For You: MUHLX Performance:
15 Years 92 Percentile, 10 Years 100 Percentile, 5 Years 99 Percentile, 3 Years 99 Percentile, 1 Year 98 Percentile, YTD 99 Percentile. At least Ron your consistent.
M* Snapshot MUHLX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/muhlx/quote.htmlLipper Snapshot MUHLX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/MUHLXMUHLX Is Ranked #226 out of #483 (LCB) Funds By U.S. News & World Report)
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/large-blend/muhlenkamp-fund/muhlxLarry Swedroe 2011 Article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-muhlenkamp-add-value/
Comments
This is a tricky task for me. To paraphrase, I come to bury Ron Muhlenkamp, not to praise him, yet I admire the man.
Both my wife and I have separately talked with Ron on a number of occasions. We both like the man as a person and as a fund manager. He is well informed about the market conditions, dedicated to the investor’s task at hand, articulates his decisions in a fundamentally convincing manner, and practices a conservative investment approach. Basically, he is a smart investor who applies his farming management experiences to growing investments. He uses plenty of farm analogies in his newsletters.
But in today’s marketplace, being smart is just not enough. The investment world is populated by smart folks. All these (us) smart folks neutralize one another to cancel our perceived advantages.
That’s what happened in baseball such that it is highly unlikely that the sport will ever again record a 400 batting average over a season. Ted Williams was the last to do so, at least partially because the depth and talent of pitching staffs have remarkably increased and position defensive skills have greatly improved.
In Michael Mauboussin’s writings, he constantly makes the case that investment rewards are the sum of a skill component and a luck component. With skill neutralizing itself because of the competency and resources of the professional investor class (which now dominates the shares traded), all that remains is luck. Given that luck is unpredictable, over time it facilitates a reversion-to-the-mean grip as measured by performance.
Hence, although Muhlenkamp did very well early in his career, sadly, he has suffered an extended reversion-to-the-mean. A similar fate has finally befallen on the Sequoia Fund.
Even guys like Bill Ruane, who benefited from the wisdom of Benjamin Graham’s teachings at Columbia University, are not immune to that relentless reversion law. It is not uncommon that dynasties crumble in the investment universe. The timing of that event is nearly impossible to project, except perhaps for that rare individual who possesses extraordinary skill that overshadows semi-persistent luck.
There are not many of those superior guys available to us. My list is completely blank. Therefore, although I suspect that MFOer Junkster’s estimate is a bit too extreme at the 99.5% level, I too believe most of us would do much better investing in low cost Index products.
For the record, we have never owned any Muhlenkamp funds.
Best Wishes.
Another trait is Audentes Fortuna Juvat - Fortune (luck) favors the bold. That is a topic for another time but most investors diversify away any possibilities of that characteristic benefiting them.
Good stuff!
c
Charles, thank you for the atta-boy. Although I don’t always agree with the positions that Junkster advocates, I always respect his analysis and his clear communications of those positions. Indeed, good, actionable stuff.
I overstated my position when I claimed I draw a completely blank slate when having access to superior investors. That is not true. Although I do not have direct contact, I do have access to the combined wisdom of both Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. This tandem is gifted, talented investors with an impressive track record,. Mutual funds that I own have shares in their Berkshire Hathaway operation.
Munger, like Buffett, learned from the wisdom of Benjamin Graham’s classroom lectures at Columbia. Here is a terrific Link that summaries some of that wisdom by way of their succinct sayings:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chanderchawla/2015/05/07/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-warren-buffett-and-charlie-munger/#be2c8599ba67
The article is a collection of some of their wit and wisdom expressed at a recent conference, but gained across several decades of experience, talks, and papers. Enjoy.
Best Wishes.