Build Your Fund With $15

  • Reading time:11 mins read

Takeaways

People have some strong feelings towards who’d they’d give money too. Which is fair. 

But still surprised me how strong their feelings are.

On the contrary too. People probably have even stronger feelings to who they wouldn’t give money too.

People want premium. Total guess and off the top of my head but I reckon a top row investor would have been in about 80-90% of choices.
Simons the most frequent, and if not selected, there’s a strong chance Buffett or Munger were chosen. Sometimes in tandem.

Confusion

A lot of people mentioning “if I pick Simons with access into Medallion fund, yep I’m in”. When I first made the graphic I was under the impression it was build your fund.
So when you chose an investor, all you got was the investor. You don’t get their fund. You don’t get their supercomputers or star employees. You just get them to build around. That’s my fault. Should have made it more clear.

Tobias Carlise had the right idea taking them on as analysts to avoid conflicts.

But the beauty is in people interpreting how they want to. And coming up with ideas and things I never would.
Hell, Cliff Asness even asked if he could short himself!

Interesting Choices

I had people levering up. People going short. One guy even doing arbitrage with another post!

One of my favourites too was @PhilObenshain and @davealevine both wanting 7x Druckenmiller within 13 seconds of each other.
So specific and virtually at the same time. I love that.

A lot of people choosing to leave money on the table to invest in the fund. Or by lunch. Or a can a coke.

Jim Rogers getting snapped up in the OTC markets too I liked.

Ackman vs Icahn

There’s some beef there if you didn’t know. 

And I saw someone mention Icahn being worth twice as Ackman is going to drive him crazy.

When making the list, I was sort of reluctant to include living investors. Because yeah I’m sure it’s not a great feeling to see yourself “worth” less than others. 

And people saying they want to short you I can’t imagine is fun. Or people saying you should be worth negative.

But what’s done is done.

If I had to revalue each investor?

$5 Tier

Buffett & Munger

Both fairly valued I think. 

Both were regularly chosen. People often took either Munger or Buffett. Some took both. But felt in line with value.

Simons

Undervalued. 

Like criminally undervalued apparently. Should have tried like $7. I thought he’d be on par with Buffett. Easily the most selected investor.

People going 3x Simons. Chamath Palihapitiya too! 

Made a lot of lists. Made a lot of lists as the only choice! Definitely felt undervalued. 

Soros

Maybe slightly overvalued. 

Might be better at $4.

$4 Tier

Klarman, Icahn and Marks

All fairly valued I think. 

Schloss

Maybe a tad overvalued. I think I’d drop to $3

$3 Tier

Greenblatt & Lynch

Fairly valued.

Neff & Fisher

Overvalued maybe.
I think I’d Fisher out maybe for Paul Tudor Jones, Ray Dalio or Kenneth Griffin. Neff would probably have to drop a tier or two.
Tobias Carlisle, Bill Brewster and Jake Taylor on Value: After Hours at about 15:20 in spoke about the post. And mentioned Neff being undervalued. Which I agree returns wise, but in terms of comments choosing him? Pretty overvalued.

$2 Tier

Ackman & Druckenmiller

Undervalued. Druckenmiller critically undervalued.
I regret he should have been at least $4. Ackman I would have put to $3, maybe a $4. I feel Ackman had the greatest split of opinion. Some thinking well undervalued (me included). And others asking why he was even on the list or not negative? Which I find wild but that’s their opinion, it’s cool.

Gross & Bogle

Overvalued.
I think I’d put Bogle down to $1 and Gross either down to $1 or replace with Ken Griffin?

$1 Tier

Lu & Einhorn

Undervalued.

I think Lu was consensus undervalued. He received a decent amount of picks. Einhorn I think was undervalued too but he too like Ackman split a lot of opinions.

Templeton & Asness

Fairly valued.

Both received the amount of picks I thought were reasonable.
I’d be lying though if I said it wasn’t nervewracking listing Asness at $1 and having him comment on your post!
I’m lucky he was a really good sport about and not afraid to self depreciate. I really admire that.

Diversity

Few comments on the makeup of the list. And believe me, I noticed that it was predominately white and old when making. But I went through a tonne of lists of top investor records and based a lot off that. So I just tried to go with the consensus best, and hoping people would understand.

What started the post.

I don’t mind the criticism that it wasn’t diverse. I agree.

I just wish when bringing up the diversity debate they’d give me some examples of who I could have put in instead.
I want to know of some great investors that I haven’t heard of.


I really did enjoy reading through all the comments. I tried liking all comments from those who gave their input. 

I know liking every comment seems excessive (it was a fair few), but I feel like if someone can take the time out of their day to thoughtfully comment on my post, the least I can do is like their comment. 

I know I really appreciate it when others do it to me.