The students of Columbia Business School just released the Fall 2018 edition of Graham & Doddsville. It features members of Tweedy, Browne’s investment committee, Scott Miller of Greenhaven Road Capital and Steve Tusa of JP Morgan. It also includes 2 stock pitches from students of Columbia’s Value Investing program.
Another outstanding job!
Read the latest issue of Graham & Doddsville here.
Read past issues of Graham & Doddsville here.
Over the past 10 days, two value investing legends passed on. Each was identified as a Superinvestor of Graham-And-Doddsville by Warren Buffett.
Ed Anderson, Jr. passed away on February 9, 2012 at the age of 83.
A partner with Tweedy Browne from 1968 until 1983, Ed was an original member of “The Graham Group” with Warren Buffett and took pleasure in the group’s annual gatherings and learning from each of the individuals.
The rest of Ed Anderson, Jr.’s obituary can be read here.
Walter Schloss passed away on February 19, 2012 at the age of 95.
Mr. Schloss grew up in Manhattan, attended Franklin School and the New York Stock Exchange Institute, where he studied under Benjamin Graham. He enlisted in the Army on December 8, 1942, rising to the rank of Second Lieutenant. He served in Iran as part of the US Signal Corps, finishing out his wartime service at the Pentagon. At the end of WWI, he was invited by Benjamin Graham to join the firm of Graham Newman as a securities analyst. In 1955 Mr. Schloss set up his own investment management partnership, Walter J. Schloss Associates. His son, Edwin, joined the company in 1973. Walter managed investments with utmost integrity and a commitment to his clients. He retired in 2002 at the age of 87.
The rest of Walter Schloss’ obituary can be read here.
Also see: ‘Superinvestor’ Walter Schloss Dies at 95 (Bloomberg.com)
From The Superinvestors of Graham-And-Doddsville:
I begin this study of results by going back to a group of four of us who worked at Graham-Newman Corporation from 1954 through 1956. There were only four — I have not selected these names from among thousands. I offered to go to work at Graham-Newman for nothing after I took Ben Graham’s class, but he turned me down as overvalued. He took this value stuff very seriously! After much pestering he finally hired me. There were three partners and four of us as the “peasant” level. All four left between 1955 and 1957 when the firm was wound up, and it’s possible to trace the record of three.
The first example (see Table 1) is that of Walter Schloss. Walter never went to college, but took a course from Ben Graham at night at the New York Institute of Finance. Walter left Graham-Newman in 1955 and achieved the record shown here over 28 years. Here is what “Adam Smith” — after I told him about Walter — wrote about him in SuperMoney (1972):
He has no connections or access to useful information. Practically no one in Wall Street knows him and he is not fed any ideas. He looks up the numbers in the manuals and sends for the annual reports, and that’s about it.
In introducing me to (Schloss) Warren had also, to my mind, described himself. “He never forgets that he is handling other people’s money, and this reinforces his normal strong aversion to loss.” He has total integrity and a realistic picture of himself. Money is real to him and stocks are real — and from this flows an attraction to the “margin of safety” principle.
Walter has diversified enormously, owning well over 100 stocks currently. He knows how to identify securities that sell at considerably less than their value to a private owner. And that’s all he does. He doesn’t worry about whether it it’s January, he doesn’t worry about whether it’s Monday, he doesn’t worry about whether it’s an election year. He simply says, if a business is worth a dollar and I can buy it for 40 cents, something good may happen to me. And he does it over and over and over again. He owns many more stocks than I do — and is far less interested in the underlying nature of the business; I don’t seem to have very much influence on Walter. That’s one of his strengths; no one has much influence on him.
The second case is Tom Knapp, who also worked at Graham-Newman with me. Tom was a chemistry major at Princeton before the war; when he came back from the war, he was a beach bum. And then one day he read that Dave Dodd was giving a night course in investments at Columbia. Tom took it on a noncredit basis, and he got so interested in the subject from taking that course that he came up and enrolled at Columbia Business School, where he got the MBA degree. He took Dodd’s course again, and took Ben Graham’s course. Incidentally, 35 years later I called Tom to ascertain some of the facts involved here and I found him on the beach again. The only difference is that now he owns the beach!
In 1968, Tom Knapp and Ed Anderson, also a Graham disciple, along with one or two other fellows of similar persuasion, formed Tweedy, Browne Partners, and their investment results appear in Table 2. Tweedy, Browne built that record with very wide diversification. They occasionally bought control of businesses, but the record of the passive investments is equal to the record of the control investments.
For more on Walter Schloss, see GrahamAndDoddsville.net’s Superinvestor Resources here.
From the Tweedy Browne website:
December 14, 2009
We are deeply saddened by the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Christopher H. Browne. Chris died on Sunday, December 13th from a heart attack.
Chris joined Tweedy, Browne after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969, and became a partner of the Firm in 1974. Chris was the second generation of Brownes to work at Tweedy, Browne, following in the footsteps of his father, Howard Browne. Earlier this year, Chris formally took a step back from his daily involvement and became a senior advisor to the firm. His tenure at Tweedy spans some 40 years during which time Tweedy, Browne evolved from being a rather small investment advisor to a global investment manager for individuals, institutions and family groups from all over the world.
Chris made an immeasurable contribution to our Firm during his 40-year tenure at Tweedy, Browne. We will miss his wit, his charm and loving, warm personality. He will be deeply missed.
William H. Browne
Thomas H. Shrager
John D. Spears
Robert Q. Wyckoff, Jr.
Chris Browne was a legend in the world of value investing. Much has been written about him in recent days. I had the privilege hearing Mr. Browne speak in Professor Greenwald’s class not only once, but twice. As printed on the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing website:
Browne was a long time advisor to the Heilbrunn Center and was always supportive of the idea of an academic center for the value investing approach. He was a founding member of the Heilbrunn Center Board of Advisors in 2002, and served for 7 years as a trusted advisor to the program.
The only addition I have to what has already been written is that the following article is an absolute must read for anyone with an interest in value investing.
Our hearts and prayers go out to both Chris Browne’s family and Tweedy Browne.
See: Value Investing and Behavioral Finance by Chris Browne
See: “A Career Spent Finding Value” by Jason Zweig, WSJ, Deceber 16, 2009]
UPDATE: To see videos of Chris Browne guest lecture in Professor Greenwald’s Value Investing Class click here and scroll to the third speaker.
