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Archive for November, 2010

Aswath Damodaran: Getting In Touch With Yourself

November 23, 2010 By: webmaster Category: Aswath Damodaran, Valuation

Aswath Damodaran is Professor of Finance and David Margolis Teaching Fellow at the Stern School of Business at New York University.  He teaches corporate finance and equity valuation courses in the Stern MBA program.  I was first introduced to his book:  “Investment Valuation” as an undergrad student at University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business.  On the topic of valuation, Damodaran “has a great reputation as a teacher and authority.”1

I have met many value investors who immediately dismiss anything that is either based on WACC or contains the letters “D-C-F”.  Agree or not, I would argue that no one is qualified to dismiss an entire academic theory without understanding both sides of the story.

I highly recommend Professor Damodaran’s work, which primarily deals with theoretical valuation models.  In this blog post, “The Secret to Investment Success:  Self Awareness?,” I think he really hits the nail on the head:

I know that there are many who claim to have found the secret ingredient to investment success, though few actually deliver. However, I want to present an unconventional ingredient that I think most academics and practitioners miss when they talk about investment strategies: your personal make-up as an individual.

Read the full post here.

I also recommend Professor Damodaran’s site which is packed with useful information, spreadsheets, and even links to his classes! [Damodaran Online]

Von Mueffling: A Hedge-Fund Manager’s New Groove

November 03, 2010 By: webmaster Category: William Von Mueffling

I am still working on transitioning the SuperInvestor Resources to a new format.  In the meantime, I will continue adding resources and hope to even publish a new post once in a while!

Value investor William Von Mueffling, Columbia Business School alumnus and founder of Cantillon Capital Management, was recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal.  Von Mueffling made headlines in June 2009 when he decided to close his long/short hedge funds, while continuing to manage the firm’s long-only strategy. 

 

Cantillon’s strategy is to dig around for companies that, regardless what business they are in, produce higher-than-average returns on shareholder equity, while they are priced cheaply relative to their earnings streams.

“You want to be in businesses that can pass through inflation, and also that have exposure to currencies in parts of the world that are growing,” which in this environment helps protect against the declining value of the U.S. dollar, Mr. von Mueffling said.

[Link to WSJ article]