Have you ever been to a shareholders meeting? Not me. Nothing ever happens in Quebec City. I live a comfortable life, but not enough to be in measure of taking the plane to Cupertino or New-York each year for a 2 hour conference.
But this blog has disciples. And one of those disciples wrote to me lately, asking me if I'd like to go to the Giverny Capital shareholders meeting on march 29th at some very posh hotel in Quebec City.
Why not.
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Robin Speziale told me last december that François Rochon was short. I expected to meet a guy half my height. It wasn't the case. The guy is at least 4 feet tall. Probably more. He looks pretty cool and interested. He welcomed guests at the entrance of the room and shook hands. Really good first contact. The guy doesn't look at all like a fucking peddler.
The meeting had about 100 people. A good number of them were young men (25-30 years old). The questions asked by the public were couçi-couça. It looked to me as many of them did not know that much about stock analysis. But at least, there wasn't any really stupid question. Just some long and very abstract questions about nothing in particular.
At the end of the meeting, I went to see Rochon and his lieutenant, Jean-Philippe Bouchard. I talked a bit with Bouchard, before asking him about the importance of Beta coefficient for Giverny. At that exact moment, his face changed and I felt like a fucking nerd in front of the most beautiful girl of the school.
This guy is surely clever, but he looks a bit cocky. Not my kind of type.
At the end of the meeting, I told them that I was the writer behind this blog (knowing that Robin talked to Rochon in December about my blog) and both knew about it. I don't know why I did that. To see some reaction maybe? I'll probably never do that again because the air started to be a little harder to breathe from then on. Were they uncomfortable about the name and the language of this blog? Did they fear that I would use street language talking about them?
In fact, they probably feared that I would spoil or reveal some information about the event. Bouchard said to me that everything said during the evening should be off the record. Well, I never intended to reveal any secrets about Giverny given the fact that almost everything about the fund is avalaible via www.whalewisdom.com.
I'm still not convinced about all Giverny's picks, like that fucking Carmax. But at least, I respect the manager of the fund and I believe his approach is intelligent. He picks boring stocks out of the radar. These stocks won't go bankrupt tomorrow or have very little chance to be involved in a scandal because they're from boring and not regulated industries.
Happy to have been there. Merci Yves.
Is your friend Robin planning to write another book? Is he working on one now? Will his next book also be about the stock market?
RépondreSupprimerWe can download Market Masters from Amazon.ca for $7.95
That's a pretty good deal. We can pick the brains of dozens of successful money managers for under $8.
I don't know. I wrote to him, asking him to answer your questions...
SupprimerThat was a good book. My favorite interview was with Martin Ferguson. I liked Ferguson's observations about the management of a company. They have four jobs...allocating capital, controlling costs, controlling risks and growing revenue.
SupprimerHi Angelo, I'm planning on starting the sequel to Market Masters at the beginning of 2018. You can send new money manager suggestions to r.speziale@gmail.com for consideration in the next book. And not just Canadian money managers - anywhere in the world. I'm also thinking about a documentary based on the first Market Masters...
SupprimerWe'll definitely be on the lookout for your next book, Robin. I bought the first book and then ordered the amazon kindle version...(that kindle version still goes for a ridiculously low price). We get to pick the brains of over 2 dozen money masters for about 25 or 30 cents a head when we get the kindle version. LOL
SupprimerAs for which money manager I'd like to see you interview. Well, I'm dreaming in colour but...there's this young buck who was born on January 1, 1924 that I'd love to see interviewed. He goes by Charlie, and Warren Buffett can vouch for his genius. But he will hit you with quotes like:
“Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.”
“People are trying to be smart —all I am trying to do is not to be idiotic, but it’s harder than most people think.”
and
“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”