5. Aswath Damodaran – MBA Corporate Finance Spring 2017
Aswath Damodaran is a finance professor at NYU Stern. He actually teaches Benjamin Graham’s old class, I believe. If you’re taking the CFA exams, then you’ll find his lectures helpful.He really breaks down some of the more archaic academic concepts well. Also, since he’s not beholden to any investment firm, he’s able to speak openly about the corporate governance issues at companies like Google and Disney. I would give a word of warning though. He is an academic, and while I love him, my one critique is that he does rely a little too much on academic concepts like CAPM and beta. But to his credit, he is extremely self-aware of their shortcomings. And you should be too.
4. Martin Shkreli – Finance Playlist
Martin Shrekli, or Pharma Bro, rose to infamy for raising the price of some prescription drug from ~$5 to ~$5,000 (I have no clue). He’s currently under federal investigation, or perhaps it’s a civil suit–I’m not sure–for allegedly running a Ponzi Scheme at his former hedge fund. Look, I don’t care if the dude’s Patrick Bateman. If he’s sharing sane, rational, repeatable investing advice, then I’m listening. Just check out his first video if you don’t believe me and let it speak for itself.
[Edit: These videos are no longer available. He does have new videos, but I can’t speak to them.]
3. Warren Buffett – 49 Full Length Interviews, Q&As, and Speeches
Warren Buffett. I’m not saying he’s a super-villain, but if I ever wrote a Superman script, I’d write Lex Luthor’s public persona after the Oracle of Omaha. A billionaire, super-genius with an impeccable public image who’s able to distill complex issues down to folksy witticisms for us huddled masses. (Those who only know Lex Luther’s character from the movies are probably extremely confused at this point. Naturally, Hollywood has not done the franchise justice. You could even say they’re out of their league. Ok I’m done.)
2. Pat Dorsey – Talks at Google
Pat Dorsey was the director at Morningstar and currently runsDorsey Assethere in Chicago. If you think that’s where I got this blog’s namesake, you are correct! While at Morningstar, he helped develop their moat methodology that focuses on sustainable competitive advantages. Generally speaking, his strategy is the opposite of the Ben Graham’s cigar butt philosophy. Instead of investing in wonderfully priced, terrible businesses for a short period of time,he’s investing in fairly priced, wonderful businesses for a long time. If you’re looking for a little more depth, then I’d recommend his book “The Fives Rules for Successful Stock Investing.” It’s only $4 onAmazon.
1. Charlie Munger – The Psychology of Human Misjudgement
Charlie Munger. It’s like those two old men Muppets had a baby, and that baby was an even older, more surly old man. Which I find endearing by the way. He cuts through the bullshit and speaks his mind. I would attempt to distill his lecture down to his: Your brain lies to you. It’s evolved over millions of years to survive in a hunter-gather society. A bygone era that’s long since dead here in America. It has not evolved to buy and sell stocks. By watching this video, you’ll learn to become self-aware and recognize some of the more common misjudgements that your brain makes, so that you can avoid them. Case in point, did you immediately disregard the Martin Shkreli videos because of his character flaws? That’s a case ofbias from disliking distortion. Listen to Charlie’s video to find out what other misjudgements you may be making.
Disclaimer: I am long BRK.B and DIS.
While I did create the above playlists, don’t expect me to keep them up to date. But if you found some full-length Warren Buffett interviews, Q&As, or speeches that you would like me to add, feel free to message me. If there are any duplicates in my playlists, let me know! If any of the videos get taken down…well that’s just Youtube for you. Thank you.
Written 2017