Scott Reardon - Study The Greats

Scott Reardon, Portfolio Manager at Dakota Value Funds, Author of The Dark Continent series and Bonfire of the Beasts, stops by The Business Brew to chat about what he learned by studying the greatest investors of all time.  Scott's work led him to focus on very favorable risk/reward scenarios.  While that might sound trite, it's hard in practice.

You can read Scott's work at:

Greatest investors: https://www.dakotavalue.com/stewart-s-bridge-paper

Cyclicality of markets and life: https://www.dakotavalue.com/draper-s-carousel

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see www.mikeando.com.

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

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Detailed Show Notes:
6:45 - Scott’s background

9:00 – Scott’s strategy

11:45 – How Scott developed his strategy by studying the greats

15:30 – Could we have stuck with Charlie Munger as a young investor?

18:20 – Within value investors there tends to be two camps

19:45 – Scott’s favorite investors

25:45 – Does value need a catalyst?

28:00 – Microcaps vs Mid Caps

34:00 – Scale advantages and scale economics

44:00 – Scott and Bill discuss learning they may not know anything

General Discussion

1:03:00 – Thoughts on where to fish for investment ideas

1:08:00 – A nonacademic conversation on dividends vs buybacks

1:13:30 – Incentives matter

1:20:00 – Analyzing a wide distribution of outcomes