Learning - Big Mistakes

Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments by Michael Batnick explains the failures of legendary investors.

Two of the individuals covered were phenomenal i.e. Mark Twain and John M Keynes. Mark Twain and his statements were hilarious covering the behavior of human beings and that of Keynes was intellectually stimulating. 

Heard new name Chris Sacca (Venture Capitalist) for first time.

Key takeaways from the book are reproduced below on as is basis:

What you learn in markets

In my nearly fifty years of experience in Wall Street I've found that I know less and less about what the stock market is going to do but I know more and more about what investors ought to do; and that's a pretty vital change in attitude. —Benjamin Graham

Who sets price and value

Graham taught his students and his readers that prices fluctuate more than value, because it is humans who set price, while businesses set value.

Mark Twain

The most famous author and his exploits in investing / business should be read in the book and reproducing select section from the books is a fool’s exploits. I don’t intend to. The words crafted by Twain is hilarious and unbelievably connected to all investors who lose. 

When IIT / IIM ‘s join investment banking

Michael Lewis, who began his career at Salomon Brothers, wrote in the New York Times, “Meriwether was like a gifted editor or a brilliant director: he had a nose for unusual people and the ability to persuade them to run with their talents…Meriwether had taken it upon himself to set up a sort of underground railroad that ran from the finest graduate finance and math programs directly onto the Salomon trading floor. Robert Merton, the economist who himself would later become a consultant to Salomon Brothers and, later still, a partner at Long-Term Capital, complained that Meriwether was stealing an entire generation of academic talent.”

LTCM Learning

Jim Cramer said, “In short, this was a seminal blowup. It struck at the heart of all of those on Wall Street who think that this racket is a science that can be measured, structured, derived and gamed.”

Key Statement

When I went to college, I was in over my head. I spent a lifetime going through the motions, so looking back, it's not surprising that I wasn't ready, because I did nothing to get ready.