The Bet with Buffett – Hedge Funds vs. The S&P 500, w/ Ted Seides

This coming weekend is the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in Omaha. That means this week is the perfect opportunity to discuss a topic which will likely figure prominently at Berkshire this weekend: Ted Seides’s famous bet with Buffett. Ted and I discuss the origins of the bet, the nuances beneath the headlines, and whether he’d make the bet again for the next ten years. Along the way, we cover many hot topics like hedge funds, alternatives, fees, and indexing. Please enjoy!

Books Referenced

Unconventional Success (David Swenson)

Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business

Links Referenced

Carol Loomis article on the bet (2008)

Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter with Bet

Ted’s most recent piece on the bet/fees (2015)

Warren Buffett’s Alpha

Hard Times Come Hedge Funds (Carol Loomis, 1971)

 

Show Notes

2:08 – (first question) – Ted describes his first trip to a Berkshire Hathaway meeting

3:20 – What is Ted most excited for when it comes to this year’s trip

4:44 – How this now famous bet first came about

5:48 – Had rocks, got rocks, fees in financial services

7:16 – structure and funding of the bet

9:48 – How was PR handled from both sides of the bet

11:07 – Carol Loomis article on the bet (2008)

12:55 – Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter with Bet

13:10 – Why was Ted willing to make this bet

14:22 – Ted’s most recent piece on the bet/fees

16:19 – Looking at the difference of exposures between the S&P 500 vs Fund of Funds

19:08 – Exploring pricing of the S&P 500 over a long period of time

22:04 – What should people take away from the bet

23:32 – Unconventional Success (David Swenson)

27:12 – Can the more expensive, more exclusive investing strategies be replicated in a public market cheap alternative.

27:18 – Warren Buffett’s Alpha

32:10 – At what level does it make sense to start looking at alternative level investment ideas

35:03 – Are hedge funds an asset class or contractual arrangement, and what metric would Ted use if the bet were to be repeated.

40:13 – Knowing what he knows now, what are some of the changes Ted would make to this bet

45:18 – The S&P is touted as a representation of the global economy but it only covers a fraction of it

49:17 – Would Ted use fund of funds in a new bet

52:52 – What was the most and least enjoyable part of this bet

53:52 – Hard Times Come Hedge Funds (Carol Loomis, 1971)

54:10 – What is another field of investing opportunities that Ted might not know as well that he is excited to explore.

56:54 – A closer look at deploying capital to buy smaller businesses

1:00:42 – Resources for folks interested in deplying private capital

1:01:24 – Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business

1:03:02 – Bonus question about the S&P 500’s time weighted return vs how volatility effects people’s holding in the index

1:06:10 – How paper returns vs real returns in markets effect this equation of the bet.

Learn More

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