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. Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player! 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