WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
I’m going to share stories about my best and worst investment decisions. But don’t worry, this isn’t just a brag-and-cringe session about making or losing money.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
At the end of July, Donald Trump went full Bitcoin. He wants the US to become a “Bitcoin superpower”; he promised to build a Bitcoin strategic reserve.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
How does our investment approach stack up against Warren Buffett’s? Answering this question gives me a chance to dissect Buffett’s famous investment principles and compare them to our own strategy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
How do I describe myself as an investor? This question provides an opportunity to delve into what I mean by being an “eclectic value investor with a slight touch of dogmatism.” It’s a comprehensive look at our investment philosophy and approach.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
The discussion of AI quickly falls into a domain bordering on Sci-Fi. My thoughts here are only marginally shaped by scientific facts.
If you look at technological progress over the centuries through the lens of productivity, the improvement was tiny, barely noticeable. Our ability to do the same tasks maybe improved a few basis points a year for millennia. People figured out fire, learned how to use levers, and created a wheel.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
There’s a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” As an investor, especially if you manage someone else’s capital, you have to be slightly insane.
During market manias, time slows down to dog years. You have to keep doing the same (rational) thing but expect a different outcome, knowing that at some point it will come.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
Despite the S&P 500 showing gains in the mid-teens, the average stock on the market is either up slightly or flat for the year. Most of the gains in the index came from the Magnificent 7 stocks, which constitute 35% of the index!
The Magnificent 7 are starting to look like the Nifty Fifty stocks from the 1970s (Kodak, Polaroid, Avon, Xerox, and others) – stocks you “had to own” or you were left behind – until all your gains were taken away or you faced a decade or two of no returns. Forty years later, it’s easy to dismiss these companies as has-beens. They’ve all either gone bankrupt or become irrelevant. But back then, they were the stars of corporate America, just like the Magnificent 7 are today.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
This week, I am going to share with you two essays that I wrote a few years ago. I want you to see this country through the eyes of an immigrant. If you were born here, you have only seen prosperity, making it more likely for you to take what you have for granted. We tend to not appreciate what we have until we lose it.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
When in the past I described my trip to the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting to others, I often found that I contradicted myself. I said I was going to see Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger speak, and then I said that their presentation was the least important part of the trip.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
Despite weakness in cable stock prices, our thesis on Charter Communications (CHTR) and Comcast (CMCSA) has not really changed. We made a small, superficial change in the portfolio.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
One of my principles in life is to have a net positive impact on the people I touch. If every single stock I discussed only went straight up, I wouldn’t have to worry about it. But this is not how life works.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
You don’t have to worry about the market and its crazy valuations. That’s your neighbor’s problem, not yours. In building your portfolio, we are aiming for resilience.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
Today EV sales account for a tiny rounding error of total global car sales. Can traditional automobile companies successfully transition to making EVs?
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
My brother Alex, my son Jonah, and I went to a conference in Switzerland. We saw this as an opportunity to turn the bookends of the trip into a small European vacation.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
Our society looks at abundance only from a positive perspective; however, it also has a very dark side. If scarcity is a disease that inflicts people in socialist countries, overabundance is a sickness prevalent in capitalist ones.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
This is my fireside chat with the CFA Society in Richmond, Virginia. We discussed the power of writing, stoicism in investing, and becoming the best investor you can be.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
The interview took place in April 2023 at Temple Sinai here in Denver. The discussion focused on my book Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life. The living characters of the book are from my family, so having them in the audience was a bit surreal.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Innovation disrupts, but it also creates new jobs and improves the standard of living of society. AI will displace many jobs, but it will also empower people with new productivity tools.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
I know young adults who have gone to Israel to fight to protect it from evil. I have friends who have put their lives on hold and gone to Israel to volunteer to help that country in any way they can. My pen is my gift. This is how I can make a difference. If I don’t stand up now, then when? When my family is sent to the gas chambers?
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
I usually look forward to waking up every morning. My family is still asleep. I make a cup of coffee, put on my headphones, and write. But I wasn’t looking forward to mornings over the last week while I was working on this and tomorrow’s essays. It took me to a dark place where I did not want to go.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
I am about to discuss a topic that, for reasons that are unclear to me, has been politicized: oil and gas. I am writing this as a pragmatic analyst who looks at two factors: supply and demand. After all, I am not hired by you (IMA clients) to come up with environmental policy but to grow your wealth.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
I just finished a fifteen-page seasonal letter to IMA clients. It discusses the economy and the positioning of our stock portfolio, as well as China, fossil fuels, AI, and unions. I will share excerpts from it over the next few weeks, starting today with a section that discusses our thoughts on the economy.
Though the official purpose of writing this was to get you close to my thinking about the economy and the stock market, to be honest, I have very little new to say. I suggest you reread my succinct letter from March 2023.
I have written this more selfishly to crystallize my thinking. This way, you and I will figure out what I think together. Thus, the following reads more like a listicle rather than an essay where all thoughts must flow from one to another.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
In this episode, I highlight some of the most overlooked factors in investing. I discuss the importance of understanding financials and looking deeper into company culture and management. I provide examples of CEO excesses, like the case of GE CEO Jeff Immelt, and interesting examples, like the case of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Apple is the best storytelling company on the planet. This was the thought that ran through my mind as I watched Apple present its new products at the WWDC conference.
When it introduces a product, Apple doesn’t just spend the time telling you what it will do for you; it directs as much effort to telling a very detailed story about how it made the product.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
My father and I started taking my son Jonah to Santa Fe in 2003, and this was when I first wrote about it. I have been writing, rewriting, and adding to this essay for the past ten years. I repolished it and included it in Soul in the Game. This time, I decided to leave it untouched. I added new thoughts at the end after our 2023 pilgrimage to this wonderful little town in New Mexico. I hope you enjoy it.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
In today’s letter, I want to address a question that I get asked at times: How do I get any research done since I travel a lot? And then I’ll explain the reasons for two next trips.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Many times, we bought because they were in their “junior year”; this is what made them undervalued. Our research led us to the conclusion that their difficulties were transitory and that as they matured the market would revalue them.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Over the next two weeks, I will share with you a few excerpts from my 25-page summer letter to IMA clients.
Next week, I will be comparing my children to stocks and divulging my latest thoughts on Uber and Qualcomm.
My purpose in sharing these excerpts is to give you insights into the investment process, so they all have the same focus – to teach you how to fish, not to provide you with the fish. So please take them as such.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Over the last two decades, I have given talks on investing, mainly focused on my books, to CFA Societies around the world, from South Africa to New Zealand to Sofia, Bulgaria, and India in January of this year (you can watch that talk here). As a CFA, I love talking to fellow CFAs; we all share a common memory of the pain of three torturous years of preparing for and taking the CFA exam. A few weeks ago I was asked to speak to the CFA Association of Russia about my most recent book. Here is my reply: A year and a half ago, I would have eagerly taken the opportunity to speak to your members, especially since my book Soul in the Game has been translated into Russian. However, today, my heart is breaking as I witness what is happening in Ukraine.To give a presentation to your members without addressing the atrocities occurring there would be similar to giving a presentation in Berlin in 1942 and not mentioning the millions of people being killed by the Nazis in the Soviet Union.Unless I can also discuss the horrors of the war, which I am sure you would not want me to do, I cannot bring myself to speak to your members. Sign up for my free weekly email newsletter https://vitaliy.substack.com/ Check out my weekly podcast, The Intellectual Investor. https://investor.fm/ GET MY BOOKS Soul in the Game – https://tinyurl.com/yzh486ep The Little Book of Sideways Markets – https://tinyurl.com/4sdbr5f2 Active Value Investing – https://tinyurl.com/ywfczy8u MY KEY LINKS My website/blog – https://contrarianedge.com/ Business Website – https://imausa.com/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/vitaliyk Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/vitaliyk/
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book. Please read the following important disclosure: https://contrarianedge.com/disclosure/
While I was watching Apple’s presentation, Meta’s Quest Pro (which I own for research purposes) suddenly started to remind me of Microsoft PCs – made by engineers for engineers, where the Vision Pro is created by humans for humans.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Imagine withdrawing a job offer two days after it was made. This is exactly what we did.
IMA is hiring for an Operations Associate position, and after a lengthy hiring process, we offered the position to Sam (not his real name). However, two days later, we had to withdraw the offer. This is not our usual behavior, so I wanted to write an explanation to Sam.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Apple is the best storytelling company on the planet. This was the thought that ran through my mind as I watched Apple present its new products at the WWDC conference.
When it introduces a product, Apple doesn’t just spend the time telling you what it will do for you; it directs as much effort to telling a very detailed story about how it made the product.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
I’ve been asked by many readers and some clients for my thoughts on the economy and recession.
As I am typing this, I’m thinking about how much ink I should be spilling on writing about the recession and how much time we, as investors, should be allocating to thinking and worrying about it.
Firstly, our ability to predict it is very limited – the economy is a complex system and thus incredibly difficult to forecast. Don’t believe me? The Federal Reserve employs a few hundred PhDs who stare at economic data 24/7 and they have yet to get it right, even once.
Secondly, recessions are not a death sentence to the economy but a natural, transitory phase.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
I don’t know when I graduated to giving job-seeking advice. However, I know that my scribbles are read by a lot of students and their parents, so I thought I would share this with you.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
I have vague first memories of playing chess with my grandfather when my family visited my father’s parents in Moscow. I was five years old. As I look back, chess gently came in and out of my life in the years since. Though I always admired chess players, I never took the game too seriously, never studied or took lessons.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
The fourteen-year-old Jonah could not sit through the annual meeting; he was preoccupied with anything and everything but Buffett’s and Munger’s wisdom. After coming with me to Omaha eight years ago, Jonah never asked to go back, until last year. He came to the meeting and loved it. He actually sat through almost all of the main event. He is coming with me again this year.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Bailouts of the banking system create social tension. Eventually, bailouts introduce so much risk into the system that failures and bailouts become too costly for the society to bear, government creates draconian rules trying to prevent them in future, which in turn kills innovation and the formation of new businesses, and the result is a stagnating economy.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) may be an extreme example, but it gave us a preview at a 100x magnification of what many banks are facing today. SVB is also a sad demonstration of how volatile deposits are. SVB was awash with deposits from its customers, mainly startups, raising money in the venture capital boom.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
This is part one of the winter seasonal letter I wrote to IMA clients, sharing my thoughts about the economy and the market. I tried something I’ve never done before. Instead of conveying my message through storytelling, I tried to compress my thoughts into short sentences. I summarized some 50,000 words into about 1,000.
WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based value investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. Vitaliy has written two books on investing and is an award-winning writer. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids, where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and first non-investing book.
I recently traveled to a Swiss investment conference. The beauty, safety and serenity of Switzerland all come with embedded costs which I uncover in discussing the contrasts of India vs Switzerland, and seeing a country as a visitor vs a resident.
The words we use matter more than we think. While we have a tendency to use words that can inflame a situation, make it worse or more extreme, by deliberately choosing our words, we can craft our perception of things, people, and events. I explain how.
In the hopes of gaining and keeping perspective on what truly matters over the Holidays, Vitaliy draws an excerpt from Seneca on treating our most precious commodity, time, with the respect it deserves.
Vitaliy gives an update on IMA’s investment in cable company Charter. After being punched in the face by a declining stock price, Vitaliy and his team did an extensive amount of additional research on the business and industry.
He believes IMA’s initial research was correct and will be proven out in time. Here’s why.
Vitaliy highlights the collapse of FTX, and how this amalgamation of greed, leverage, and naive hope has proven the Crypto Tulip market to be worthless.
Vitaliy updates listeners about his upcoming trip to India with his daughter Hannah. He is thrilled to speaking at the CFA Society of Mumbai, and he’ll then take a tour of few parts of that special country.
Next, Vitaliy updates the music that has influenced him most throughout his life, including what he listened to in 2022.
Think of everything you do in a day. Wake up, take your kids to school, drive to work, eat with your family, enjoy a stroll with your spouse, watch a movie, read a book. At some point, you will do each of those things for the last time.
In the second installment of his Holiday Series, Vitaliy explains how keeping the “last time” in mind helps us stay grounded and focused on the things that really matter.
Recessions, though unpleasant, are ultimately good for the economy. Like a forest fire, they clear out the dead wood and make way for new, healthy growth. But the boom of the last decade accumulated a great deal of kindling, and the coming recession might be deeper and longer than prior ones. Vitaliy shares why.
Everyone has seen home prices take off since the pandemic began. As work from home became a reality for many, Americans decided to live where they want. But now that the Fed has decided to hike rates, we have a combination of high prices AND high rates. Something has to give, and it will likely be worse than most expect. Vitaliy explains why.
Vitaliy shares a collection of random thoughts on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While they don’t add up to a coherent podcast with a beginning, middle, and end, they do point to an overall pattern: the war is not going well for Putin. Vitaliy shares his reasoning why.
Contrarian investing is inherently arrogant. You have the audacity to believe that hundreds or thousands of investors are wrong when you buy or sell a stock.
How can you go against the crowd without it going to your head? Vitaliy explores the psychology of disagreeing with the majority while maintaining humility.
It has been a while since Vitaliy updated listeners on his Uber investment, but a lot has changed. With the pandemic now behind us, we begin to get a better sense of what the business looks like going forward. And the future looks bright.
When the President decided to forgive $10,000 of student debt for everyone anyone earning below $125,000, he opened a very slippery slope of government bailouts.
If we continue to borrow from the future, we run the serious risk of becoming a society totally devoid of personal responsibility.
Worse still, we end up taxing future generations to pay for our indulgences, and may destroy the Dollar as a currency along the way.
Vitaliy responds to a letter from a concerned client about recent (3 month) underperformance versus the index.
To do this, he zooms out to answer the question, What are we really trying to do? What has to be in place for IMA to achieve its investing goals? What do we need from clients in order to succeed?
In this interview with Paul Ollinger of the Crazy Money Podcast, Vitaliy and Paul cover a variety of topics touched on in Vitaliy’s new book Soul in the Game.
From growing up in Russia and emigrating to America, to the ways in which more money won’t make you happier, to lessons from the lives of classical composers, and Vitaliy’s recent thoughts on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this insightful conversation covers a lot of ground.
Vitaliy recently completed his European trip for 2022, and this podcast recounts the tale.
Visiting with his daughter Hannah for the first time, Vitaliy shares details of a delightful trip, with a special guest star that endorsed Soul in the Game.
In this special episode from the Stacking Benjamins Podcast, Vitaliy explores his youth in Murmansk, how he was influenced by his mother and father growing up, the role of pain in creativity, and the tenets of Soul in the Game.
In the recent COVID-fueled soaring market, one fund became the canonical example of investor hyper-enthusiasm: ARK. But investors have seen this movie before.
Just like the boom fueled by Y2K worries at the turn of the century, many stocks impacted by pulled forward demand will see a painful unwinding.
Vitaliy sits down with Jim O’Shaughnessy, author of the classic investment book What Works on Wall Street and host of the Infinite Loops Podcast.
Vitaliy and Jim seem to share a brain, and they discuss Vitaliy’s youth in Soviet Russia, how creativity connects the conscious and unconscious mind, the power of reframing and developing a thick skin, and the joys of classical music.
Enjoy this wide ranging and fun conversation between two students of life!
Vitaliy writes his most honest and grim take on the Ukraine war yet. Whereas before there was a veil of pretense about what Putin’s war in Ukraine was about (NATO, “denazification”), that pretense is now gone.
Vitaliy shares why this is a war of conquest, and raises the alarm bell for the rest of Europe.
In this Special Episode, Vitaliy speaks with Demetri Kofinas, the host of Hidden Forces, a podcast that gives its listeners an edge by teaching them how to think critically about the systems of power structuring our world.
In it, Vitaliy speaks about his upbringing in Russia, the importance of being a multidisciplinary generalist in the future, learning how to learn, and his love of writing.
Some investors think the fewer positions you own, the cooler you are. Vitaliy recalls meeting investors at a conference years ago that had less than 8 stocks in their portfolios. Unfortunately, the financial crisis put them out of business.
In this podcast, Vitaliy explores the tricky subject of position sizing, and how IMA uses first principles to build a resilient collection of businesses.
In this podcast with Elliott and John from This Week in Intelligent Investing, Vitaliy outlines what he calls the Stoic Operating System, how he was able to connect with classical composers in their struggle for creativity, the power of the subconscious mind, and how he handled a painful period of investment underperformance.
Vitaliy speaks with The Investors Podcast in this wide ranging and fun interview. Trey (the host) asks Vitaliy to compare 2022 to 2000, where he thinks inflation will show up next, what companies to own in inflation, whether beaten down tech names are investable now, how to build good habits, and the power of Stoic philosophy.
The death of cable has been greatly exaggerated. While competitive threats abound, Vitaliy believes that cable, and the broadband internet it provides, will remain resilient to competition in the coming years. Listen as he explains why, and why Charter Communications stock is a great way to invest in this trend.
Vitaliy’s newest book, Soul in the Game, is now live and available for purchase. It has nothing to do with investing, but has everything to do with something far more important: living a meaningful life.
This podcast contains the first chapter, where Vitaliy introduces you to the book, its main themes, and provides some guidance on how to get the most out of it. Enjoy!
This podcast with Buck Joffrey of the Wealth Formula Podcast has something for everyone. In it, Vitaliy discusses a wide variety of topics. He touches on how the Fiddler on the Roof was really a value investor, the dangers of relative valuation tools in today’s market, stoicism, and the war in Ukraine and its inflationary impacts. Enjoy!
Stagflation – low or negative economic growth caused by inflation – has likely come to America. While stagflation is far from good, and could cause a recession, there could be even bigger risks on the horizon. Fortunately, IMA portfolios are well positioned. Here’s how.
You may have noticed that prices everywhere are rising. The question is: why? Vitaliy spells out the main causes of inflation, and how they compound to curtail economic growth.
Vitaliy recently sat down with his friend Michael Covel of Trend Following Radio. Michael and Vitaliy discuss investing in today’s environment, luxury beliefs, energy, and tribalism in American society today.
The episode was recorded in January 2022, prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Vitaliy is a big fan of mental models. They allow someone to think through analogy, often folding complex concepts into simple ones and transporting them from one discipline to another. If you use them well, you’ll often see what others don’t.
When Vitaliy first started talking about writing another book several years ago, he couldn’t have predicted where that journey would take him. The book that he took time off in 2017 to write is still unfinished, waiting for its moment in the sun. But the new book, Soul in the Game, is very real. It’s being published and released on June 21, 2022.
Vitaliy doesn’t know what the stock market will do next. He may have opinions and hunches, but he never acts on them. He never tries to predict the market’s next move. Neither Vitaliy nor anyone else is good at it. The only thing Vitaliy can do is trim the sails of IMA portfolios to align with the winds of inflation.
Vitaliy is hosting an intimate gathering for friends, readers, and fellow value investors from 8–10:30 AM on Friday, April 29, 2022, at Lula B’s in Omaha. Stop by and enjoy some delicious breakfast. If you show up early enough, you might even get a free signed copy of his new book, Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life.
Being a wealthy country has allowed us to develop what some call “luxury beliefs” – ideas and beliefs that make us feel good about ourselves but that horribly fail upon contact with objective reality.
In this article, Vitaliy shares how our wishful thinking about green energy has caused the prices of hydrocarbons to spike, and what that means for our long-term energy mix.
In his speech declaring war on Ukraine, the dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said the goal of his “special operation” was the de-Nazification of Ukraine. He’d remove the democratically elected government and install a Russia-friendly puppet government instead, thus expanding the power and influence of the Russian empire. But de-Nazification?
Sanctions have a checkered history. They didn’t get rid of Castro in Cuba or the Kims in North Korea. It took more than a decade for sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s to bear fruit. But the world has never seen sanctions like this. Ironically, these sanctions may give Putin even more power.
Just as 9/11 dramatically changed the flow of history, resulting in two wars and hundreds of thousands of deaths, so too will Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Right now, we are seeing only the first effects and getting glimpses of second-order effects. The broad third-order effects will not be visible for a long time, though they’ll be obvious in hindsight.
Eight days before Russia invaded Ukraine, Vitaliy wrote an article saying there would be no war. He was certain of it, and he was completely wrong. How could he get it so wrong? The more you knew about the situation, the less likely you were to see it clearly. He dives into why in this podcast.
IMA has owned McKesson stock since 2015. It has been very stressful at times, but also very rewarding. But the best is yet to come for McKesson. Vitaliy provides an update on his MCK investment, and why he believes its brightest days are ahead.
In this podcast with the Disciplined Investor, Vitaliy touches on a wide variety of topics, particularly pertaining to how to invest in inflation, historical stock returns, his market outlook going forward, and the link between interest rates and discount rates for assets like stocks. Enjoy!
It seems that every year, just as Mr. Market is hitting new highs, and speculative stocks soar to new levels, Vitaliy thinks we have hit the peak of craziness. But late 2021 / early 2022 might just be it. Vitaliy takes the listener through the levels of crazy in the market, from bond substitute overvaluation to NFTs and beyond. Buckle up and have fun!
In this podcast interview with investment website GuruFocus, Vitaliy shares the full gamut of how he invests, where and why. He touches on the role of being eclectic when investing, how to invest abroad, and how value investors should think about macro, among many other important topics. Enjoy this fun and wide-ranging interview!
It seems every year, Vitaliy believes we have finally reached the peak of crazy, only to be proven wrong the next year. The stock market and thus index funds, just like real estate, have only gone one way – up. You don’t have to be a stock market junkie to notice the pervasive feeling of euphoria. Vitaliy shares how he invests when most if not all asset classes are very expensive.
In this interview with Travis Chappell, host of the Build Your Network podcast, Vitaliy shares how he has used writing to build his network of investing peers, and also grow his firm, IMA. Along the way, Vitaliy touches on how we learned to emphasize people in investing, his evolution from analyst to CEO, and what career he would do if he were not an investor. Enjoy!
On the 30th Anniversary of his family’s arrival in the United States from Soviet Russia, Vitaliy reflects on his time here. After recounting the hard early days in a new country when he was “fresh off the boat”, Vitaliy offers perspective on how America has changed since he arrived. What he sees now is, in some ways, more troubling than what he found all those years ago as a new immigrant.
There is a cryptocurrency, also named Omicron, that was up 900% on the day the new COVID-19 variant was publicized. Try as he might, Vitaliy cannot figure out what would have caused this crypto to spike that day. He muses that Mr. Market must be so crazy right now, that he is bidding up the price of random tokens based merely on alphabetical order. What does this imply for stocks, if anything?
During his tenure, Jack Welch built GE into an earnings estimates-beating-machine. There’s just one problem with that: it leads to extreme short-termism, and ultimately the misallocation of capital. Contrast this with Jeff Bezos’ approach of maximizing long-term free cash flow, disregarding the current quarter. Which business do you want to invest in?
Vitaliy re-shares and updates his analysis of Uber, and why it remains an attractive investment. He provides a mental model of how to analyze companies that may appear expensive but have yet to reach escape velocity in their cost structure and have a large market addressable market that they’ll likely dominate.
We are experiencing a perfect storm of inflation, formed by seemingly small factors. Each on its own may not be particularly significant, but once combined they result in an event that significantly exceeds the sum of all parts. Vitaliy provides an update on his previous inflation articles, and the risks he sees on the horizon.
Vitaliy updates listeners on his views about the US and China, and includes his previous article going over the risks posed by tensions between the two nations.
He also discusses and shares an update on IMA’s investment in defense stocks, in light of the current geopolitical climate.
Vitaliy recounts the time he and his brother Alex were stranded in Key West without a hotel room for a night. Every hotel had no vacancy, except one “all male” hotel.
Vitaliy tells the story of their pleasant stay there, and how investors can profit by exploiting the overly dogmatic beliefs of others.
The Financial Times recently published an article about Vitaliy’s travails in recruiting. After sharing the article, Vitaliy expands on what he learned about recruiting, teams, and culture since becoming CEO of IMA.
Culture matters. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares how he evolved from an analyst purely focused on numbers to an investor and CEO focused on people. Using two stories from IMA’s own past, Vitaliy recounts how running the business made him a better investor.
In this podcast, Vitaliy recounts the first time he felt fear. Not the fear of losing his own life, but the fear a parent feels when their kids are at risk.
Vitaliy remembers this harrowing episode, and what it taught him about being a parent.
In investing, there are many “games to play”. There are a lot of ways to try to make money in the market, and not all of them are good, rational, or productive over the long term.
After outlining a few games that are avoided at IMA, Vitaliy shares how he puts together a portfolio that has a high likelihood of producing satisfactory investment results over time.
In this podcast, Vitaliy shares a story about when four separate people asked him about “investing” in cryptocurrencies, as well as his thoughts on Bitcoin and other crypto-assets.
Vitaliy highlights some risks that come with owning cryptocurrencies, even if some (though not all) crypto investors have legitimate worries about the US dollar going forward.
In this important podcast, Vitaliy continues his discussion of investing in an inflationary environment. He goes over a handful of strategies and ways to mitigate inflation risk, including investing in businesses with pricing power, capital intensity, and investing abroad.
He concludes with a short discussion of a new portfolio IMA is putting together for clients to address these issues.
In this important podcast, Vitaliy explores the nuances of inflation, including when it may be coming, from where it might arrive, and how long it might be staying. He also discusses cryptocurrencies, our worrying government debt, and the economic elephant in the room.
This podcast shares an excerpt from a client letter originally written in 2016. Though some of the examples are slightly dated, many of them are just as true today as when they were written.
In some cases, even more so than before. As risk in the global economy has risen, not shrunk, since 2016, this article remains relevant today. Enjoy!
In this podcast about a family trip to San Francisco, Vitaliy draws on his memory bank to find some thoughtful lessons about parenting, culture, art, and learning from others. Enjoy!
In Part 2 of Vitaliy’s talk with Indiana University students, he discusses what he got right, and what he got wrong, when investing through the pandemic. He also touches on how recessions can be good for businesses, compounding small advantages, and whether or not to envy someone else’s success. Enjoy!
In Part 1 of this 2 part series, Vitaliy talks with Indiana University MBA and MsF students about his approach to investing. He covers a variety of important topics, such as how to find your own investing style, sell discipline, and the limits of screens for finding great compounders. Enjoy!
In this podcast, Vitaliy relates a story about translating one of his investing books into Russian.
His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, and Romanian. But the story behind the Russian translation is about much more than just book sales. In fact, it is far more personal.
The investment world is currently upside down. Investors are buying bonds for capital appreciation, and stocks for income. Under normal conditions, the reverse would be true. But there is an inherent danger in this – listen to find out what it is.
In this interview, Vitalily sits down with his friend Andrew Horowitz from the Disciplined Investor podcast. They discuss everything – from what value investing is (and is not), to whether you should take the Peter Lynch approach of investing in what you know, to the future of malls and ridesharing. Enjoy!
In this short podcast about family life, Vitaliy recounts a fun, and scary, trip to Laguna Beach that ends with an important lesson. Then, he recalls a teaching moment he had with his daughter Hannah, in which he got to share his love of spreadsheets and their usefulness. Enjoy!
In this podcast, Vitaliy recalls his early 2019 trip to Europe. Written in the pre-COVID days, this essay takes the listener on a tour of a handful of random European cities, as well as a tour of random thoughts from Vitaliy.He muses on everything from impressionism, to Charlie Chaplin, to Masayoshi Son of Softbank fame. Enjoy!
In this podcast, Vitaliy talks with Michael Covel about all things Tesla. Getting into the weeds, the two discuss Tesla’s profitability (or lack thereof), the nuances of the charging network and the engine, as well as prospects for ICE car makers to make the jump from gasoline to electric. Enjoy!
Vitaliy was recently interviewed by the website WorldClassPerformer.com. What follows are a series of questions about him, his background, influences and habits. While he answered these questions truthfully, you shouldn’t think that he doesn’t have a lot of room for improvement. A more appropriate interview title would have been: “Flawed, but Relentlessly Curious and Hopefully Always Improving Performer”.
If the investing road ahead (e.g. the stock market) is smooth, up and to the right, then making money in stocks will continue to be easy. But if things get more rocky, you’re going to need the investment equivalent of an All Terrain Vehicle.
In this podcast, Vitaliy explains how he achieves this portfolio ruggedness at his firm, IMA.
Vitaliy recently asked another value investor if he wanted Warren Buffett’s success. While this may seem like a rhetorical question, the truth is many value investors are quietly envious of Buffett. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares an old piece of Jewish wisdom on how to deal with envy, and how Stoics use a special technique to internalize the good qualities of someone you admire.
At first, investors loved them. Then, they hated them. Now, investors have left them for dead. Oil and gas pipeline companies are anything but popular. But they are essential businesses, with rising free cash flow and substantial dividend yields. In this podcast, Vitaliy walks you through IMA’s recent investment in oil pipelines, and then gives an overview of his firm’s sell discipline.
It all started after Vitaliy’s daughter, Hannah, watched The Queen’s Gambit for a homework assignment. She told Vitaliy he had to watch it. He did, and loved it. But then Hannah said, “Dad, let’s play chess!” In this podcast, Vitaliy explores his daughters’ new found interest in the game, and the connection his family has to chess as part of Russian culture.
Vitaliy recently had the pleasure to sit down with Angelo Robles of the Family Office Association. In this interview, Angelo and Vitaliy discuss Vitaliy’s approach to portfolio construction, how value investors should think about the macroeconomy, how the stock market during the pandemic reminded Vitaliy of chess, and of course, Tesla. We hope you enjoy it!
Vitaliy has a problem with both value- and growth investing demagogues. While value demagogues tend to believe any company that trades at a P/E above the market average is too frothy, growth demagogues claim that price doesn’t matter. In this podcast, Vitaliy explains how both camps can be too narrow minded, and how investors should learn from the best of both sides when selecting companies to buy.
The Winter 2020/21 Client Letter that Vitaliy just sent to IMA clients was 27 pages long. Over the next few weeks, he’ll share excerpts from the letter with you, our dear podcast listeners. These excerpts will not focus as much on individual “fish” (stocks) as they do on “how to fish.” In this podcast, Vitaliy discusses why he writes such long letters, and how to use a Stoic technique to help manage the emotions that come with the stock market.
2020 will go into our memory banks as a very painful year. Stoicism, particularly the stoic practice of negative visualization, helped Vitaliy put 2020 into a broader historical context, and compare what happened, which was bad, to what could have happened. In this podcast, Vitaliy walks you through how Stoicism helped him put a challenging year into perspective.
Amazon.com has announced an online pharmacy offering. How big of a punch could this be to drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen? In this podcast, Vitaliy takes you through why he believes these businesses will be resilient to any potential attacks from Amazon, with a particular focus on McKesson.
In Part 2 of his interview with Jim Campbell, Vitaliy and Jim take a deep dive into assessing company management, nuanced thinking, and writing. To explore this, they examine the career of Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank, in which Vitaliy’s firm, IMA, used to own stock. Son’s tenure has lots of lessons for investors, including the power of admitting mistakes. The conversation concludes with Vitaliy and Jim discussing their shared passion for writing, and the role it plays for them as investors and students of life.
In this interview with Andrew Kleuss on Investors Hub, Vitaliy makes the case that concerns over Amazon’s entry into the pharmaceuticals business are probably overblown. To parse this problem, Vitaliy differentiates between pharmacies and drug distributors, and analyzes the extent to which Amazon can compete with both. While Amazon might place some pressure on pharmacies over time, he explains how drug distributors’ unique supply chains should remain robust against a competitive threat from Amazon.
Sometimes, simple rules add up to great results. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares some simple, straightforward heuristics which, when applied consistently over time, should help you compound your money in successful investments. They have certainly helped Vitaliy!
In this interview with Jim Campbell, host of radio show Business Talk and author of the book Madoff Talks (see link below), Vitaliy gives a wide-ranging overview of Tesla and Elon Musk. From parallels between the transition to cars from horses, to the role that tax credits play in Tesla’s valuation, to Musk’s tweets, Vitaliy covers the gamut of all things Tesla.
In this podcast, Vitaliy celebrates his daughter Hannah’s love of reading and her budding talent as a writer. Then, drawing on formative childhood experiences with his father, he shares his thoughts on how to instill a love of classical music in children.
When Vitaliy started writing his new book, it kicked off a slew of other positive changes in his life. In this podcast, Vitaliy covers how diet, exercise, and meditation have made him fitter, stronger, happier, and (hopefully!) a better person.
Over the last six months, Vitaliy has skewed IMA’s portfolios more towards defense companies. Why? The world appears less safe today than at any time since the Berlin Wall came down. Fast-forward two decades from then to now, and we find a drastically different world. In this podcast, Vitaliy explains his thoughts on the US, China, and the role defense companies play in IMA client portfolios.
If you believe the global economy is doing great and stocks are cheap, this podcast is not for you. But if you believe that stocks are expensive, and that a global economic time bomb is ticking because of unprecedented intervention by governments and central banks, then listen away. Although this podcast was “written” in 2016, its major points, especially about geopolitical risk, inflation and deflation, and valuation, are even more relevant today.
Vitaliy recently read Make Time, written by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, two ex-Google engineers. The book made him look at technology companies and time from a slightly different perspective. In an age when attention is currency, time becomes extremely valuable. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares how he updated his time management practices after reading the book.
During the past several years, the Federal Reserve neatly groomed, manicured and then finely polished investment slopes for all asset classes by lowering interest rates to unprecedented levels. But ubiquitously rising valuations cover up a lot of mistakes and often a lack of skill. In this podcast, Vitaliy explores the ways that the market has been softened and groomed by the Fed — and what could happen when that reverses.
Part 2 of 2. It was a pleasure for Vitaliy to talk to Andrew Sather and Dave Ahern on the Investing for Beginners podcast. In part two of a two part series, they take a deep dive into Uber as a value investment, the competitive threat from Tesla and self-driving cars, and the capital expenditure required to justify Tesla’s valuation. Enjoy!
Vitaliy’s 13-page analysis of Uber (click here to read it)
Part 1 of 2. It was a pleasure for Vitaliy to talk to Andrew Sather and Dave Ahern on the Investing for Beginners podcast. In part one of a two part series, they discuss how Coronavirus has impacted IMA’s investing, the USD as reserve currency, IMA’s investment in defense stocks, and the role that macroeconomics plays in investing today. Enjoy!
Vitaliy would be lying if he told you that over the last few years investing was not frustrating. Over that time, he’s felt like he was driving the wrong way on a one-way growth highway. Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different outcome.” Vitaliy can relate to this on some level. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares why he is not writing this from a mental asylum. He found solace in Stoicism.
The definition of a cult is “misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing”; and while you can argue that admiration for Buffett is at times a bit excessive, it is hardly misplaced. There are tens of thousands of people (including Vitaliy) who’ll openly admit that Buffett’s popularization of Benjamin Graham’s teachings has had a tremendously positive impact on their lives. In this podcast, Vitaliy takes you inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting in Omaha.
You can read this article online here-> https://contrarianedge.com/the-warren-buffett-charlie-munger-show/
Lately, Vitaliy has been pondering whether and how to instill a love of classical music in his kids, a passion that was passed to Vitaliy from his own parents. Should he insist on piano lessons, or weekly listening sessions? Reflecting on his experience growing up, Vitaliy shares what is behind his love of classical, as well as a lesson on how to impart one’s values to one’s children.
In this podcast, Vitaliy discusses his investment in Swedish bank Svenska Handelsbanken, and what makes their culture so unique. He then gives a short explanation on when book value works as a measure of intrinsic value, and why it often doesn’t. Finally Vitaliy makes an announcement that should be of interest if you are a college student with a passion for value investing.
In this podcast, Vitaliy describes the next adventure his son Jonah will have going to college from Hawaii, as well as the role that defense stocks play in IMA’s portfolios today.
In Part 2 of Vitaliy’s interview with Aznaur Midov on the Accent Podcast, Aznaur and Vitaliy continue their discussion on investing and life. Vitaliy explains how time can slow down when investors face a loss and what to do about it, how investing is evolving, the difference between work and productivity, and a personal finance hack Vitaliy uses. Vitaliy ends with a story about his time in the Navy, and his favorite country to visit (hint: it’s not a country). Enjoy!
In November 2019, Vitaliy had the pleasure to sit down with Aznaur Midov, fellow Russian immigrant and host of the Accent Podcast, to talk about Vitaliy’s story and lessons from 20 years of investing. In part 1 of a 2 part podcast, Vitaliy shares his thoughts on how value investing has evolved, the difference between value and “growth at a reasonable price”, the role of diversification and rebalancing, and how he finds new stock ideas. Enjoy!
Vitaliy hated every minute he spent working on this podcast, because he got close to a line he doesn’t like to cross – the politics line. It was particularly painful because it made him think more about the negative changes that are happening to the country he loves. But as investors, we have to think about how changes in the world impact our portfolio. Here’s how Vitaliy considers the role of the US Dollar in tomorrow’s world.
Vitaliy was recently asked by the CFA Institute to give a talk in London. But this offer was even more interesting than usual: it was a joint presentation with Guy Spier. Guy is a tremendous value investor who happens to be a good friend of Vitaliy. He was born in South Africa, spent his childhood in Iran and Israel, received an MBA from Harvard, and in 2008 got sick of the New York hedge fund rat race and moved with his family to Zurich. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares his friendship with Guy, and reviews his excellent book, The Education of a Value Investor.
Vitaliy was recently going through a new client’s portfolio and found it full of the likes of Coca-Cola and Campbell Soup – pseudo-bond substitutes. Each one is a stable and mature company. Your mother-in-law would be proud if you worked for any one of them. But their days of growth are in the rearview mirror. In this podcast, Vitaliy explains a key distinction in investing: the difference between a good company and a good investment.
Santa Fe and Vitaliy’s family go way back to the early 90s. It all started with his father, Naum, and his stepmother. Naum had his paintings exhibited in a gallery on Santa Fe’s famous Canyon Road. A few times a year, the Katsenelsons would load up paintings in a minivan and drive them to Santa Fe. Now, Vitaliy takes his kids there every year, in what has become a sacred tradition. You can read this article online at: https://contrarianedge.com/santa-fe-remember-this/
Tesla’s market cap just crossed $300 billion. It’s the largest car maker in the world, even larger than Toyota, which produced almost nine million cars in 2019 and had a market cap of $200 billion. In this podcast, Vitaliy hypothesizes that Tesla’s market cap has traveled through a wormhole from the future to the present, and why $300 billion is a tenuous valuation, even for the world leader in electric vehicle manufacturing.
Vitaliy had the pleasure to sit down with the Reformed Broker himself, Josh Brown on his podcast The Compound. What follows is their conversation, in which they discuss why the price you pay for a stock always matters, no matter how good the quality, and then they go through some historical examples. Vitaliy hopes you enjoy it!
In investing, one of the most important traits an investor can have is intellectual flexibility. Buffett, for example, is very dispassionate about what he owns; he has the ability to change his mind. In the early part of 2020, he was the largest shareholder of US airline stocks, and was actively buying more, only to sell them a few weeks later. This quarter, Vitaliy did something similar with a company his firm, IMA, admires. In this podcast, Vitaliy explains what that company was, and why it matters.
In this mini-podcast, Vitaliy shares a personal story that illustrates how profound even a tiny shift in perspective can be. You can read this article online at: https://contrarianedge.com/perspective/
Vitaliy was on PBS NewsHour talking about Uber Eats and the food delivery business. When he told his six-year-old daughter Mia Sarah about it, she shrugged and said she’d be more impressed if he was on PBS Kids. The five-minute recorded interview was cut down to literally four seconds, so here are Vitaliy’s further thoughts on both the Uber Eats and Ridesharing businesses.
In the 1960s and 1970s Nifty 50 stocks were one-rule stocks – and the rule was, buy! They were bought, and bought, and bought. They were great companies and paying attention to how much you paid for them was irrelevant. Until. In this podcast, Vitaliy draws on history to show what happens when investors only pay attention to a company’s quality at the expense of price.
Vitaliy can definitely see how we are always trying to numb our minds. We constantly need the mental organ entertained and well-numbed with external stimuli. It seems that whenever we are left with ourselves, that is, with our minds, we reach out for our favorite portable numbing device and happily lose ourselves in Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, or YouTube. We spend little or no time with ourselves. You can have a look at the pictures Vitaliy took in his morning walks in Vail here and his beautiful walks in Betty Ford Alpine Garden here.
Vitaliy grew up in Russia, where chess is a spectator sport. Any player who takes chess seriously will carefully study opening systems – the series of first moves early in the game that lead to the middle-game formation of pieces. Because chess always starts with pieces in the same arrangement, opening moves can become somewhat routine. In this podcast, Vitaliy compares the stock market to Fischer Random Chess, in which the opening pieces are totally jumbled across the board. Vitaliy explains that investing today is like Fischer Random Chess, where the objective is the same, but the set up is unlike one we have seen in our lifetime.
In April 2018, Vitaliy met with one of his best investment friends, John Mauldin. John has been an inspiration to Vitaliy both personally and professionally, but no more so in the context of writing. John writes at Mauldin Economics, one of the web’s the most widely read and successful investment letters. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares how John was able to inspire him to both write better, and be a better human being. John’s articles-> https://www.mauldineconomics.com/
The average stock out there (that is, the market overall) is very, very expensive. At this point it almost doesn’t matter which valuation metric you use; they all point to the fact that stocks were only more expensive during the dot-com bubble. In many ways, knowing what to avoid is just as important as knowing what to buy. In this podcast, Vitaliy takes you through the risks in today’s market, and shares his view on what NOT to buy.
Retail stocks have been annihilated recently, despite the economy eking out growth. The fundamentals of the retail business look horrible: Sales are stagnating and profitability is getting worse with every passing quarter. Jeff Bezos and Amazon get most of the credit, but this credit is misplaced. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares the truth behind the demise of retail.
People often ask Vitaliy about his writing process, when he finds time to write, and how he manages to do investment research. In this podcast, Vitaliy walks the listener through his process — from getting up at 4:30 in the morning, to researching and valuing companies, to talking to clients. For a day in the life of Vitaliy Katsenelson, give this podcast a listen.
Vitaliy was slated to give a speech at a conference in Omaha, a day before the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. He was more nervous than usual. Usually, Vitaliy needs a looming deadline to build the pressure to unleash creativity. Two days before, he wrote a nine page speech titled “How to Stay Rational in an Irrational World.” On the day of the speech, there were maybe 200 people in attendance. Vitaliy stepped up to the mic to begin. Then the lights went out.
Though Vitaliy loved working from home, it came at a cost – he destroyed some good habits he built up over the last few years. In March, he worked super long hours and wanted to make sure he got enough sleep. He usually writes early in the morning, but that habit has been interrupted. He’s been working proactively over the last two weeks to restore old good habits and create some new ones.
Vitaliy always looks at IMA’s investment process and asks himself, “What can we do better? How can we increase returns and lower risk?” Vitaliy thinks he has found a sensible way to do both — by purchasing index put options, where possible, on a portion of the portfolio. Vitaliy explains the math behind this choice, and why the best time to buy hurricane insurance is when no one believes there will be a hurricane.
Early in his career, Vitaliy tried to emulate Warren Buffett and spurned the use of spreadsheets. But here’s the thing: Buffett has a supercomputer in his head and Vitaliy doesn’t. Vitaliy needs to visualize financial statements by building models; he feels them viscerally in doing so, whereas Buffett doesn’t. In this podcast, Vitaliy expands on why rather than trying to be Warren Buffett 2.0, you should be You 1.0.
Nearly every year, Vitaliy does a Q&A-style lecture for students at universities in Denver. But since campuses are closed, he decided to take this year’s talk online. This podcast is part 2 of 2 of that recording. Enjoy!
Nearly every year, Vitaliy does a Q&A-style lecture for students at universities in Denver. But since campuses are closed, he decided to take this year’s talk online. This podcast is part 1 of 2 of that recording. Enjoy!
Vitaliy recently sat down (virtually) for a conversation with Gerhard Sogl from the CFA Society of the United Kingdom. They discussed IMA’s approach to investing during the uncertainty of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and a framework that the IMA team uses to make sense of the situation and helps them approach investing in a rational manner.
This had never happened before. Several clients reached out to Vitaliy wondering if he had been kidnapped and someone else was making investment decisions in their accounts. The gist of their questions was: how you can go from making conservative investments to buying a dotcom-like stock that is losing money? How can this company even be a value investment? In this podcast, Vitaliy explores his firm’s investment in Uber, and how it fits within a value investing framework.
Vitaliy spoke with Danielle Town of the InvestED podcast last October. They originally sat down to talk about investing, but the conversation turned into a reflection on his upbringing in Soviet Russia, parenting, budgeting, and more. Danielle is a New York Times bestselling author of “Invested”, founder of the value investing newsletter “The Invested Practice”, and co-host of the podcast InvestED with her investor father, Phil Town. She graciously allowed Vitaliy to reproduce the interview here, so have a listen to part 2 in this episode. Listen to part 1 here -> http://investor.fm/invested-interview-part-1-ep-62
Vitaliy spoke with Danielle Town of the InvestED podcast last October. They originally sat down to talk about investing, but the conversation turned into a reflection on his upbringing in Soviet Russia, parenting, budgeting, and more. Danielle is a New York Times bestselling author of “Invested”, founder of the value investing newsletter “The Invested Practice”, and co-host of the podcast InvestED with her investor father, Phil Town. She graciously allowed Vitaliy to reproduce the interview here, so have a listen to part 1 in this episode.
A few weeks ago, Vitaliy and his daughter Hannah got up at 6 in the morning and drove more than an hour so she could play in her team’s volleyball tournament. Hannah’s team played four other teams, and each game had two or three sets. Hannah stood on the sidelines for all the games and did not touch the ball even once. Vitaliy was really upset, at first. But what Hannah said next surprised and inspired him.
This is an announcement Vitaliy shared with his newsletter readers and he thought you, his podcast listeners, might want to hear it as well. It will be removed from this podcast stream when it’s no longer relevant. Vitaliy was finally able to do something he’s tried to do but could not for ten years: he’s built a dividend portfolio that’s “all-terrain” and that yields … well, you’ll have to listen to the end to find out.
While in Venice, Vitaliy, his brother, and son visited a glass factory and watched a glassblowing demonstration. The glass artist took a ball of molten glass, stuck large forceps into it, and magic happened – he pulled a horse’s head, body, legs and tail out of it. A few strokes with a metal blade and they had seen the “birth” of a beautiful glass horse. After they left the factory, Alex, Jonah, and Vitaliy walked the streets of Murano, discussing whether this fellow was practicing an art or a craft.
Vitaliy recently spoke with Andrew Horowitz at “The Disciplined Investor” podcast. Andrew graciously allowed to share Vitaliy’s part of the interview with the Intellectual Investor audience.
The discussion centers around this recession and why it’s not like any other previous one we’ve experienced.
It also covered about why it’s the best thing that could’ve happened to IMA clients’ portfolios, what IMA’s game plan is going forward, and how it’s “microdosing” stock purchases to deal with the uncertainty of this time.
Finally, Andrew and Vitaliy discuss assumptions Vitaliy is making about the future, what stocks he’s looking at right now, and what companies might not survive this crisis.
In this podcast, Vitaliy shares a recent (brief) letter he wrote to clients about how he and his firm are responding to Coronavirus and the recent selloff in the stock market. After touching on the day to day at IMA, Vitaliy elaborates on how he is taking advantage of volatility to buy great businesses at wonderful prices. He hopes you enjoy it!
Vitaliy wrote the following in early February after his trip to Europe (as part of the Jet Lag Series), which started in Switzerland and concluded in Italy (Venice to be exact). Yes, the part of Italy that today is devastated by coronavirus. He missed the virus by only two weeks. In that short amount of time we have transitioned into a different world – a new era. Since then, this podcast has taken on new meaning for Vitaliy. He hopes you enjoy it.
As Vitaliy was writing a recent article, he got an email from a client saying, “Your move, boss.” This prompted him to expand on what exactly his “move” would be, given the recent stock market turmoil. In short, it is just another day at IMA. After touching on some slightly positive virus news and the oil price war, Vitaliy shares a quote from two investment heros about navigating market volatility as a long-term value investor.
Vitaliy is back from his trip to Switzerland and Italy. This trip was extra special for him, because he and his brother Alex were joined by his son Jonah. Every day on the trip Vitaliy wrote in his journal, but was always constrained on time. After returning to Denver, Vitaliy took advantage of his jet lag to expand on his journal entries, and wrote a series of random, but thoughtful, podcasts to be shared with you. These short essays are called “The Jet Lag Series,” and this is Part 1.
Vitaliy wrote the following letter to IMA clients about coronavirus. Since news broke a few weeks ago, he’s received many emails from readers asking for his thoughts on the virus. Rather than write another article on it, Vitaliy has decided to share the full letter to clients here in this podcast.
Vitaliy has a confession to make. Someday, he wants his company to be called Katsenelson & Kids. That doesn’t have to be the official name, but he does want to work with his kids, whom he wants to become value investors. He knows he is supposed to want them to become doctors or physicists, but he doesn’t. Maybe if you “go Freud” on Vitaliy, you’ll tell him this is his way of not wanting to let them go.
Vitaliy was supposed to give a presentation at a conference in Omaha, a day before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. He was more nervous than usual. There were maybe two hundred attendees in the venue. A few minutes into his presentation, the lights went out. In this podcast, Vitaliy shares how this moment shaped his view of public speaking, preparation, and creativity.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
