4Q23 Investor Letter
“We exist to preserve and grow capital in all market environments. A fundamental long/short strategy isn’t as popular as in the past, but it has served us well. Our strategy is to have a very highly concentrated long book and a short book, although relatively more diversified, that is constructed nothing like an “index short.” In such a way, we hope the return of our portfolio comes from idiosyncratic reasons, and the “hedging” part will take place naturally.
The push for intellectual differentiation is at the core of what we do. My investment experiences started nine years ago, and if I was just taught one thing from all those experiences, it is to avoid a seemingly benign but, in fact, hopelessly dangerous endeavor – holding non-differentiated views and hoping they are right (“hold and hope”). The perishable nature of such a strategy was often masked by its short-term success, thanks to the self-fulfilling mechanism. ”