MiB: Bill Miller, CIO Legg Mason

This week, we speak with Bill Miller. He is the legendary stock picker at Legg Mason Capital Management who beat the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index for 15 consecutive years from 1991-2006.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Miller talks about everything from his stock selection process, his infamous streak, and what he got wrong during the financial crisis.

He recently said that “stocks are stupidly cheap but bonds are ridiculously over-priced.” Miller also has an intriguing theory about why investors have been abandoning active investments — he blames the Active fund managers are actually high-priced closet indexersHis fund’s biggest position is Amazon (prior guest Aswath Damodaran, also said interesting things re: AMZN).

I found him to be thoughtful, honest and quantitative in his analysis, and a deep philosophical thinker about markets and investing. Miller is widely read, enjoying everything from books on market history to philosophy, quantitative analysis, biography, military history as well as classics (all of the books mentioned can be found here).

You can hear the full interview, including our podcast extras at iTunes, Soundcloud and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts can be found iTunes,  Soundcloud, and Bloomberg.

 

 

About the Masters in Business Podcast:

About Masters in Business
Coming July 12: Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio  (July 8, 2014)
100th Episode of Master in Business Podcast (July 25, 2016)

All prior podcasts can be found at:

The Big Picture
iTunes
Soundcloud
Bloomberg

Books referenced are after the jump.


Books recommended by Bill Miller:

The Money Game, Adam Smith

Super-Money, Adam Smith

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Leferve

Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street, William Poundstone

Pragmatism, by William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James

Mind & Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False by Thomas Nagel

A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume

World as Will & Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860, German Philosopher)

Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior by Arthur Herman

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

• The Money Game, Adam Smith
• Super-Money, Adam Smith
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Leferve
Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street, William Poundstone
Pragmatism, by William James
• The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James
Mind & Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False by Thomas Nagel
• A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume
• World as Will & Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860, German Philosopher)
• Amazon.com: Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior by Arthur Herman
American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

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