Looking Back at 2012
With 2012 drawing to a close, we are taking a look back at this year’s five most popular episodes for WEALTHTRACK. Not surprisingly, our top five interviews include value investors such as the Yacktman Fund’s Don Yacktman, First Eagle Global’s Matt McLennan and a rare interview with Fairholme Fund’s Bruce Berkowitz. With market volatility and central bank moves dominating the headlines, it’s also no surprise that our discussion on risk with MIT professor Dr. Andrew Lo was the most popular interview in 2012, as well as a conversation with noted Fed watcher Paul McCulley. You’ll see why the views of some of our WEALTHTRACK regulars are still relevant!
Dr. Andrew Lo- February 24, 2012
Our most popular interview of 2012 addresses the major worry on most investors’ minds- managing risk and volatility in their portfolios. At the air time of this interview, the CBOE Market Volatility Index, or VIX, a measure tracking price movements of the S&P 500, had fallen recently, but it remained to be seen how low volatility could go. An award-winning professor of finance at MIT and founder of AlphaSimplex Group, an alternative investment firm specializing in absolute return strategies, Dr. Lo explained that as markets become more complex, volatility will be here to stay… and through diversification, investors can manage this risk- a WEALTHTRACK tenet! Dr. Lo will also be appearing on WEALTHTRACK again in early 2013- stay tuned!
Watch the full episode here.
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Paul McCulley and Bill Miller- April 6, 2012
New facts require new approaches. That is another theme we have been preaching on WEALTHTRACK since our launch in 2005. And with unprecedented central bank moves across the globe, investors have struggled to make sense of these paradigm shifts and how to adapt their portfolios. In this WEALTHTRACK exclusive, former PIMCO senior partner Paul McCulley, now Chair at the Global Interdependence Center, and legendary investor Bill Miller of Legg Mason Capital Management, discussed the ongoing unwinding of global consumer and government debt and what our new approaches should be. Their frank conversation and ability to break down these complex global moves makes this episode worth re-watching!
Watch the full episode here.
Don Yacktman- January 27, 2012
Investor confidence dwindled in 2012, so it’s no wonder Don Yacktman’s interview was a popular choice for WEALTHTRACK viewers this year. His flagship Yacktman Fund ranked in the top one percent of its category for the past three, five, ten, and fifteen year periods- one of the reasons the team was a finalist for Morningstar’s Domestic-Stock Manager of the Year in 2011. When we spoke with Yacktman in January, he described the opportunities he saw in the stock market as “amazing”- you’ll want to revisit this interview to hear why and what companies Yacktman’s been eyeing this past year.
Watch the full episode here.
Bruce Berkowitz- October 12, 2012
“Ignore the crowd” is the motto of this Great Investor guest. And Bruce Berkowitz of The Fairholme Fund has had his work cut out for himself defending it, especially in 2011 and 2012. In this rare interview, the Morningstar Domestic Equity Fund Manager of the Decade explained his controversial concentration in a few unloved companies- AIG, Sears Holdings, Bank of America- and why those companies had more to offer investors than just negative headlines. Of note, investors who stuck with Fairholme were rewarded in 2012 for weathering the storm!
Watch the full episode here.
Matthew McLennan- September 21, 2012
Our fifth most popular interview of 2012 questioned whether the sense of equilibrium that seemed to be returning to the global financial system was justified- at the air time of this interview, the VIX had dropped to its lowest levels in five years. Matthew McLennan, portfolio manager of the five-star rated First Eagle Global Fund and successor to the legendary Jean-Marie Eveillard, described his concerns about what lurked below the seemingly placid financial surface- what he called a “collision of macroeconomic tectonic plates.” This interview is a good reminder to investors to always have some ballast in your portfolio, no matter how the markets appear.
Watch the full episode here.
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