📖David Swensen
Continuous Improvement System
Treat investing as a craft that can always improve.
Review every investment decision — wins and losses — to improve your system. The best investors treat investing as a craft that can always be refined.
🏠 Everyday Analogy
📖 Core Interpretation
David Swensen treats survival as the first objective. Limiting permanent capital loss, controlling leverage, and avoiding single-point failure are prerequisites for long-term compounding.
💎 Key Insight：Post-mortem analysis drives systematic improvement.
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❓ Why It Matters
A single large drawdown can erase years of progress. Risk control is not timidity; it is the operating system that keeps compounding alive.
🎯 How to Practice
Define downside scenarios before entry, cap position size, avoid fragile leverage, and maintain liquidity so mistakes remain survivable.
⚠️ Common Pitfalls
Equating volatility with all forms of risk
Oversized positions without an exit plan
Using leverage to compensate for uncertainty
📚 Case Studies
1
Sticking with Illiquid Assets (2008)
During the global financial crisis, private equity and real assets became illiquid and unpopular, but Swensen maintained Yale’s heavy allocation instead of selling at distressed prices.
✨ Outcome：These assets recovered strongly in subsequent years, contributing significantly to Yale’s long-term outperformance.
2
Yale Endowment and Illiquid Alternatives (2000)
Swensen increased Yale’s allocation to private equity and venture capital, aligning with long-horizon, equity-oriented partners whose compensation depended on long‑term results, not asset gathering.
✨ Outcome：Generated superior risk‑adjusted returns versus traditional 60/40 portfolios over the following decades.
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