📖David Swensen
Systematic Investment Approach
A systematic approach ensures consistent investing.
A systematic approach to investing removes emotion and ensures consistency. Document your process, follow your rules, and review regularly.
🏠 Everyday Analogy
📖 Core Interpretation
David Swensen advocates a repeatable process: define criteria, execute consistently, and review decisions against evidence. Process quality drives outcome consistency.
💎 Key Insight：Systematic processes outperform ad hoc decisions.
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❓ Why It Matters
Without process, there is no reliable feedback loop. Structured execution and review improve decision quality over time.
🎯 How to Practice
Run a decision loop of research, thesis, execution, and post-mortem; document assumptions and update playbooks with evidence, not hindsight bias.
⚠️ Common Pitfalls
Having opinions without execution criteria
Reviewing outcomes but not decisions
Abandoning rules during volatility spikes
📚 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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