📖Julian Robertson

Independent Investment Philosophy

🌿 Intermediate★★★★☆

Develop your own philosophy through study and experience.

💬

Develop your own investment philosophy through study and experience. Copying others without understanding why leads to confusion when strategies are tested.

— More Money Than God,2010

🏠 Everyday Analogy

A process is like a pilot checklist: discipline prevents simple mistakes when pressure rises and keeps outcomes more repeatable.

📖 Core Interpretation

Julian Robertson advocates a repeatable process: define criteria, execute consistently, and review decisions against evidence. Process quality drives outcome consistency.
💎 Key Insight:Personal conviction withstands adversity better than borrowed ideas.

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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
Black Monday Portfolio Resilience (1987)
During the October 1987 crash, Robertson’s Tiger Management was positioned defensively with selective shorts and quality longs, limiting losses versus the S&P 500.
✨ Outcome:Outperformed broad indices on a risk-adjusted basis, reinforcing discipline around downside protection and volatility management.
2
Tech Bubble Avoidance (1999)
Robertson avoided overvalued dot-com stocks, shorting some high-flyers and owning fundamentally strong, cash-generative businesses instead.
✨ Outcome:Underperformed during the late-stage bubble but delivered superior risk-adjusted returns after the 2000–2002 tech crash as speculative names collapsed.

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