📖Julian Robertson

Quality Business Criteria

🌿 Intermediate★★★★★

Quality businesses compound wealth and reduce risk.

💬

Invest in businesses with durable competitive advantages, strong cash flows, and management integrity. Quality businesses compound wealth over time and reduce downside risk.

— More Money Than God,2010

🏠 Everyday Analogy

Analyzing a business is like choosing a long-term partner. Temporary excitement matters less than durable character, capability, and consistency.

📖 Core Interpretation

Julian Robertson emphasizes durable business quality over short-term noise. A strong model, real competitive edge, and disciplined capital allocation matter more than quarterly excitement.
💎 Key Insight:Durable advantages and good management create superior returns.

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❓ Why It Matters

Without business-quality filters, investors drift toward stories rather than economics. Durable cash generation is what supports long-term valuation.

🎯 How to Practice

Use a checklist covering moat, management, unit economics, and capital allocation; track long-term cash generation instead of quarter-to-quarter noise.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Buying narratives instead of cash-generating economics
Overreacting to short-term operating noise
Ignoring management quality and capital allocation

📚 Case Studies

1
Internet Bubble Short (1999)
Assessed extreme competitive intensity and overcapacity among dot-com startups, many with no durable edge.
✨ Outcome:Shorted a basket of overvalued internet stocks; positions profited when bubble burst in 2000-2002.
2
Airline Price Wars (1987)
Analyzed brutal fare competition and weak balance sheets across U.S. airlines before the crash.
✨ Outcome:Avoided or shorted several carriers; protected capital as sector suffered heavy losses after 1987 market break.

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