Mundy's Moment: Converting non-believers

MUNDY'S MOMENT

A colleague once prompted me to be less open when discussing our contrarian investment process.

He was concerned that I would let the cat out of the bag and successfully convert a plethora of non-believers to our ways. I could not blame his motivation for the suggested vow of silence; he clearly recognised that we were one-trick ponies and worried that if other investors aped our behaviour, any competitive advantage would soon be arbitraged away, causing us to put a hoof in the air and admit defeat. While clearly over-rating my evangelical skills, I felt that he also missed a few vital points that argued for contrarian investing remaining a minority sport. The first point (which ...