The Vigilant Investor’s Guide to Success in Stocks & Life w/ Chris Bloomstran (RWH032)

William Green speaks with Chris Bloomstran, President & Chief Investment Officer of Semper Augustus. Chris explains how to achieve long-term success by seeking a “dual margin of safety” that comes from owning high-quality businesses at attractive prices. He also warns about the perennial dangers of irrational exuberance, which he now sees in hot stocks like Tesla & Nvidia.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
- What Chris Bloomstran learned from his brilliant mentor, Robert Smith.
- How Chris & Robert skillfully sidestepped the dotcom bubble & crash.
- Why Chris named his investment firm after a crazily overvalued tulip.
- What Sir John Templeton saw as the best antidote to financial insanity.
- What lessons Chris drew from an early investment that fell to zero.
- How to succeed in stocks by seeking a “dual margin of safety.”
- How his definition of a quality business has evolved.
- Why he’s skeptical about Cathie Wood’s ARK portfolio.
- Why hot tech stocks like Nvidia are likely to disappoint for many years.
- Why he’s wary of hype & “puffery” about Tesla’s glorious future.
- Why he’s trimmed great but pricey holdings like Costco & Nike.
- Why Chris Bloomstran says it’s so valuable to study Berkshire Hathaway.
- How Warren Buffett thinks about intelligent asset allocation.
- How share buybacks are mishandled by many companies.
- Why most investors shouldn’t pick stocks for themselves.
- How Chris manages his time.
- What his football coaches taught him about integrity & kindness.
- How he’s risen above a painfully difficult childhood.
- Why the key to investing success is a fierce work ethic.
- How Chris uses social media to criticize what he calls “charlatan promotion.”
- What he thinks of Berkshire’s huge stake in Apple.
- How he values Berkshire, & why it should outperform the S&P 500.
- What a legendary golfer taught him about how to live.

▶️ RELATED EPISODES:

🖊️ Access the transcript and learn more about the guest here:

📖  BOOKS MENTIONED:

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ABOUT OUR SHOW 🎙 
On Richer, Wiser, Happier, William Green interviews high-profile guests such as Howard Marks, Joel Greenblatt, and Ray Dalio. Exploring what they can teach us about how to succeed in markets and life.

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[WeStudyBillionaires]

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[superdad]

So good! Love the story of his mentor. Live humbly, give anonymously, that is the way to happiness and fulfillment

[pranavgupta]

I got a sense of joy after hearing Chris also believes that accounting and learning to read financial statements is the most important thing to learn to really succeed in investing

[Gjackliu]

I am so dumb that did not notice that Chris is such a great investor/person at the last podcast. Thank you, William, for bringing him in again.

[Karim.]

I’ve listened on the same day that nvidia beat AGAIN. On the surface Chris is wrong but his long term analysis over 15 years, makes complete sense, with competition likely to bite nvidias ankles. Thank you William, for these great interviews

[racerx]

William, all of your interviews are great!! I have noticed that most of the guests have bookcases, loaded with books in the background. Would it be possible to add a "tour of the bookcase" segment to your interviews. I think it would be interesting to see what your guests read.

[bladej]

Chris is a DG truther! We need more of them!!!

[henrywhh]

In retirement. and with a serious injury, I have been starting to invest some of funds. Listening to podcasts like this are sobering.

[superdad]

I loved this. You're so talented with interviewing your guest and get such fascinating people. Thank you so much

[dessanguyen]

What a phenomenal interview. I ended up here randomly but so glad I did. Now subscribed

[HML-itte]

BitCON, heard this for the first time today which cracked me up. I view it as a modern (tech version) of the typical pyramid scheme and further the similarities to the Tulip “investment” (sarcasm there if you couldn’t tell).
Very much food for thought in this podcast which was “grounding” for me.
Thank you both.

[CP-woou]

Loved it. Thanks William and Chris. Watched it for the 2nd time in as many months as I wanted to revisit my learnings from this video.

[bluecollarbill]

Great interview! I really enjoyed it. Semper Fi Chris. The interview was great and really resonated with me.

[chenlim]

46:20 - was that VLCCF? I rode that value trap down to zero too. Learned a hard but valuable lesson too.

[peterlee]

The escort carrier St. Lo at Leyte Gulf was the first ship sunk by kamikaze attack in the war. It was formerly the USS Midway but was renamed the St. Lo when the Navy decided to name a new fleet carrier Midway, which caused a significant number of the crew to request transfer off; bad luck to change the name of a warship in active duty.

[buckyfanksy]

Uhh, buying $DG over the last month sounds painful

[detroitbadboy]

What are his long term performance #'s? Talks ivory tower big game. Has been destroyed in DG.

[justinbeghly]

Thanks, you pushed me into looking closely at Dollar General

[ryanthompson]

Love the podcasts, but there’s too many ads. I wouldn’t mind as much if they were all in the beginning, but I hate that these ads interrupt the flow of the conversation several times throughout the podcast.

[jimjackson]

The story about the sailor eating the tulip is ridiculous because why would anyone leave a valuable object lying around for anyone to pick up and walk away with?