Buffett on David Winters.

[racemize]

AUM continue to sink by (20%) in just 6 months. The fund underperformed the index in 2016. The portfolio smells Tobacco (36.7% exposure).

 

http://www.wintergreenfund.com/reports/ar/

 

We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things... and curiosity keeps landing us down new paths.

Walt Disney

Is there a period of time for which the fund did not underperform the index?

Also, interesting that he does not mention Consolidated Tomoka, one of his largest holdings, and where he is amidst a long fight with management(that he put in place).

 

He outperformed in the first year or two of starting and that was it.

[InelegantInvestor]

Meaning that most investors will have lost money by being in his fund.

[captkerosene]

KO has done poorly since Winters started his jawboning. Roughly flat vs up 30% for the S&P 500. Maybe Winters was more right than wrong in his complaints about KO management? (I am not referring to his idiotic statements about WEB.) CM made it clear that KO management wasn't the A team at the DJCO meeting. We all accept that WEB doesn't do hostile but there is also a downside to that policy.

[Gregmal]

KO has done poorly since Winters started his jawboning. Roughly flat vs up 30% for the S&P 500. Maybe Winters was more right than wrong in his complaints about KO management? (I am not referring to his idiotic statements about WEB.) CM made it clear that KO management wasn't the A team at the DJCO meeting. We all accept that WEB doesn't do hostile but there is also a downside to that policy.

 

He was definitely right about KO and has also been right about quite a bit during his current spat with Consolidated Tomoka. His problem is that he comes off as all or nothing and sometimes over the top/too extreme in his negativity. This turns a lot of people off. Probably more so than the performance issues. Frankly if you are investing in a fund like Wintergreen, you shouldn't expect to be beating the S&P. But neither should someone whom buys a CD. One look at his portfolio will tell you he's not chasing the indexes.

[thepupil]

the guy charges 1.9%, has had lots of cash and is at 5.77% annualized since inception compared to ACWI in USD at 5.95%.

 

He's not that bad. He just charges too much and chose the wrong benchmark and countries / currencies.  ;D

 

I have no idea how he's marketed his fund over time. If he presented it as a global strategy, he'd be delightfully mediocre. Remove the onerous fees and he's a market beater since inception and a market loser by 0 - 200 bps in more recent history. Remove his cash drag and he's probably actually beat the market in more recent time periods.

 

I recognize that you can't just hold him harmless for his hugely negative country and asset allocation, but feel the need to point that packaged differently he'd be half decent.