Guy Spier Op-Ed: "The Golden Age of Value Investing Is Over"

[Rod]

4 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

His best friend is a so-called "Paki"...you ever wonder why Mohnish and Guy travel hand in hand?  Guy has a ton of Indian and Indian continent friends, me included...Pakistani, Hindu, Punjabi, Gujrati, Jain...!

 

You don't extrapolate political leanings or the occasional post into exactly what type of person someone is or isn't.  That's a very shallow way to view humanity.  I have the type of issues you have with some on here...but I should be able to empathize with them as well.

 

Imagine yourself in their shoes!  Cheers!

 

Parsad, I was careful not to call Guy a racist. I do not know him personally or what is in his heart and mind. He retweeted a video that I can only describe as one of those old Nazi dehumanization cartoons of Jews in AI form, except with the Jews replaced with “brown” people. It’s a little vague whether they were Muslims or just generic “Pakis”. I don’t think racists care that much either way. I make no apology for calling him out, except that the timing was unfortunate. That is why I deleted my tweet. He knows what’s in that video since I described it to him. If he subsequently responds to me that he made a mistake, didn’t watch the video before retweeting it, etc I will relay that info here. Nobody gets a free pass doing what he did. I don’t care if he is a nice guy, Indian friends, great fee structure. His behaviour needs to be called out. 

[Marco Van Basten]

3 hours ago, Rod said:

 

Parsad, I was careful not to call Guy a racist. I do not know him personally or what is in his heart and mind. He retweeted a video that I can only describe as one of those old Nazi dehumanization cartoons of Jews in AI form, except with the Jews replaced with “brown” people. It’s a little vague whether they were Muslims or just generic “Pakis”. I don’t think racists care that much either way. I make no apology for calling him out, except that the timing was unfortunate. That is why I deleted my tweet. He knows what’s in that video since I described it to him. If he subsequently responds to me that he made a mistake, didn’t watch the video before retweeting it, etc I will relay that info here. Nobody gets a free pass doing what he did. I don’t care if he is a nice guy, Indian friends, great fee structure. His behaviour needs to be called out. 

I am sorry, I did not watch the cartoons.  However, I have read the Koran.  It clearly calls for subjugation and murder of non-Muslims, it calls for perpetual war against non-Muslims.  How is that different from Nazi idealogy?  

[Parsad]

8 hours ago, Rod said:

 

Parsad, I was careful not to call Guy a racist. I do not know him personally or what is in his heart and mind. He retweeted a video that I can only describe as one of those old Nazi dehumanization cartoons of Jews in AI form, except with the Jews replaced with “brown” people. It’s a little vague whether they were Muslims or just generic “Pakis”. I don’t think racists care that much either way. I make no apology for calling him out, except that the timing was unfortunate. That is why I deleted my tweet. He knows what’s in that video since I described it to him. If he subsequently responds to me that he made a mistake, didn’t watch the video before retweeting it, etc I will relay that info here. Nobody gets a free pass doing what he did. I don’t care if he is a nice guy, Indian friends, great fee structure. His behaviour needs to be called out. 

 

Not making any excuse for him if he did that...but take a step back and think about what happened October 7th and how his feelings may not have been any different than a U.S. person reacting to 9/11.  Would you have scolded every one who posted something bigoted after that day?

 

Lastly, how would you like it if it was your last moment on earth and you were recognized for...not all the good things you did during your life, but a caricature you posted on social media in a possible moment of anger?

 

You are right, no one gets a free pass...not for posting something bigoted and also not for being a bit of an unempathetic ass when someone is dying!  Cheers! 

[Munger_Disciple]

FWIW I agree  with @Parsad on this. 

Show some empathy & class guys! Be kind to others and don't be a$$wipes.

 

[John Hjorth]

1 hour ago, TB said:

I want to share a personal anecdote about Guy Spier - my son was running an investment club in his school and he had many schools from US/Canada join it as part of a larger organization. He invited Guy Spier to come and present - Guy couldn't do it but he sent a couple of books which were really good.

 

Fast forward to now; my son is in one of the top schools in the country (US) and is part of a group that manages a very small amount of the University's Endowment.

 

Guy has been very generous and kind - wishing him a speedy recovery!

 

 

@TB,

 

Thank you for sharing your experience in this situation [not easy], but how do you really 'read', interpret it, based on by now available information?

[Whensthepaintdry?]

I wrote him once, a year or so after reading his book. I thanked him for sharing his knowledge and experiences and explained that they helped me avoid a lot of the pitfalls many investors experience at first. He responded and invested me to one of his conferences. I thought that was very nice especially for a nobody like myself. 

[villainx]

5 minutes ago, Whensthepaintdry? said:

I thought that was very nice especially for a nobody like myself. 

 

Over here, you are a Rising Star!

[John Hjorth]

25 minutes ago, TB said:

I am not familiar with the mentioned social media posts or the context, so no comments. I have wished him speedy recovery personally and from the looks of it, he is doing well so far given the condition.

---

 

@TB,

 

You're just wrong, totally wrong,

 

Guy is hit by a materially life-shortening illnss to which there exists no cure. It has noting to do with SOME posts,- it's chiseled in stone by him self in his latest released investor letter, from him self [,which you obviously haven't read].

 

Please get real, and get your sources right in stead of posting *BS* noise here on CofB&F.

Edited February 20 by John Hjorth

[Whensthepaintdry?]

1 hour ago, villainx said:

 

Over here, you are a Rising Star!

Ha, good point! 

[oscarazocar]

3 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

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@TB,

 

You're just wrong, totally wrong,

 

Guy is hit by a materially life-shortening illnss to which there exists no cure. It has noting to do with SOME posts,- it's chiseled in stone by him self in his latest released investor letter, from him self [,which you obviously haven't read].

 

Please get real, and get your sources right in stead of posting *BS* noise here on CofB&F.

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@John Hjorth You are giving the guy a very hard time when he is well-meaning.  Below are the relevant parts of the letter.  If you don't know a lot about brain cancer, you could easily take from reading it that Spier expects to maybe live 10-20 years, when the reality, which he does not state for understandable reasons, is that the odds of someone with recurrent glioblastoma surviving even a few years are very low.  (Although I will caveat that by saying that his cancer may have certain features which vastly improve his odds vs typical recurrent glioblastoma cases.)  I wish Spier the best.

 

It's an interesting topic - doctors are generally <extremely> wary of giving even patients themselves the cold hard facts about specific illnesses.  If you hear someone has a disease and want to know their odds, search "Kaplan-Meier survival plot" and the disease.  That's going to give you the best numbers, and the more specific the chart is to the exact profile of the disease, the more useful it is.  For instance, say you are an adult with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) - the first thing they do is run a test and it spits out the specifics mutations you have.  While the overall survival rate for adults with AML might be 20%, the ones with your mutation might have a 50% survival rate and those with some other mutation might have a 5% survival rate.

 

https://www.eortc.be/tools/recgbmcalculator/Curves.aspx

 

"The tumor was small, the doctors caught it early, and I immediately underwent the appropriate treatment, so my chances of beating the worst outcomes were good, and I continued my life as normal. However, that changed in September 2025 with an unclear MRI and minor (or focal) seizures. These led to a second craniotomy and the conclusion that the cancer had returned.

 

This recurrence changed the calculus for Aquamarine Fund. Previously, I could have every hope and expectation that the cancer was in remission and that my top priority of compounding our capital could remain unchanged. The recurrence meant I could no longer say that.

 

Although my mind and investing abilities remain intact today, we have no way of knowing when that might change. My condition could stabilize for a long time, or it might not.

 

While I continue to have every hope of living a long and productive life, that is less likely than before. The range of outcomes has widened considerably. Faced with that uncertainty, I knew I had to reprioritize my life. Up to this point, despite my many outside interests, my top priority was to continue to compound your capital at Aquamarine Fund. This is no longer the case. My top priority has become my health and spending precious time with my family."

[cubsfan]

Guy Spier is one of the kindest, humble and most genuine individuals you will ever meet.  I've talked to him several times, been to conferences with him and had dinner with him in Chicago.  He is always willing to help out, give you a referral, etc - he walks his talk. His book is completely genuine.

You can't ask for a better role model in how to live your life.

 

It's very clear to me that Oct 7th - and the reaction from much of the world horrified Guy - as it did many of us.  He's Jewish with friends of all faiths - and yes, I did see some of his posts expressing his outrage at the behavior of anti-semites. Every man has his limits - and obviously many crossed the line with Guy. That is 100% understandable.

 

I pray that such a good man gets a miracle cure and remains in good health with his family.

 

If you never met Guy in person - you missed meeting someone very special. I consider myself very lucky in that regard.

[investmd]

51 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

Guy Spier is one of the kindest, humble and most genuine individuals you will ever meet.  I've talked to him several times, been to conferences with him and had dinner with him in Chicago.  He is always willing to help out, give you a referral, etc - he walks his talk. His book is completely genuine.

You can't ask for a better role model in how to live your life.

 

It's very clear to me that Oct 7th - and the reaction from much of the world horrified Guy - as it did many of us.  He's Jewish with friends of all faiths - and yes, I did see some of his posts expressing his outrage at the behavior of anti-semites. Every man has his limits - and obviously many crossed the line with Guy. That is 100% understandable.

 

I pray that such a good man gets a miracle cure and remains in good health with his family.

 

If you never met Guy in person - you missed meeting someone very special. I consider myself very lucky in that regard.

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