Greenblatt on the Dangers of Short-Term Thinking

In the latest episode of Forbes‘ Intelligent Investing, Joel Greenblatt gives a wide-ranging interview on the market and investment strategy. In this clip, Greenblatt talks about how the institutionalization of the investment world has made for a major increase in short-term thinking, which opens up opportunities for patient, long-term investors — if they stay disciplined. “If you look at top performers over the last decade, the top 25% of managers that have outperformed — came out with the best record for the last ten years — 97% of those top managers spent at least three years in the bottom half of performance,” he says. “79% spent at least three years in the bottom quartile of performance.  And almost half, 47%, spent at least three years in the bottom 10% of performance.  So all their investors left if they did that, but these are the ones who ended up with the long-term record.  Most people leave them, most people don’t stick around for long enough.”

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