Investing is a solo game, meaning we can easily fool ourselves into making decisions that are flat-out wrong.
This is why having someone to tell you your idea isn't as bright and shiny as you think is a massive strength.
When I heard Bill Nygren discuss his exact strategy to minimize these errors in confirmation bias, I immediately took notice. So I asked him about it and was thoroughly impressed with the system he and his colleagues at Harris Associates use for each and every stock they analyze.
Here's the system:
The analyst does their DD on an idea and clearly likes it.
They bring the idea to all the investment professionals in the organization.
The team will discuss the idea and try and poke holes in the idea in order to figure out if it's worth owning or not.
Then they vote the business in or vote to keep it out.
This system imposes "rigour" as Bill Nygren puts it into the pitching system.
If you want to pitch a business, you better have all your T's crossed and i's dotted to withstand the questioning process.
If you want to learn more about the details of this system, a deep dive into $IQV, Bill's take on the current state of value investing, and a whole lot more check out my latest episode with Bill Nygren and Robert Bierig here ⤵️
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1wI'll keep this in mind