INVESTMENT PROCESS

“You have to have a process.” Ray Dalio

“Good investors, above all else, demonstrate good process.” Chris Parvese

"In the moment, public market investors have no ability to control investment outcomes, but they can control and improve their own processes... We believe that by remaining focused on following a well-conceived process, we will make good risk-adjusted, long-term investments. And we know that if we do that, we will indeed earn good returns over time." Seth Klarman

“We are very focused on process, as I believe you should focus on process not outcomes. Process is the key to proper risk management.” John Phelan

“I’d say if you don’t have a process, you’re probably doomed in this business because what you have is all of the outside pressures which just grind away at any chance you have for logical decision making.” William Browne

"To be a successful investor, you have to have a philosophy and process you believe in and can stick to, even under pressure." Howard Marks

“Ultimately, of course, you want people with good process and good outcomes, but I’d rather have somebody working for me who had a good process and a bad outcome in a given year that somebody with a bad process and good outcome.” Dan Loeb

“You want to stay true to the investment process.” Kevin Daly

“Controlling your process is absolutely crucial to long-term investment success in any market environment.” Seth Klarman

“Confusion between process and outcome is the single biggest source of error in the stock market. After all why not keep buying that hot biotech company with no hope of making money if the share price keeps going up? What’s not to like? A complete loss of capital when the party stops is what’s not to like.” Robert Vinall

“It is possible to be profitable over time even though the majority of trading events will be losers. ‘Process’ will trump the results of any given trade or series of trades.” Peter Brandt

“When the process is broken, you can’t invest well. It’s hard enough to invest well when the process is good. So it’s crucial to have a sound process that will enable you to perform this difficult task with intellectual honesty, rigor, creativity and integrity” Seth Klarman

“To be consistently successful, an investor or speculator must have rules to guide him.” Jesse Livermore

“We believe that the discipline of having a formal investment process is essential, such is the noise level and impatience of markets.” James Anderson

“The craft of investing as a process of separating process and outcome.” Marc Andreessen

"Whatever the future holds, we will stick to our process. We are not guaranteed of getting what we want all the time—far from it—but we believe it is the best foundation for getting what we want over time." Chuck Akre

"Our mindset is to focus on the process rather than the outcome. We believe if you execute the process well enough for long enough, the outcomes take care of themselves. That is an unusual mindset." John Harris

"The need to focus on process rather than outcomes is critical in investing. Focusing on process frees us up from worrying about aspects of investment which we really can't control - such as return. By focusing upon process we maximise our potential to generate good long-term returns." James Montier

"I think our success is due to our having established sound principles of purchase and sale of securities, and having followed them consistently through all kinds of markets." Benjamin Graham

"Even when our process feels good, we are constantly asking ourselves how we can improve. In order to continue succeeding, we have to up our game and hone our skills each and every year" Chase Coleman

"James Montier recently pointed out that when athletes were asked what went through their minds just before competing in the Beijing Olympics, the constant response was a focus of process, not outcome. The same ought to be true for investors." Seth Klarman

"If we're looking to make better investment decisions, it helps immeasurably to develop a series of rules and routines that we can apply consistently." Guy Spier

"We apply the same investment process that we have used over our twenty-two year history to uncover opportunities for skewed outcomes with limited downside and the opportunity for significant upside." Richard Pzena

“We owe a large part of our success to our discipline in sticking with our process.” Jeff Mueller

"We have worked hard to put in place a disciplined investment process centered on fundamental analysis.” Sir Michael Hintze

“It’s so easy for one’s investment process to break down - and process is everything in investment firms” Seth Klarman

“There is no denying the fact that good returns are a result of a well-defined culture and clear processes.” IP Capital Partners

"[Our] success is due to our process and that’s the key to how we invest. We are trying to spot where other investors might be biased. Make no doubt, I’m biased just like every other portfolio manager at Fuller & Thaler, just like you, just like everyone and it’s our process that lets us overcome those biases and find opportunities" Raife Giovinazzo

“I’m ready for what’s next. I have no idea what the market will do tomorrow, what the next payrolls number will be, or when the Fed will next raise rates, and frankly I don’t care. News is noise. All I know is I will follow my plan. It took me 25 years to work that out. You’re welcome.” Jon Boorman

“It is critical that you remind your clients, your investment team, and, as often as necessary, yourself, that you can only control your process and approach - that you cannot forecast the vagaries of the market, which in any case are an opportunity and not a problem for value investors.” Seth Klarman

“Process shouldn’t mean just doing the same thing over and over again because that’s how we’ve always done it. What it means is that we’ve collectively agreed as a research team on a way to proceed, including what we need to know and how we’re going to communicate. You need process to engage collectively in any complex project – done right, it fosters learning and collaboration that results in better decisions.” Adam Weiss

“I don’t believe that it is that difficult to design or follow a basic investment process. You just have to take that part of it very, very seriously.” David Polen

“A huge part of our job is building a great investment process that will make money over the long term, but a fair amount of our job is sticking to it like grim death during the tougher times.” Cliff Asness

“While it might seem counterintuitive, the best decision-maker isn’t necessarily the person with the most successes, but rather the one with the best process and judgment. The two can be far from the same, and especially over a small number of trials, it can be impossible to know who’s who.” Howard Marks

“One of the insights that I’ve gained from more than a decade of diligent study is that successful investing over the long term is all about creating a good process and then constantly working to make it better. At its very essence, the business of investing is the business of making quality decisions. We therefore want to develop a process that leads to good decisions, minimizes poor decisions, and ensures that we get maximum value from the decisions we get right while minimizing the damage we suffer when we are wrong.” Zeke Ashton