15 Round Title Fight

This market seems like a middleweight boxing fight – twelve or fifteen rounds of body blow after body blow, with the occasional head butt! Investing today certainly feels like dealing with uppercuts, haymakers, jabs, jukes, and jives, all the while staggering, swaying, ducking, diving, and staying off the ropes. It’s a difficult environment. It can be brutally treacherous, as the stock market can move 100 points at any moment.

With all that said, and I’m sure I’m not sharing anything new to you, is that we at AllStarInvestor.com will do all we can to get some value out of this lousy market. We’ll stay on top of the trends, identifying what is performing well, and alerting you as to what is performing poorly. This is an important point. For example: staying away from financials for the past year has improved your results!

If you don’t think you need help, or find a sense of comfort in the misery of others, check out the results of these famous investors below (some stunning drawdowns!). I suspect most were early buying financials. That said, doesn’t mean they are wrong, it may mean that they are early, and in addition, their style may come back in favor and their future results may be stellar. Time will tell, but in the meantime, these body blows must not feel good.

Marty Whitman: Founder of Third Avenue Value Fund, generated 17% annualized returns since 1990.

6 month performance: -43.38%
12 month performance: -34.61%

Mohnish Pabrai: Warren Buffett was his mentor; generated nearly 30% annualized returns prior to 2007.

6 month performance: -41.20%
12 month performance: -36.88%

Bill Miller: Legendary portfolio manager for Legg Mason; established a 15 year streak of beating the S&P 500 until 2007.

6 month performance: -37.05%
12 month performance: -40.90%

Joel Greenblatt: Portfollio manager of well known and highly lauded hedge fund Gotham Capital:

6 month performance: -37.00%
12 month performance: -37.00%

Eddie Lampert: Widely acclaimed as the next Buffett when he took Kmart from the brink of bankruptcy:

6 month performance: -28.95%
12 month performance: -33.94%

Carl Icahn: The original Corporate Raider.

6 month performance: -21.00%
12 month performance: -3.98%