John Brolin
1 appearance on the record.
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14statements → 2claims → 1claims resolved → 3.93/5average certainty → 1.93/5average debate potential →
1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
2 assertions · 1 opinion · 4 insights · 7 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how John argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Everything John Brolin said on Capital Allocators that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Brolin: Cash is a costless option that beats drag
“Cash to me is a costless option. People say, oh, it's such a drag. It's such a drag. I don't think it is. I mean, you've seen those situations we've had where something we have falls 40% on earnings. If you have a 15% position and it falls 40%, now it's a nine…”
Brolin: Suburban Office Shields Edenbrook From New York Hedge Fund Groupthink
“We're out in the suburbs. Why? A, it's close to my house and I like that, but also we don't get polluted by other people's ideas. We're not going to ideal lunches all the time. Our big idea is what are we going to have for lunch today? That's part of the proce…”
Brolin: Wall Street average net cash is around two percent
“But I think the average net cash position across all of Wall Street right now is about two percent. So there's not exactly a lot of dry powder.”
Brolin: Edenbrook Separates Research From Portfolio Sizing to Avoid Performance Bias
“I've intentionally separated research from portfolio management. And so we just don't have those discussions. It's much easier not to fall into those traps of defending something that's down too much or being gun shy about being asked about it if you never hav…”
Brolin: Edenbrook files 13Ds without engaging in confrontational shareholder activism
“We do file 13 D's on companies, but we're not confrontational activists. We're looking for situations where we can interact positively with management teams and boards.”
Brolin: Public markets have no appetite for slow-growing, unprofitable companies
“There really is no market for a slow growing or declining unprofitable company.”
Brolin: Edenbrook builds positions up to 15% and lets winners run
“We will build a position up to 15% At market, and then we generally aren't buying after that. We let it work, but if we're going to build something up to 15%, we also have to let it run. We can't build it to 15 and then say 20 is our max, because then we're on…”
Brolin: Board seats harm public managers by closing post-earnings buying windows
“In general, I would prefer not to because it's very time consuming and I don't want to be restricted. I don't want our investors to be restricted and it's not so much the sale because I think if we get the risk reward correct and the asymmetry of it, it's real…”
Brolin: Raising dedicated private strategy funds tempts managers to force bad deals
“I had conversations with some of our family office investors who said, why don't you just have a separate private strategy for that, which I'm reluctant to do because I think if you go out and you raise capital for an idea, you're tempted to put the capital to…”
Brolin: Edenbrook holds over 20 percent in cash
“We're 20 plus percent now in cash, and we would be, no, there's some things that we're buying today, and there's some things that we're selling today, so there's some changes to that, and we have periodic inflows, so that can change the cash level.”
Brolin: Edenbrook held a 15% position that gained 300% in Q4
“Last year, we had a position that was a 15% position that went up 300% in the Fourth quarter.”
Brolin: Edenbrook Capital has turned down more capital than raised
“We've turned down more capital than we've raised because people are not great fits for it.”
Brolin: Edenbrook caps raised institutional capital at $500M
“We've capped ourselves at five hundred million dollars of raised institutional capital, so We'll be above that because of compounding. Something in that high hundreds of millions of dollars range feels like the right place to stop. So whether it's six, seven, …”
Brolin: Edenbrook monetized puts when VIX hit the low eighties
“Coming into March of 2020, we had about low double digits in cash, but we had all of these puts that we had bought. And so when those puts really paid off, they became an extra significant amount of cash in the portfolio. So the VIX went up into the low eighti…”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Jonathan Brolin – Edenbrook Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.14) | Oct 7, 2021 | 48m |