Paul Sonkin and Paul Johnson discuss market efficiency breakdowns, explaining how quantitative funds running similar algorithms eliminated cognitive diversity during the August 2007 quant quake.
Assertion Partly supported
Sonkin: Highly creative people show much higher rates of neurodivergence and mood disorders
“The people that are the most creative, if you look at, again, this 90 years of literature, they tend to, many times above the population They have mood disorders, depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, Asperger's, OCD.”
Insight
Sonkin: Top long-term outperforming investors have less specialization than allocators expect
“The other problem that we kind of see with allocators is that they're looking, well, and you can opine on this more than I can, is that they're looking for specialization, and if you look at the people that have really outperformed over long periods of time, t…”
Assertion Supported
Sonkin: U.S. Exchange Listings Halved From 8,000 in 1996 to 4,000
“So the companies in 1996, there were 8000 companies on organized U.S. Exchanges, which doesn't include the pink sheets and the OTC bulletin board. And that is 4000 companies now, even though on our levels of GDP, it should be 10,000.”
Insight
Sonkin: Scaling an investment position requires transferring idea ownership from analyst to PM
“In order to get the portfolio manager to actually scale the position, there has to be a transfer of ownership from the analyst to the portfolio manager, and the problem that you have is that there's a lot of subconscious emotions going on in the portfolio mana…”
Insight
Sonkin: Optimal analyst-PM relationships require both doing 90% work, claiming 48% credit
“In order to have an optimally functioning relationship between the analyst and the portfolio manager, each of them have to do 90% of the work and take 48% of the credit.”
Insight
Sonkin: PMs Won't Buy Stocks Unless Pitches Clearly Articulate the Edge
“Where most people screw it up is they don't fully articulate why the stock is mispriced, and a portfolio manager subconsciously, unless they feel as though they fully understand that, They're not going to buy the stock, and if you think about it, if you can ex…”