Tom Gaynor
20 statements across 1 episodes · 8 bullish · 6 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Jan 23, 2024 by Tom Gaynor · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Tom Gaynor's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Everything said about Tom Gaynor, oldest first
Jan 23, 2024 bearish
Gayner Liquidated 20% of Markel's Equity Portfolio in Early 2020
“And as a consequence of that one, 18 that we put up, I did take about 20% of our equity portfolio chips off the table and sold some positions just because again, My number one job is to make sure we are always there to answer the bell for the next round of the…”
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Gaynor: Mark Leonard Earned Market Confidence Through Decades of Autonomous Execution
“Mark Leonard is a great example of someone who's, who's incredibly thoughtful, who laid out a plan, and you have decades of evidence that he's executed upon it. So that is a guy who has earned the confidence that the marketplace places in him. And also he's an…”
Jan 23, 2024 bullish
Gaynor: I've bought Berkshire and Markel consistently since 1990
“The great algorithm in life is do more of what's working. So I bought the first share of Berkshire in 1990. I can't remember what the last time I bought more of it was, but within the last year or two. So I've consistently bought that stock. For years. Done th…”
Jan 23, 2024 bearish
Gayner Sold 99% of Acquired Terra Nova's Tech Equities Within 20 Minutes
“Within 20 minutes of me getting my hands on that portfolio, I had sold 99% of the equity positions because in my sense, they had drunk the Kool-Aid and had a NASDAQ Laden portfolio at a time when those prices just made no sense to me whatsoever.”
Jan 23, 2024
Gayner: Markel Compensates Executives on Multi-Year Horizons, Not Single-Year Results
“Well, the basic architecture involved in everybody's compensation, including my own is multi-year. So for instance, I'm personally compensated over a five year rolling average for any incentive compensation. And while the specifics will be different for the CE…”
Jan 23, 2024 bearish
Gayner Automatically Rejects Investing in Companies That Issue Heavy Stock Options
“If I saw a company that was using a lot of option stuff, I would just put my pencil down and say, I just don't like that. So it's in the too hard pile, and I'm not going to try to calculate that to the fourth decimal point. I just don't want to be part of it.”
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Gaynor: Charlie Munger was deeply social despite his iconoclastic reputation
“Despite the legendary iconoclastic nature of Munger, believe me, the man liked Munger. People. He liked being with people. He liked eating and drinking and laughing and telling stories and telling jokes. So he drew sustenance from his fellow human being, just …”
Jan 23, 2024
Buying Zero-Debt Businesses Protects Acquirers From Dishonest Operators
“If you want to make sure you're not buying a business run by a crook, buy one that doesn't use leverage. And so I said, tell me about this. He says, well, think about it. If you're a hundred percent equity financed, you are not going to steal money from that b…”
Jan 23, 2024
Gaynor: Long-Term Thinking Is a Privilege Enabled by Economic Security
“I have been given the gifts of being able to afford to think long term. So it would be irresponsible of me not to. But I don't want to cast judgment on those who are in a position where they don't have that same luxury that I have.”
Jan 23, 2024 negative
Gayner Suffered His Career's Worst Underperformance During the Late-90s Dot-Com Bubble
“Now, in the late nineties, that's when I would say the internet one point came along, and I struggled. I struggled massively, and I really had the biggest period of underperformance that I've ever had in my career, and that went on. I mean, it seemed like fore…”
Jan 23, 2024
Gaynor: Washington Post Vetted Him Using Real-Time Dot-Com Memos
“And so Don then asked me as part of their consideration of Me potentially being a candidate to join that board. Would I share with them some of the memos that I had written to our board Real time during 98, 99, 2002 1001, 2000, so five years where they could s…”
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Gaynor: Markel Maintains Low Leverage to Avoid Forced Decisions
“So by every single daily decision, I'm always trying to avoid exactly what you spoke of where you're in such a limited set of options that the circumstances make the decision for you. I hate that and trying to do every single thing I can to avoid that. So what…”
Jan 23, 2024 bearish
Gaynor: Zero percent interest rates will not return for a long time
“But I think that the environment we've just lived through of essentially zero percent rates, that's just weird. There's no fundamental justification for that. And I think we'll look back on it as a, as just a very unusual episode, but we'll be looking back on …”
Jan 23, 2024 neutral
Jan 23, 2024
Jan 23, 2024 bullish
Jan 23, 2024 negative
Gaynor: Studying advanced accounting theory is counterproductive for investors
“Beyond that point in the world we find ourselves today, it might be somewhat counterproductive to keep going too much into accounting theory because you tend to get lost in the details rather than understand the economic substance underneath what accounting is…”
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Gaynor: Satisficing Over Optimizing Generates Superior Compounding Over Time
“And I am a satisfier, not an optimizer. I'm not smart enough or disciplined enough or calculating enough to really be a good optimizer. So I try to move from satisfaction to satisfaction, and to last long enough where that, that compounding effect of always be…”