Monday, September 15, 2008

Biller Miller Redux

We've already visited 'since inception performance' for legendary investor Bill Miller's Legg Mason Value Trust which shows underpeformance vs. the S&P 500. Now comes further questioning as to whether he should lose the "legendary" tag altogether following the funds large holding in Freddie Mac equity (apparently as much as 30mm more shares than we listed here).

From Joe Nocera at Executive Suite:

Back in 2001, when Bill Miller was viewed as one of the world’s greatest investors, I edited a story about him at Fortune magazine. Mr. Miller, of course, is the manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund, whose claim to fame is that he beat the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index for 15 straight years. (It was 10 straight when Fortune published its story.) In the last few years, however, his fund has stumbled badly. Indeed, there are those in the investment community who whisper that Mr. Miller was never really a truly great investor. Rather, he was akin to the guy who flips a coin and it comes up heads 15 straight times — a product, that is, of randomness rather than skill.

Source: Dealbook

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