YouSaid · the spoken record

Steven Romick

lines on the record: 66
first: 2021-07-02
most recent: 2021-07-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“In early 2000, we had that cash again just as a byproduct of that. And we thought we were actually more protected with the cash than we were, but the investment part of the portfolio was candidly hit pretty hard by the pandemic. Yeah, down 34%.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is a lot. It is. It was certainly above average, and it wasn't that we identified a recession that was about to come as a result of a pandemic and the world would literally stop in many industries. But it was really more a function of cash being a byproduct of our investment product process. If we find an investment we like, we buy it. If not, cash ends up as residual. And we were more comfortable owning more cash in the past than we are today because, hey, at a point in time, cash yielded 5% back in the early 2000s and mid-00s. And we have more concern today be that inflation might be prospectively higher given the amount of debt that's been issued and the amount of paper money that's been printed and cash would be worth a lot less in an inflationary environment. So when we came into this recession and into the pandemic,”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“to have terrific partners in Brian Selmo and Mark Landecker who are wonderful partners and wonderful analysts and wonderful portfolio managers and thoughtful and kind people with lots of integrity who make it fun to come in each day. And so having that kind of support around you along with our analyst team and support of the organization for specific advisors.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is different than the typical product. I mean, sometimes we will look like the typical mutual fund. We will look very ordinary for sometimes longer periods of time because there isn't a lot of opportunity in the debt markets as there hasn't been over the last number of years because we've not been interested in buying high-yield bond without the high part of the yield because there hasn't been much yield. So we end up with just more inequities than we have historically. But we do have that opportunity, that flexibility to operate with Great Breadth, whether or not we take advantage of it at all points in time or not, that opportunity does exist. And it doesn't make us the right investment for everyone, but we've kind of come in each day myself and my partners in the fund now because one of the things that's also allowed me this longevity is to”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I think you have to enjoy what you do first and foremost, and I do. I mean, people ask me when I'm going to retire, and I have no plans to do that because I enjoy coming to the office every day. I enjoy reading about businesses. I enjoy learning. I mean, this is a, you're in a constant state of learning. The world is so different today than it was then. A company and industries have evolved. And it forces you to continue to study. And you never perfect this. It's a constant process of self-improvement. As I look around me, and I think that's what keeps me young. And so I really have no intention of stopping this anytime soon. So I think the first key to that longevity. And I think second is just that we happen to create a product that for better”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I spent a lot of time with George, who I knew peripherally through mutual friends. And it just seemed like a very, very good fit. And I came into FPA in 96, mid-96, and early 96, and 10 days after I joined, George Michael was scheduled to have dinner at my home that night and went cycling first and had a bike accident and died.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“guys who are older guys and been younger than I am now who would sit down and talk about business investments every couple months and they get together for a dinner and you'd have to bring your best idea and you'd chat about it and they let me come and be a fly on the wall because I clearly had nothing to add at that point in time and one of those gentlemen was Bob Rodriguez who was a portfolio manager for specific advisors at the time and we became friendly and I sought out him out in others regularly to bounce ideas off of and compare notes and different businesses and Bob knew I was looking to find a home and he was kind enough to allow me to enter discussions with first specific advisors, which was run by George Michaelis at the time who was a well-known investor and featured in John Train's book The Money Masters, the Volume One.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That was in 1996, and the transition was actually a very difficult transition for tragic reasons. My partner and I split up, he took separate accounts, I took the mutual fund, and I brought the assets over for specific advisors. I realized that I didn't want to deal with the back office. I didn't want to deal with marketing. I just wanted to focus on investing. All the nuts and bolts of the business side of things I wanted to leave to an organization that could have my back, if you will, and provide that peace of mind that I can just focus. And so I joined for specific advisors. And I was friends with, there were these investment group that I was part of at the time through my, again, my mentor that were”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was as good as the equity markets with more downside protection, and I could use that as a tool in my portfolio. And if I could do that, I felt that my clients would Because the portfolio could deliver higher risk adjusted returns. I mean, volatility is a measure of risk is, I think, a bit silly because things can move around a lot and the temperature outside today in Los Angeles doesn't reflect what the temperature might be tomorrow. It's going to move around. So when it comes to investing, though, in the average person, this goes for many professional investors. I think if volatility does weigh on them and it does precipitate action. Stocks go up a lot. They need to get in. Stocks go down a lot. People will panic out. I'm not making a universal statement, but it's all too often true. And I found in dealing with individual clients, it was very much true. And I felt that managing a product that could mute that, which was not the goal.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was unconstrained within the public security markets, so it did not include anything that was in the private sector, whether it be private credit or the odd private equity investment that we might make today. And today we continue to be largely public security investors. But philosophically, at that point in time, I liked the idea that I was able to invest money in a way that could deliver high risk adjustment returns, I believe they could deliver high-risk adjusted returns to my client base by investing across the capital structure. We had come out of the, I was coming out of a recession at that point in time, and the Drexel Burnham blow-up, and there was lots of opportunity in junk bond land. And I learned that I could get a rate of return in the debt markets that”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“1990 when we started this, I had a partner at the time who both of us had worked for our mentors. And he basically arranged marriage where he decided that we'd be better off building our own business. It was an opportunity for us. He allowed us to do that while we remained as consultative analysts for want of a better description with his firm. So he could have his cake and eat it too, if you will. So it was mutually beneficial. And the early clients really came from his relationships. put us in business. And I owe that all to him. We didn't really have, we didn't have, I mean, at that point in time, we launched with maybe, I'd have to go back and think about how many millions it was, but maybe it was $10 million in total between separate accounts and the mutual fund and it gradually grew from there.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's a great question because I think that everybody who is reasonably good at this and is confident in their capabilities, at some point they want to reach out and touch the money themselves supposed to have that. I mean somebody else make that an investment decision. So it started out with my personal account inside of the firm and investing that and finding some, you know, Failure early to realize what not to do. And then as I got better over time, I thought that it might be something that I want to do in terms of managing an entire portfolio as it began to really develop a philosophy as to how I'd like to manage money. And I was very fortunate to have a mentor who helped push me in that direction and became one of my early investors.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To seek information on the competition, to seek information as relates to industry data. It was just all much, much harder to come by. It required a lot more grunt work just to get that information. Now that information is available at your fingertips on the web. And in addition, you have so many great resources that exist today for people looking at businesses. The world's become much smaller. You have podcasts like this, you've got Value Investors Club, Vic, et cetera.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think that the process is any different, but the tools that you can use to get the information that one needs to make a robust decision are better. I mean, it's just easier to gather that information, which makes the world candidly more competitive today than it was back then. Not only is there more money slushing around the system. Not only are there more people doing it, but they can get that information a lot more easily. Back then, I had to get on the phone and call a company and call them for local information to get the phone number of the bank's headquarters or whatever company's headquarters it was and try and get in contact with investor relations if there even was an investor relations department more often than not it was just trying to get in the hold of the somebody in the finance department to get them to send me an annual report and”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Triple the number of banks and thrifts in the United States, there was massive consolidation trend that he identified that was likely to occur, which of course did occur. And he had me spending a lot of time analyzing these companies and inputting hundreds of banks and thrifts into DBAS, something we don't really use today anymore, and spent a lot of time analyzing those businesses. And then I just took it from there and continued that breath and spent a lot of time looking at different parts of the capital structure as well to stress that and stress that in addition.”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I started out as a generalist. I actually started out as a generalist who knew nothing about everything. I was on my way to law school and I met a gentleman through my father who decided that he wanted to bring somebody into his shop who didn't know anything because he quoted it at the time. He was tired of unlearning MBAs and he put me up in his office, pushed a desk right up next to his, and said, you're going to see how this works and what we do. And he does every time we called a company, he had me on the phone with him. And I learned early on. But the industry that I focused on, to the greatest degree in my earliest years, in the mid-80s was the bank and thrift industry when there were almost”
2021-07-02 · Masters in Business · Steven Romick on Portfolio Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source