Mohnish Pabrai's mutual fund for regular investors

[mrc]

I recently came across this fund when I was looking at the NTF funds available at Vanguard. He is known to mange money for high networth individuals (he responded to my brother saying that minimum investment is $400,000) and a big Buffet disciple. He recently started a fund for regular investors with low minimums. I went ahead and immediately invest in the fund. It is available at Vanguard and Interactive Brokers at this point of time. It is a highly concentrated fund. Do your own due diligence before investing in it.



www.wagonsfund.com/

[Deleted]

Holdings are not out yet. I guess it would be concentrated US value tilt fund. 1.25% ER seems high.
I do not have account on Vanguard or Interactive Brokers so not an option for me.

[mrc]

Holdings are there in the presentation you will find in the main page. You can also find them in the 'Our Businesses' under 'About the fund' tab.



www.wagonsfund.com/our-businesses

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[Deleted]

His portfolio somehow reminds me of Marty Whitman of third avenue (except msft)

[anitya]

There are a lot of other concentrated investing funds and some reasonably successful. Why is this guy getting a thread? I do not see any retail funds with returns history to see why we are talking about this new fund launch.  What is the history of this man?

[bizman]

Feb 9, 2024 8:44:41 GMT anitya said:

There are a lot of other concentrated investing funds and some reasonably successful. Why is this guy getting a thread? I do not see any retail funds with returns history to see why we are talking about this new fund launch.  What is the history of this man?

Mohnish has gained fame starting when he and Guy Spier payed $650k in 2007 to dine with Warren Buffett in his annual fundraiser dinner for the Glide Foundation.  Since then he has done a lot of interviews and has written a couple of books, including The Dhando Investor, which I read and enjoyed.  He is very engaging.

He has since palled around a lot with Charlie Munger in the last decade or so, and has a blog, Chai with Pabrai. 

Supposedly he has accumulated a terrific investment record over the last 20 years or so since he started and sold a small tech firm.  Until now, he only managed large initial sums.  There is no independently verified track record I have seen, but supposedly it is quite impressive.

The most impressive thing to me about his story is his Dakshana Foundation, where he has built a school for poor kids with tremendous abilities, schooling them up to compete for places in India's ultra-competitive and elite technical schools.  Warren Buffett has commended him for this as well.

A few years ago in some of his Youtube interviews, he was pushing the idea of GrafTech International (EAF), which didn't really pan out.  He seems like a guy who swings for the fences and is looking for super cheap opportunities that can double or triple, or at least are so cheap they don't really hurt him much.  At least this is the basic idea he put forth in his book.

He fairly recently apparently traded in wife #1 for a new model and moved to Austin, Texas.  I will be watching with interest how WAGNX performs, but I'm definitely in "prove it" mode before I'm looking to sink a big chunk of money in there personally.  I may miss the boat, but that's life.

Edited to add:

Here is the recent article in the WSJ about his move to Austin, TX, which is kind of a puff piece about his new home decor.

WSJ: His Decision to Go Remote Called for a $180,000 Library Remodel LINK

[mrc]

Thanks bizman for posting about his record, even if we are not sure if it is audited or not.
Not sure why anitya is so cycnical about Mohnish. :-)


I just posted this on Mutualfundobserver.com over complaints against its expense ratio.

I think the expense ratio of 1.25 for a fund with less $7M is OK in my opinion.

A fund like OAKIX with $20B assets is charging 1.05. There are many funds in the industry that charge exorbitant expense ratios even after accumulating billions of dollars. Comparatively, this is nothing in in my opinion. Let's see if he is also like them or reduce the fee as assets are increased. Of course, that scenario only happens in the first place, if he performs.

IMO, a good manager with new a fund is great combo, so I went ahead and invested without a second thought. I got benefited with this philosophy by investing almost from inception in Akre fund AKREX and ARTYX (in spite of its fall during 2021-22 from parabolic move up before that).

It is not like I am betting my farm on this fund. Just a small portion of my retirement portfolio as initial investment.
I am going to increase it as I see evidence of its outperformance.

[bizman]

mrc , I should probably, and may well soon just follow you in with a relatively small first bite. As far as anitya , being cynical, I have to admit I am cynical when it comes to money. For $100 or $1,000 I'm not too worried. But when big money is on the line, I feel one should be appropriately slightly paranoid to avoid being taken advantage of. Perhaps it's just my life experience and upbringing.

In fact, I've done the mental counterfactual of how would I have really known that Warren Buffett was the real deal in 1965, rather than a Madoff in the making? While people tell themselves they would just know the difference, I have come across some very convincing sociopaths in my life, who make you feel like you want to trust them and be their best friend. Luckily, my caution has kept me from being burned in a big way. Might it have cost me in terms of opportunity cost? Possibly. But we each must be true to ourselves.

Back to Warren and Charlie, I'm pretty sure they are trustworthy, or else they are running the most flawless long con in history, with Charlie even taking it to the afterlife! Just kidding about W&C, but having been involved in the banking business, I have seen some ugly stuff that has caused me to live by the words caveat emptor.

Reminds me of the Santayana saying that skepticism is the chastity of the intellect.  Words to live by.

[retiredat48]

mrc ,...and... bizman ,

Thanks for posts. I may monitor performance for awhile.

I get many funds from other posters, and it is posts like yours that lead one to some gems. Keep em coming!

R48

[richardsok]

".....I have to admit I am cynical when it comes to money. For $100 or $1,000 I'm not too worried. But when big money is on the line, I feel one should be appropriately slightly paranoid to avoid being taken advantage of. Perhaps it's just my life experience and upbringing.



In fact, I've done the mental counterfactual of how would I have really known that Warren Buffett was the real deal in 1965, rather than a Madoff in the making? While people tell themselves they would just know the difference, I have come across some very convincing sociopaths in my life, who make you feel like you want to trust them and be their best friend. Luckily, my caution has kept me from being burned in a big way. Might it have cost me in terms of opportunity cost? Possibly. But we each must be true to ourselves.



".... skepticism is the chastity of the intellect."

--------------------.

Best post this month, bizman.    A+

[johntaylor]

Years ago, they used to suggest the Sequoia Fund (advised by Ruane) for Buffett-esque aspects