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Druckenmiller Interview: 10 Key Takeaways

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There are several reasons why being consistently profitable over the long run in the stock market is challenging:

1.   Markets are inherently unpredictable, and even the most seasoned investors cannot predict the future of individual stocks or markets.

2.   Wall Street is highly competitive, and investors of all kinds (especially large ones) must contend with other savvy investors with access to the same information and resources.  

3.   Regardless of how well thought out a position is, even the most well-researched positions can encounter unexpected “tape bombs” or negative news which adversely impacts the position.

These factors make it challenging for investors to consistently outperform the market over the long term.

Considering the abovementioned factors, Stanley Druckenmiller’s consistent performance over his long career is much more impressive. Druckenmiller, who was mentored by investing legend and billionaire George Soros, has been on Wall Street for more than four decades - first as a hedge fund manager and now as the manager of his own family office, Duquesne Capital Management. Over those four decades, Druckenmiller amassed a fortune of over $6 billion and never had a losing year! Lucky for us, he recorded a rare interview a few days ago. Below are 10 key takeaways from the interview:

On the current environment… “I never saw a situation where you had free money for 11 years, a very broad asset bubble, and a fed jacking up rates by 500 basis points in 12 months.” In other words, finding a historical precedent for the current market environment is difficult.

On being consistent… “Historically, I deal in five or six asset buckets.” A key advantage is that by trading a variety of asset classes, Stanley Druckenmiller can find a bull market rather than search for one that may not exist.

On patience… “One of the most important things to do is to not play when you don’t see a fat pitch.”

On recession fears… “I’m in the hard-landing camp later this year.”

On the Federal Reserve’s dovishness… “The response to SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) was unnerving. They (the fed) basically wiped out the reduction of the balance sheet in five days.”

On his confusion about equities markets… “Let’s say we have a hard-landing and a recession – what does that mean for Nvidia ((NVDA - Free Report) )? I don’t know.” Druckenmiller is unsure how the market will treat fast-growing equities should his hard-landing prediction come to fruition.

On what his current investing thesis is… Druckenmiller is short the dollar and long gold because he believes that “currency trends tend to last” and the U.S. has “weaponized the U.S. Dollar” and countries will look elsewhere. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF ((GLD - Free Report) ) broke out on heavy volume yesterday.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Vaneck Gold Miners ETF ((GDX - Free Report) ) and gold mining stocks such as Anglo Gold ((AU - Free Report) ), Agnico-Eagle Mines ((AEM - Free Report) ), and Alamos Gold ((AGI - Free Report) ) also broke out.

 

On why it’s essential to not lose money… “It’s just mathematics. If you go down 50%, you have to go up by 100% to break even.”

On being selective… “When you really see the ball swing big, when you don’t, swing small.”

On missing a move due to analysis paralysis… “Invest, then investigate.”

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