RIP Walter Schloss

[Nords]

Yeah, I know: Walter who?!?

He was one of the original value investors, an employee of Ben Graham's brokerage after WWII.

He died at the age of 95. He remained an active investor well into his 90s, and I remember occasionally seeing his analysis quoted in the WSJ. He thought all the angst over Buffett's age & successor plan was pretty funny.

"Superinvestor" Walter Schloss Dies at 95 - Bloomberg

Buffett, another Graham disciple, called Schloss a “superinvestor” in a 1984 speech at Columbia Business School. He again saluted Schloss as “one of the good guys of Wall Street” in his 2006 letter to shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
“Following a strategy that involved no real risk -- defined as permanent loss of capital -- Walter produced results over his 47 partnership years that dramatically surpassed those of the S&P 500,” wrote Buffett, whose stewardship of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) has made him one of the world’s richest men and most emulated investors. “It’s particularly noteworthy that he built this record by investing in about 1,000 securities, mostly of a lackluster type. A few big winners did not account for his success.”

Alice Schroeder (Buffett's biographer) writes about Schloss using his interview with her to not-so-surreptitiously push his political agenda on Buffett:
Walter Schloss -- What a Guy | Alice Schroeder: The Official Website

 

[clifp]

From 1955 to 2002, by Schloss’s estimate, his investments returned 16 percent annually on average after fees, compared with 10 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. (SPX) His firm, Walter J. Schloss Associates, became a partnership, Walter & Edwin Schloss Associates, when his son joined him in 1973.

So a $1,000 invested with Walter back in 1955 would have been worth north of million when he stopped in 2002. Not quite Buffett level returns (20%) but for a slightly longer time period. The remarkable thing is the power of compounding and the huge differences relatively small performance advantage give. The S&P over 47 years caused your money to increase 88x, Schloss got 1,070x and Buffett over 45 years
3,942x.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Nords,

Thanks for posting. Walter sounds like an average Joe who applied himself and did quite a bit above average. A true success.