Author: Smead Capital Management

We believe that Billy Joel is perhaps the most preeminent singer/songwriter of the U.S. baby-boom generation. Art, like Billy Joel’s music, has a tendency to mirror culture and economics. Thanks to his recent tour in the U.S., we were reminded of how four of Billy’s greatest hits speak to our current circumstances in the stock market and give incredible advice about how to behave as investors over the next ten years.

As we enter April, baseball comes to mind while the Major League Baseball Season begins. Commissioner Giamatti’s thoughts are apropos and reflect on baseball across the seasons of the year for players and the fanatics of the sport. Baseball carries many similarities to investing. There are a myriad of investment opportunities among stocks, bonds and other investment products much like there are thousands of events in a baseball season like plate appearances, outs and runs. The one constant in the investment world and baseball is change. Change during the year. Change over the years.

At Smead Capital Management, we make it a practice of constantly reviewing our discipline of stock selection and portfolio management. Like a sports agent compares athletes, one of the ways we do this is to follow competitiors with proven track records of success. Many portfolio managers of U.S. large-cap equity funds have had a very difficult time during the last several years in the U.S. stock market. The market has been especially harsh on many high-conviction, long-duration portfolio disciplines lately. What do history and current circumstances teach us about our stock picking discipline?