Size: WB has famously said in 1999 in an interview to BusinessWeek: "Its is a huge advantage to not have a lot of money. If I was running $1 million today, or $10 million for that matter, I’d be fully invested. Anyone who says that size does not hurt investment performance is selling. The highest rates of return I’ve ever achieved were in the 1950s. I killed the Dow. You ought to see the numbers. But I was investing peanuts then. It’s a huge structural advantage not to have a lot of money. I think I could make you 50% a year on $1 million. No, I know I could. I guarantee that.”
Career risk: Keynes said that it is better for career prospects to fail conventionally than to suceed uncoventionally. If you take risk and it pays off, in a fund, you may still get fired for taking too much risk. No one will fire you for buying HDFC Bank but you may get fired for buying a risky bank which may still turn out to be right. However as a small investor you have no such risk because you are your own client.
Institutional imperative: When you work as a fund manager in a professional capacity, you are paid for activity. You need to come up with new ideas all the time and keep on meeting company management or researching an industry and be active for the sake of it. The biggest asset in investing in being able to think for yourself and calming your selves down in this day and age of noise. Man's biggest problems come from not being able to sit in a room quietly or in some cases keep their fingers from tweeting randomly. Investing is watching paint dry. Its very boring. If you sit by yourself and come up with 2-3 good ideas a year, you wont have have that job for long.
So the next time you think the market is tilted in favor of the big guys, think again.
Regards
Anish
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