Author:Lin Qiman wandering period

David Swenson, chief investment officer, died of cancer on the 5th at the age of 67, Yale University said on May 6.

In a short sentence, behind it is the death of a generation of investment masters.

If you only say Swenson's name, perhaps many people will be relatively strange. But if it is mentionedBuffett and Zhang LeiEveryone should be familiar with it.

And David Swenson is a great investment master on a par with Buffett, and he is also the mentor of Zhang Lei, the top investor in China.

Barton M. Biggs, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said:"there are only two really great investors in the world. They are Swenson and Buffett. "

The "God of Wealth" of Yale

David Swenson, known as the "god of wealth" of Yale, is the investment director of the Yale endowment fund, and his "Yale model" has made him a godfather of institutional investment.

His life is also a legend:

Born in 1954 in River Falls, a small town in Wisconsin, Swenson is the eldest of six siblings. His grandfather and father are chemistry professors at the University of Wisconsin at Riverfall, while his mother is a priest.

In 1975, Swenson went to Yale University to study for a PhD in economics, where he studied under James Tobin, the 1981 Nobel laureate in economics.Tobin was the founder of portfolio selection, and Swenson learned a lot directly from him, which was the basis on which he later proposed innovative and diversified portfolios.

In 1980, after graduating from his PhD, Swenson, 27, worked at Lehman Brothers for three years and then at Solomon Brothers for three years, just as Swenson's career on Wall Street was booming. Yale endowment returns are at a low ebb.

In 1985, when invited by the provost of Yale, Brian Nader, to run the Yale foundation, Swenson resolutely chose to return to the school.Manage the school's $1 billion Alumni Endowment Fund (endowment fund).

When he returned to Yale, his record was like this.

The Yale fund has been climbing since 1985 and was worth $31.2 billion by June 2020.

And 1985 was the year when Swenson took charge of the Yale endowment fund.

According to the media:Over the past decade, the Yale Endowment Fund has earned an annual return of 10.9%Double-digit growth. Its net donated assets remained at an annualised rate of 16.1%. Provide 40% financial support for Yale University.

And, more importantly, it creates a pattern--The Yale model.

即：Take asset allocation as the starting point, diversify allocation and diversify investment.；A large proportion of over-allocated long-term investments and alternative assets can be allocated through bulls and bears.

Therefore, Yale God of Wealth is well deserved.

Model of long-term investment, teacher Zhang Lei

In addition, Swenson has another identity, teacher Zhang Lei.

Zhang Lei said in the book "value": "many times the fate of life is a window that God inadvertently opened for you, and you happen to be there, in a sense, it is the Yale Investment Office that locates the coordinate system of my future career. Let me decide to enter the investment industry. "

And it was Swenson who opened that window.

Zhang Lei's experience is not overstated here.

The starting point of Zhang Lei's investment philosophy and investment experience is at Yale.

Traditionally, the Yale Investment Office does not accept MBA students as interns.It is said that Swenson made an exception because "I saw great potential in this sincere student." "

Zhang Lei's first wave of investment after returning home came from the Yale Endowment Fund.

In 2008, affected by the global financial crisisYale fund investment in Hillhouse fell by 44%.

Faced with this situation, Swenson not only did not "cut meat", but continued to give Hillhouse "blood transfusion." Later, Hillhouse's success proved Swenson's vision, and the Yale fund made an average annual return of more than 20%.

Reviewing the investment, Mr Swenson said that as long as the fundamentals were good, there was no need to care about temporary fluctuations.

Summary

Swenson left us not only his brilliant record, but also a very high moral standard.

A man who only wants to make money can't stay at Yale for so long. When he joined Yale in 1985, his salary was reduced by 20%. Swenson gave up his high salary on Wall Street to head the school endowment fund and teach at Yale.

Swenson's talents have not only achieved success at Yale, but also exported leadership to important investment institutions such as the Harvard Endowment Fund, the Hilton Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation.

He not only cares about the people when he has status, but also does a good job of being alone.

Here are seven qualities that Swenson shares with successful investors:

1. Investment is one of the most attractive activities in the world. Successful investment requires investors to have a wide range of qualities and qualities: curiosity, self-confidence, humility, dedication, judgment and enthusiasm.

two。 Curiosity, curiosity, because almost anything, anywhere can have an impact on the market. Extremely intelligent, because you have to be at least as smart or smarter as your competitors.

3. Confidence, because when you make a buy or sell decision, you are actually betting on the wrong direction of the market.

4. Humble, because sometimes the market is right.

5. Be dedicated to your work because you are competing with many other people who work equally hard.

6. Judgment, because it is not enough to collect and pile up facts, you need to draw the right conclusions.

7. Enthusiasm, because if you don't love what you are doing, you will fail.

Although we can't replicate Swenson's legend, his investment style and investment philosophy may be helpful to us.