

Bloomberg posted an article today about Bill Miller’s performance for the year. Without a doubt the numbers are extremely impressive. Bill Miller’s Legg Mason Capital Management Value trust rose 43% this year. That placed Miller ahead of 93% of similar mutual funds. Miller posted far higher gains than the S&P 500 which is up year to date 24.6%. Since the market lows in early march of this year Miller’s fund had approximately doubled in price.
“Bill Miller is a joke. He is the perfect example of what it wrong with the mutual fund industry and the conflicts of interest that exist.
Yost Partners was up 0.8% for the first quarter, while the Yost Focused Long Funds lost 5% net. The firm's benchmark, the MSCI World Index, declined by 5.2%. The funds' returns outperformed their benchmark due to their tilt toward value, high exposures to energy and financials and a bias toward quality. In his first-quarter letter Read More
Bill Miller is actually a lousy money manager.
What makes a good asset manager? I will tell you. Someone who in bull markets atleast matches the averages % gain, and someone who in bear markets knows how to preserve wealth and hold on to those gains.
Bill Miller has proven he is able to make money ONLY in bull markets.
His streak of beating the S & P 500 was a joke. Sure he beat the market during 2000-2003, yet it was only by a couple of %. So essentially he lost just as much money as the index’s, yet this is applauded by the likes of Morningstar and others who tout him a “legend”.
I have one word for that :JOKE!
In retrospect BIll Miller is one of the worst fund managers ever to have managed money, and if anything, he was nothing more than as asset gatherer, not asset manager. Tell me, do any of you defending Miller have a few hundred million in the bank or a 85 ft yacht, like Miller has.
All from collecting management fees from losing people money over the long term. The value of Miller’s fund is exactly where it was over 10 years ago. That is not a short stretch of underperformance as some have used to rationalize Miller’s performance. That is pure mismanagement of the funds given to you.
Miller should be forced to return money to shareholders out of his own pocket, though I suspect the “legend” is not losing any sleep over his performance.”
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