Walter J. Schloss in his 2008 presentation at the Ben Graham Center for Value Investing, discusses how he started his relationship with Ben Graham.
Walter Schloss 2008 Presentation: Relationship With Ben Graham
Q3 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc
Transcript
I just want to say a couple of things. I started the fund that I manage in 1955 when Benjamin Graham said he was ready to retire and that I like Graham very much and that was one of the people who were arrested were dead wrong. If you start a fight and I will I will put money in it. So I thought it was a great idea and we got 19 partners and they said the point five thousand dollars. And they started offering 19 quarters of a hundred thousand dollars. I did want to say I never worked with Goldman Sachs. My job was basically was low blow outs which was kind of related to the leaving the family I suppose. But anyway I just wanted you to know that so I started 1955 and I stayed in the field until 2010. And we missed the 2000 threes. By 2001 I think I'm not quite sure how am I right now is that my son turned to me one day and said that I can't find a cheap stocks. And I said at my age let's go out of business. And I just know that the market was kind of a bubble because of had high tech stocks was acting very crazily. And when these things happen you find that you have to work about three years to catch up to all of the things that went wrong in the previous three years. And life's too short for that. And I enjoy investing and I would write one a comment actually was written up by Forbes magazine and this came out. I think the issues have some relevance and you might find that interesting and I'm ready to answer any questions you may have even if I don't answer that might you tell me.
You just walk away with Ben Graham how you started your relationship with Ben Graham.
What happened was I went to work at 19. My father lost his job his job and there was no money in the family. And so I got a job as a writer and had crawled out below the company which came drugs later and was a big brokerage firm but it was worth it when I went there. And then they put me into the clashes department and that a year later I ran I feel like you only get little more money I was making 15 dollars a week and I thought I could get a little more. So right. Ask about it if I could get a security analysis department which is great calling it. Just take a look at it in those days. And I spoke to the partner who got the job as a writer and I said what I become as a security analyst instead of his death. And he said No I think maybe I had to yell I couldn't get brokerage fees in those days. Well commissions were fixed so that the wealthy people sent their family that they would get fixed conditions. Of course it's about Paladin's out there anyway. He said no you can't you can't do that. But he said there's a core security of our assets by Benjamin Graham and if you read that Brooke you won't need anything else. So I got all of the security analysis that it was a very good book and that I found that Benjamin Graham who had written the book had a customer of Lopez and I could see the stocks they owned and it seems that would send me to call the New York Stock Exchange. Is that true. They were trying to teach their employees on a small basis how stock exchange worked and they also Benjamin Graham across course statistical analysis writing to this crisis said here about.
