Where Are the Customers' Yachts? What Fred Schwed Can Teach Us About Investing

What can a wonderfully cynical book from 1940 teach us about investing today?

In this episode of Intelligent Investment Today, we explore Fred Schwed Jr.'s classic Where Are the Customers' Yachts?—a witty and irreverent look at Wall Street, financial professionals and the remarkable confidence with which people try to predict the future.

Schwed's famous question—"Where are the customers' yachts?"—becomes a starting point for a broader discussion about investing. Why do we place so much faith in forecasts and experts? Why does confidence often sound like competence? And could we actually make better investment decisions by accepting that we don't know what happens next?

Drawing on the principles of Benjamin Graham and value investing, we look at the difference between owning good businesses and simply buying predictions, the dangers of information overload, the importance of understanding incentives, and why successful investing doesn't necessarily have to be exciting.

Because while Wall Street may want to entertain us, the value investor has a rather simpler objective: to allocate capital sensibly and let good businesses compound over time.

And the next time someone claims to have discovered the secret to making money in the markets, perhaps there's one question worth asking first:

Where's your yacht?

Support the show