Nomad Letters

Autorentext

Nick Sleep cofounded and co-managed the Nomad Investment Partnership with Qais Zakaria from 2001 to 2014. He continues to invest privately and through his charitable foundation, the IGY Foundation.

Klappentext

A master class in long-term investing and rational thinking from two of the most celebrated investors of the 21st century.

Between 2001 and 2014, amid gale-force global economic headwinds, Nick Sleep and Qais Zakaria’s Nomad Investment Partnership dramatically outperformed the market—and their biannual Letters to Partners earned cult status as some of the most clear-headed writing on investing and deciphering market forces.

Nomad Letters is the first compilation of these letters in print, sharing the enduring insights of two of the sharpest minds in value investing. Featuring a new prologue by Nick Sleep and a foreword by Stripe cofounder and president John Collison, Nomad Letters details the investment philosophy behind Sleep and Zakaria’s success—an approach that favors patience, conviction, and dedication to long-term competitive advantage over short-term returns. It includes Sleep’s reflections on the pioneering concept of “scale economics shared,” embodied in Nomad’s longtime investments in Costco and Amazon, and on the pair’s profound commitment to long-term thinking, never following the herd, and pursuing a meaningful life beyond wealth accumulation.

Not only a blueprint for investors, Nomad Letters is essential reading for anyone seeking to build long-lasting businesses, understand market dynamics, and see the world more clearly.

Inhalt

Foreword
Prologue: The Ninth Wonder of the World
Preamble

2001 
Annual Letter: Initial investments, International Speedway, and Matchion

2002 
Interim Letter: “A little wonderful advice,” Xerox, and Monsanto
Annual Letter: Decline in market price, Stagecoach, and Costco Wholesale

2003 Interim Letter: “Diworsification,” Weetabix, and Lucent Technologies
Annual Letter: Accounting for performance, partnership growth, and Weetabix 

2004
Interim Letter: Partnership governance, Union Cement, and overdiversification
Annual Letter: Growth and value, why we think what we think, and Costco Wholesale

2005
Interim Letter: Competitive advantage, the robustness ratio, and Zimbabwe
Annual Letter: The principal–agent conflict, competitive advantage, and investor misjudgements

2006
Interim Letter: Handover from Marathon, Blenkinsopp, and what non-transitive dice teach about investing
Annual Letter: The index is not the benchmark, Amazon, and why problems go unsolved

2007
Interim Letter: Scaling laws, short-term result volatility, and the deep reality of the markets
Annual Letter: How we think about mistakes, mistakes in the making, and focusing on what we control

2008
Interim Letter: AirAsia, Games Workshop, and MBIA
Annual Letter: The price-to-value ratio, the power of incentives, and Zimbabwe

2009
Interim Letter: A quieter approach, weighing the information, and overdiversification
Annual Letter: Locker-room culture, doing what is right, and character as a way of reducing investment risk

2010
Interim Letter: Comparative advantages, Costco, and Amazon 
Annual Letter: Investment spending by Nomad’s businesses, implications for long-term investors, and Cigar Butts Anonymous
 
2011
Interim Letter: Mental shortcuts, the models we use, and the principal–agent problem
Annual Letter: The real risks to a business, Black Arrow, and a word on education

2012
Interim Letter: Information as food, the Darwin approach, and our management fee
Annual Letter: Carpetright, Zak’s family’s activity center, and firms that watch the pennies

2013
Interim Letter: A different take on incentives, the Sisypheans, and inactivity as a source of value added
Annual Letter: Regulation, Zimbabwe, and a final note on psychology

Postamble

Endnotes
Index
About Nomad Letters
About the Authors