The Intellectual Investor

I have been feeling very uneasy about the market and the economy. Over the last two decades our economy has been acclimated to insanely low interest rates, and reacclimation to higher and rising rates is going to be difficult. The post This Is Your Captain Speaking – Buckle Up – Ep 293 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

My subconscious melded Fiddler on the Roof with the lecture from a few days earlier, and I ended up writing a chapter about the Jewish farmer Tevye buying a cow, Golde (which he named after his first wife). The post Fiddler on the Roof and Value Investing – Ep 292 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

Stock XYZ has declined 25%. What do you think? Is your thesis broken? What you observe in stock price volatility is mostly noise. A good chunk of buyers and sellers don't know much about what they are trading other than the ticker. The post What to Do When a Stock Drops 25% – Ep 291 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

Last year I came out of the BRK annual meeting thinking that Greg Abel was not the right person to run Berkshire Hathaway. Abel lacked Buffett's charisma, warmth, and humor. Greg Abel was not Buffett, and he definitely was not Munger. I was wrong. The post Greg Abel Takes Over Berkshire Hathaway: My Thoughts After Omaha 2026 – Ep 290 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

The Iran war exposes a quiet rewriting of the rules that made the US exceptional. Why we own oil, why we hate owning gold, and why crypto still isn't for client accounts. The post What the Iran War Reveals About the Dollar, Gold, and the End of US Exceptionalism – Ep 289 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

At IMA, we deal with prospective clients who have a short-term time horizon very differently. We do what I call "reverse marketing." I write articles, people read them, and when they get interested in our services, they download our brochure and reach out to us. The post Q&A Series: On Firing Clients, Sizing Positions, and Ignoring Book Value – Ep 288 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

There is an unspoken conflict between Americans and Europeans. Europeans accuse Americans of being stuck in the rat race. Americans look at Europeans, see them sipping their espressos for two hours a day and reading newspapers, and call them lazy. The post Q&A: The Antifragile Investor: Balancing Geopolitics, Identity, and the Cost of Growth – Episode 287 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

I took a Waymo with my colleague Cyrus. We were genuinely impressed. It was a seamless experience. Uber is dead, long live Waymo? Not So Fast. The post Uber and Self-Driving Cars: The Utilization Problem Nobody Talks About – Ep 286 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

The future feels less predictable because the range of possible outcomes has expanded. Here is my best attempt to think through that reality with humility, and why you should let me do the worrying for both of us. The post What AI, Tariffs, and Global Uncertainty Mean for Your Portfolio – Ep 285 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

Investing is a lot more art than science. I bring a scientist's mindset – I approach problems with an open mind and I am willing to change my mind when data proves me wrong. The post When to sell a stock: The Art and Psychology of Selling – Ep 284 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

Instead of joining the chorus of false certainty, let me offer you a crayon-level framework for thinking about it. I am going for vaguely right, not precisely wrong. The post On AI Eating The World – Ep 283 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

On January 11, 2026, my younger daughter, Mia Sarah, celebrated becoming an adult, at least according to Jewish tradition (she turned 12). This is what I told her The post 10 Life Lessons I Passed On to My Daughter on Her Bat Mitzvah – Ep 282 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

I let myself be me when I write. I just made it sound easy. It is not. It comes down to confidence. It took me a long time – years, to get comfortable with being me on paper. The post Q&A: From Imposter Syndrome to Authenticity – Ep 281 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

When policies are judged by intentions rather than outcomes, you get Germany closing nuclear plants only to burn more coal. The post The Church of Climate and the Law of Unintended Consequences – Ep 280 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

Warren Buffett calls Berkshire Hathaway his Sistine Chapel. This analogy haunted me for years until I realized we are building the exact same thing at IMA. It took me a decade to put into words, but I finally narrowed our firm's entire reason for existence down to just two words. They sound simple, but living up to them is the hardest thing we've ever done. The post Our Sistine Chapel: Long-Term Investing in Quality and Kindness – Ep 278 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

Today, we're diving into two questions from readers that are close to my heart, which of my books is my personal favorite and why, and is there a similarity between classical music and investing for me? The post On Books, Music, and Investing – Ep 277 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

As an investor, being intentional about identifying assumptions is extremely important. When you're mindless, you accept things as they are without realizing you're walking on thin ice while everyone else thinks it's solid ground. The post Living and Investing with Intention – Ep 276 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

I held a Q&A session with readers a while back. In this episode, we'll discuss how to handle market pressures and our view on serial acquirers. The post Q&A Series: Managing Market Pressures and Evaluating Serial Acquirers – Ep 275 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

Looking back, I recognize that my parents gave my family an amazing gift: the ability to see. They never forced us to go to museums; they just took us with them. The post Learning to See – Ep 274 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.

My biggest problem was that my family, including yours truly, was not good at lying. Okay, I am getting ahead of myself.  The post Operation Molly – Ep 273 appeared first on The Intellectual Investor - Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson.