The reason I went all the way to Toronto for a value investing seminar, is my eternal quest for value for my clients.
There are only two Universities in the world that have value investing as a specific dedicated area of study within the University.
The first is the University of Western Ontario (Canada) where I attended the seminar. Dr George Athanassakos, the seminar leader, teaches value investing as part of an MBA program and has written several papers on value investing.
The second is Columbia University in New York, where the father of value investing, Benjamin Graham taught, and Warren Buffet studied. Next year I will be enrolling in Columbia’s new online value investing course (which will be an ideal method of delivery without the need for long-haul flights)!
Most universities while teaching Finance are still focused on teaching Modern Investment Theory and the Efficient Markets hypothesis (EMH) which while sensible from a theory perspective fails to take account of the non-rational or emotional behaviour of investors.
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” Yogi Berra
While I have studied and read numerous books and articles on investing it was great to have an opportunity to learn in a small classroom setting about the latest applications of value investing with other value investors. We worked together through several real -life examples analysing four different companies looking at their environment, management and their accounts in smaller tutorial groups.
Through the seminar I was able to fine tune my current value investing techniques and pick up new methods and insights into value investing.