Dr. Henry Singleton – the Capital Allocator

Here are a few articles on the little known but maybe the best allocator of capital in recent decades or ever, Dr. Henry Singleton. Singleton built up Teledyne from the 1960s to the late 1980s at an incredible pace, and his secret, was to buy and sell at “cyclical junctures, doing the “wrong” thing when it was really the right thing and the opposite. In other words, when no one wanted to invest or buy stocks Singleton was, and when his stock price was soaring he used it as currency to acquire other Companies.

Teledyne-and-Henry-Singleton-a-CS-of-a-Great-Capital-Allocator

A case study by Leon Cooperman on Singleton (2007)

Review on QVAL

Wesley Gray, a finance professor at Drexel and author of the book, Quantitative Value, recently launched a new ETF called US Quantitative Value. The fund was launched by ValueShares. Gray says “We believe our edge is robust: we design systematic investment programs that seek to exploit mispricing caused by irrational investors….QVAL seeks to exploit the so-called value anomaly in a systematic, high-conviction, tax-efficient, and affordable way.”

Samuel Lee of Morningstar wrote a good review on the fund. Click to read.

The price mechanism actually can work (when allowed)

In his new book, “The Forgotten Depression”, Grant argues that the price mechanism (ie minimal or no Fed intervention) is a far more effective way to clear markets and allocate capital than an activist Fed. Grant’s book focuses on the 1921 depression and its quick recovery. Grant states that the price mechanism is a “far more resilient and constructive force than present day policy makers admit.”

Interview on Bloomberg