MiB: Joel Tillinghast, Fidelity’s Legendary Fund Manager – The Big Picture

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This week, we speak with investing legend Joel Tillinghast. He has been a mutual fund manager in the equity division at Fidelity Investments since the 1980s. Tillinghast launched Fidelity’s Low-Priced Stock (FLPSX) in 1989, and has trounced the averages ever since. Since inception, FLPSX has annually beaten the S&P 500 by over 3% and the Russell 2000 by over 4%.

In 2002, Tillinghast was named “Morningstar’s Domestic Stock Fund Manager of the Year.”

Previously, he worked as an analyst covering coal, personal care, appliances, natural gas and tobacco. Before joining Fidelity in 1986, he served as a director of research and strategy at Bank of America Futures, a research economist at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and an analyst for the Value Line Investment Survey.

He explains that Growth is an important component of Value, and that is why he thinks of himself as more than just a value investor. “I want the lowest multiple on earnings 5 years out.” We also discuss why he holds 800-900 stocks at a time, most of which are placeholders that he uses to track the sector and individual companies.

He observes that when you make investing mistakes, “You’ve got to be cruel to yourself so you don’t do it again.”

A list of his current reading is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.

You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Michael Rockefeller, Co-Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of Woodline Partners, managing $7 billion in assets. Launched in 2019 with around $2 billion in initial assets, it was one of the fastest-growing emerging funds over the past few years. The hedge fund implements a market neutral equity strategy, focused on generating “idiosyncratic alpha” and “avoiding systemic risk factors.” Previously, he worked as a Portfolio Manager at Citadel Global Equities and as an Analyst at Millennium Management.