Bill Miller (finance)

Bill Miller is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Legg Mason Capital Management, a subsidiary of Legg Mason Inc. managing more than $60 billion of pooled assets and separate accounts. He is a portfolio manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund (LMVTX), the after-fee return of which had beaten the S&P 500 index for 15 consecutive years from 1991 through 2005 (consistently producing market beating returns is considered to be impossible according to the efficient market hypothesis).

In 2006 the returns of LMVTX were lower than the S&P 500 . [ [http://www.smartmoney.com/cover/index.cfm?story=november2006&pgnum=2 Smart Money] ] From January-June 2008, LMVTX lost 28.25% of its value. [ [http://www.leggmasoninstitutionalfunds.com/fund_information/historical_performance/legg_mason_value_trust.asp Institutional Funds: Legg Mason Value Trust] ]

The 10-year return ending June 30, 2008 fell below the S&P 500. [ifacalc.com]

Miller is a 1972 graduate of Washington and Lee University. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute. [SantaFe.edu - Executive Profile - Bill Miller http://www.santafe.edu/profiles/?pid=179]

Miller pursued a Ph.D in Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. [ Bill Miller's LMCM Profile http://www.lmcm.com/people/port_manager.aspx#BillMillerCFA ]

Quotes

* "Lowest average cost wins."
*"How do I know when I'm wrong? When I can no longer get a quote."
* "Countrywide's long term business value... we think is in the $40's compared to its current price of about $14-15." [Seeking Alpha - Bill Miller: Countrywide Financial Is Worth $40/Share http://seekingalpha.com/article/52708-bill-miller-countrywide-financial-is-worth-40-share]
* “As for the so-called streak, that’s an accident of the calendar. If the year ended on different months it wouldn’t be there and at some point the mathematics will hit us. We’ve been lucky. Well, maybe it’s not 100% luck—maybe 95% luck.” [January 6, 2005 Wall Street Journal article titled “Bill Miller Dishes on his Streak and his Strategy”.]

Footnotes

External references

* [http://www.lmcm.com/ Legg Mason Capital Management]
* [http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/24/funds/miller/ CNNMoney - Will the market kill Bill?]
* [http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/03/fund_managers/source/15.htm Best Fund Managers 2006 - Bill Miller] , BusinessWeek.com.
* Lowe, Janet. 2002. "The Man Who Beats the S&P: Investing with Bill Miller". Wiley. ISBN 0-471-05490-9.