The 100 Year Thinkers: Long-Term Compounding in a Short-Term World The Wall Street Labels That Trap You: Chris Mayer & Robert Hagstrom on How Language Misleads Markets
Dec 15, 2025
Robert Hagstrom, an investment author and CIO known for insights on Warren Buffett, and Chris Mayer, a long-term compounding advocate, delve into the philosophy of investing. They challenge Wall Street's reliance on labels like P/E ratios, arguing they mislead investors. The duo discusses how language shapes investing decisions and the importance of a longer time horizon. They also explore the market as a complex adaptive system, cautioning against myopic loss aversion and the pitfalls of frequent evaluations. A thought-provoking conversation for savvy investors!
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Value Is Price Versus Worth
- Value investing is simply buying something for less than it's worth, not a set of PE or PB ratios.
- Growth can be a component of value depending on the business's expected future worth.
Labels Hide Reality
- Abstractions like “Wall Street,” “value,” or ratings hide underlying realities and mislead decisions.
- General semantics urges bringing labels to ground level and asking what the words actually refer to.
Question Absolutes And Single Causes
- Avoid accepting either-or framing and absolute words like never or always; treat them as red flags.
- Question simple cause-effect claims and look for multiple contributing factors before acting.
