Ep. 35: Gautam Baid – Compounding Knowledge, Investments and Passion


We all want compounding knowledge, investments and passion in our lives. Our guest this week, Gautam Baid, shows us how to do that.

Gautam Baid, CFA, is portfolio manager at an SEC-registered investment advisor based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Previously, he served at the Mumbai, London and Hong Kong offices of Citigroup. He also worked at Deutsche Bank as senior analyst in their healthcare investment banking teams. Gautam Baid is a CFA charterholder and member of CFA Institute. He was profiled in Morningstar’s Learn From The Masters series in 2018-2019. 

During our chat we discuss passion, flexible thinking and why P/E ratios aren’t everything.

Time-stamp:

  • [1:02] Intro Questions
  • [7:30] Gautam’s First Role as Portfolio Manager
  • [8:45] Resilience & Persistence as a Superpower
  • [14:01] Writing The Joys of Compounding
  • [20:48] The Feynman Technique of Learning
  • [22:45] Using The Feynman Technique for New Stocks
  • [31:25] P/E Anchoring Bias
  • [39:05] The Erosion of Brand-Name Stocks
  • [46:10] Why You Should Journal
  • [51:05] Investor Biases & How To Tell if You’re Wrong
  • [61:21] Insatiable Curiosity
  • [64:57] Closing Questions

I loved this conversation. It went outside investing and focused on an individual’s pursuit of personal excellence. This idea of compounding knowledge and passion applies to every area of our lives. 

Gautam lived his own Pursuit of Happiness movie during the early stages of his career. Baid showed that with passion, anything is possible. I know, it sounds cliche. But it’s true! It’s amazing what can happen when you commit to something. Whether that something is trading, marriage or a fitness routine.

Reflection

Here’s some personal questions I’m asking myself after chatting with Gautam:

  • What would it look like if I fully committed to my passions?
  • What/Who is stopping me from achieving success?
  • Do I fully understand the power of compounding outside the investment community?

Thanks again for listening. Let me know what guest I should have on the show next!

Learn More About Gautam Baid

Want to learn more about Gautam? Check out these resources:

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Brandon Beylo

Value Investor

Brandon has been a professional investor focusing on value for over 13 years, spending his time in small to micro-cap companies, spin-offs, SPACs, and deep value liquidation situations. Over time, he’s developed a deeper understanding for what deep-value investing actually means, and refined his philosophy to include any business trading at a wild discount to what he thinks its worth in 3-5 years.

Brandon has a tenacious passion for investing, broad-based learning, and business. He previously worked for several leading investment firms before joining the team at Macro Ops. He lives by the famous Munger mantra of trying to get a little smarter each day.

AK

Investing & Personal Finance

AK is the founder of Macro Ops and the host of Fallible.

He started out in corporate economics for a Fortune 50 company before moving to a long/short equity investment firm.

With Macro Ops focused primarily on institutional clients, AK moved to servicing new investors just starting their journey. He takes the professional research and education produced at Macro Ops and breaks it down for beginners. The goal is to help clients find the best solution for their investing needs through effective education.

Tyler Kling

Volatility & Options Trader

Former trade desk manager at $100+ million family office where he oversaw multiple traders and helped develop cutting edge quantitative strategies in the derivatives market.

He worked as a consultant to the family office’s in-house fund of funds in the areas of portfolio manager evaluation and capital allocation.

Certified in Quantitative Finance from the Fitch Learning Center in London, England where he studied under famous quants such as Paul Wilmott.

Alex Barrow

Macro Trader

Founder and head macro trader at Macro Ops. Alex joined the US Marine Corps on his 18th birthday just one month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He subsequently spent a decade in the military. Serving in various capacities from scout sniper to interrogator and counterintelligence specialist. Following his military service, he worked as a contract intelligence professional for a number of US agencies (from the DIA to FBI) with a focus on counterintelligence and terrorist financing. He also spent time consulting for a tech company that specialized in building analytic software for finance and intelligence analysis.

After leaving the field of intelligence he went to work at a global macro hedge fund. He’s been professionally involved in markets since 2005, has consulted with a number of the leading names in the hedge fund space, and now manages his own family office while running Macro Ops. He’s published over 300 white papers on complex financial and macroeconomic topics, writes regularly about investment/market trends, and frequently speaks at conferences on trading and investing.

Macro Ops is a market research firm geared toward professional and experienced retail traders and investors. Macro Ops’ research has been featured in Forbes, Marketwatch, Business Insider, and Real Vision as well as a number of other leading publications.

You can find out more about Alex on his LinkedIn account here and also find him on Twitter where he frequently shares his market research.