Gavin Baker – Truth-Seeking and Crossover Investing at Atreides (EP.489)
Episode publishedPodcast: Capital Allocators – Inside th...Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry
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A lot of being successful as an investor is finding an investment's philosophy that fits your own emotional makeup such that you can be rational when you are wrong. I'm wrong a lot. This is a humbling business. When I am wrong and it's because of something I hadn't considered or a risk I was unaware of, that made it hard for me to be rational. But when the stock went down and it was a risk I had considered, stocks always go down more than you expect, it was much easier for me to be rational and make high quality decisions when I'm wrong, which I think is a lot of what being an investor comes d
I'm Ted Seides, and this is Capital Allocators. My guest on today's show is Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Atrades Management, which oversees $7,000,000,000 across public, private, and crossover strategies focused on technology and the consumer. Gavin's deep knowledge of semiconductors and AI may be second to none, but our conversation barely touches that space. We begin with Gavin's upbringing, intellectual curiosity, and path into investing before turning to the beliefs that shape his approach. We explore his view that investing is a search for truth best pursu
I was hanging out with my friend, and his dad was super mad at us for being so loud. He told us we should quiet down and learn something. He then asked me, do you listen to any podcasts? And I said no, but I probably should given who my dad is. He then goes, here's one. The guy asked a lot of really cool important questions. The podcast he was holding on his phone, none other than Capital Allocators. I sighed in annoyance because this has happened before, and I asked for his phone and started playing the Ben Hunt episode from June 2024. If you don't remember, that's the last time I did the spr
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Yeah. I'm likewise excited, Ted.
I'm dying to know what were you like as a kid?
I was very competitive, but I was terrible at sports. Picked last for every team always. I was very into Dungeons and Dragons. Like, I remember a signature honor was being appointed the dungeon master by the outgoing dungeon master. He was going to his freshman year of high school, and I was in fifth grade. I was just so proud to be the youngest dungeon master. I was always into history, the news, current events. I loved military history. Loved playing chess. Loved playing this game, Stratego. I remember how bad I felt the first time I beat my dad at both Stratego and chess. I wasn't particula
The unlimited book budget. Curious how you learned to learn.
Strangely enough, I got very into military technology. Those those black composer books, they're this big, they're black and white, and they have papers. And I probably filled 50 of those. I was into the thrust to weight ratio of various planes, and I redesigned the f 15 with a canard, a different radar, and then these Rolls Royce engines instead of Pratt and Whitney. Strange I didn't end up becoming an engineer given all of that. I read a tremendous amount
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