MEBISODE: Even Berkshire Underperformed

The Meb Faber Show - Better Investing

The Idea Farm

Management, Business, Investing

4.8 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, Meb reads a recent email sent to Cambria subscribers examining how to evaluate a strategy hitting a rough patch, using the Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF (SYLD) as a case study. Learn more: Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF (SYLD) https://cambriafunds.com/syld SYLD Fact Sheet https://cambriafunds.com/assets/docs/SYLD-FactSheet.pdf SYLD Investment Case https://cambriafunds.com/assets/docs/SYLD_Investment_Case.pdf Contact us at info@cambriainvestments.com, 310-683-5500 TO DETERMINE IF THE FUND IS AN APPROPRIATE INVESTMENT FOR YOU, CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE FUND’S INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES, RISK FACTORS, CHARGES AND EXPENSES BEFORE INVESTING. THIS AND OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND IN THE FUND’S PROSPECTUS WHICH MAY BE OBTAINED BY CALLING 855-383-4636 (ETF INFO) OR VISITING OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.CAMBRIAFUNDS.COM. READ THE PROSPECTUS CAREFULLY BEFORE INVESTING OR SENDING MONEY. THE CAMBRIA ETFS ARE DISTRIBUTED BY ALPS DISTRIBUTORS INC., 1290 BROADWAY, SUITE 1000, DENVER, CO 80203, WHICH IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH CAMBRIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, LP, THE INVESTMENT ADVISER FOR THE FUND. INVESTING INVOLVES RISK, INCLUDING POTENTIAL LOSS OF CAPITAL. SYLD: There is no guarantee that a Fund will achieve its investment goal. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. High yielding stocks are often speculative, high-risk investments. The underlying holdings of the Funds may be leveraged, which will expose the holding to higher volatility and may accelerate the impact of any losses. These companies can be paying out more than they can support and may reduce their dividends or stop paying dividends at any time, which could have a material adverse effect on the stock price of these companies and the Fund’s performance. International investing may involve risk of capital loss from unfavorable fluctuations in currency values, from differences in generally accepted accounting principles, or from economic or political instability in other nations. Emerging markets involve heightened risks related to the same factors as well as increased volatility and lower trading volume. Investments in smaller companies typically exhibit higher volatility. Narrowly focused funds typically exhibit higher volatility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Medfavor Show, where the focus is on helping you grow and preserve your wealth.
0:09.1	Join us as we discuss the craft of investing and uncover new and profitable ideas, all to help you grow wealthier and wiser.
0:15.2	Better investing starts here.
0:18.0	Metfavor is the co-founder and chief investment officer at Cambria Investment Management.
0:21.3	For more information, visit cambriainvestments.com.
0:26.6	What's up, everybody? It's time for another mebisode. Let's not waste any time and jump right in.
0:32.0	Beyond the usual market volatility and geopolitical noise, 2025 marked a historic milestone, the retirement of Warren
0:40.9	Buffett, arguably the greatest investor of all time. Imagine if you had invested in Berkshire
0:47.1	Hathaway stock back when Warren took over, $10,000 invested in 1965 would have grown to over $600 million through year-end 2025.
1:00.0	Amazing.
1:01.3	Our favorite statistic, courtesy of Chris Blumstrand, another podcast alum, is that Berkshire
1:07.3	Hathaway stock could decline by 99% and still outperformed the S&P 500 since inception. Now, many of us were not alive back in 1965, and even if we were, we may not have had the confidence in a young Warren. However, most people understood that Buffett was an amazing investor after 10 or 20 years of stellar
1:29.8	returns.
1:30.8	Unfortunately, after watching Buffett post two decades of those killer returns, those same
1:36.3	spectators may have been fearful that they may have missed the boat.
1:40.2	Maybe they were too late.
1:41.6	Many investors wait and wait and wait for that magical pullback
1:45.4	and performance that often never occurs. Or maybe when you do get that pullback and the star
1:50.3	managers hit that rough patch. Investors often hit the pause button on their buy orders, or worse,
1:56.0	run for the exits instead of backing up the truck to invest. Think back 25 years ago to the turn of the
2:01.9	millennia. 1999. Berkshire stock had been stomping the U.S. market as usual, but along came
2:08.3	the dot-com stocks. Berkshire underperformed the S&P 500 by 40 percentage points in 1999.
	...

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