(Disclaimer: This recording is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. He runs Fidelity's Contrafund. Individuals should seriously consider if an investment is suitable for them by referencing their own financial position, investment objectives and risk profile before making any investment decision.). And that certainly has been a modest change in the life of a mutual fund manager and a change in the mutual fund industry in the last decade or so. If you think ABC Company is the best in your group, I'm willing to accept that. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. And that can be subtle, and experience helps there. And it was again, it was a Friday afternoon, maybe in the summer, and there weren't that many people there. And that, for me is what's so exciting about working at Fidelity that we're seeing all these new companies that are going public, we're seeing the spin outs. And I think 150,000 people went to the conference over a week in San Francisco, and I was just blown away by the enthusiasm of the employees and the customers, and that can be priceless in terms of your appreciation of the strength of a franchise. TOP 2.5%. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Will Danoff, who is the Contrafund portfolio manager at Fidelity. Investments in foreign securities involve greater risk than U.S. investments. And so that's sort of what I do well, I think, is to try to ask for a call with the management team. He's a graduate of Harvard University and earned his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Start your review of Dudley S Danoff, MD. Ptak: So, why don't we get things started. Growth of $10,000 invested in Contrafund versus S&P 500 Index, September 17, 1990 to December 31, 2022. Will Danoff32 years 9/17/1990-12/31/2022 On average, the Fidelity Contrafund has beaten the S&P 500 Index by 2.31% per year. [1] At US $129 billion, Contrafund is the largest actively managed stock or bond mutual fund run by one person. Privacy Policy and Stock values fluctuate in response to the activities of individual companies, and general market and economic conditions. And also, I think at Fidelity, we got a great team. Dr. Danoff has extensive experience in Urinary Conditions and Urinary Calculi & Removal. So, I remember the early days of companies like Costco, and management has experimented with new ideas, but generally speaking, they're close to their customers, they had a great value proposition. Adam Danoff net worth is $900,000. And hopefully small mid-cap companies can grow into bigger companies. I have never gone to management and said, I don't think I can beat the S&P 500. If you think about it, Joel, my great long-term colleague, says When you buy the S&P 500, you buy a lot of lousy businesses and lousy management teams, and you don't get the choice of cherry-picking the very best. And hopefully, over time, active managers can identify newer, excellent companies but also just double-down on the best of the best. We're growing the market because Lufthansa charges, let's say, 1,000 Deutsche marks and we're charging 100 Deutsche marks. William Danoff: Thanks, Jeff. Go to YouTube and hear the story. [1] At US $129 billion, Contrafund is the largest actively managed stock or bond mutual fund run by one person. Consistently outperforming the market is very hard. And I've added value relative to the index. All investments are subject to investment risk, including possible loss of principal. He has crossed all the competition over 30 years. And sometimes it's just a matter of, Hey, you know, you haven't been to Boston in a couple of years. Discover William Danoff's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. I think one of the huge competitive advantages Fidelity has is our access to managements and access at important inflection points. But everybody worries about everything. I mean Fidelity is an unbelievable organization. We're thrilled to have him as our guest. Discover Owen Danoff's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. So, anyway, I would say again, for me, it's sort of like the chef tasting the soup, Jeff. Mitchell Danoff is 71 years old and was born on 07/24/1951. And then there is the incomparable Will Danoff, manager of Fidelity Contrafund (symbol FCNTX ), a member of the Kiplinger 25. Jeff Ptak: Hi, and welcome to The Long View. Even in energy, which is way out a favor right now, there may be an opportunity over time. Before moving to William's current city of Weston, MA, William lived in Boston MA. William Danoff is currently vice president at Fidelity Investments. You know, if you think about it, Jeff, the larger companies in the S&P now are $1 trillion market caps. During his nearly three-decade tenure at Contrafund, Will has trounced the market indexes and, even more remarkably, managed to maintain the fund's performance at scale. And they have basically gone from a startup airline in Europe to I think--they're like 25% of all passengers now flying in Europe fly on Ryanair, and they've done a great, great job. In the biotech area--I took biology 40 years ago--so, I am way out of date. It's like, oh my gosh, you know, XYZ is going to hurt this company. [5] Should Danoff retire or become incapacitated without a co-manager or succession plan, Contrafund might face major redemptions from shareholders and lose its position in many large retirement plans which typically require at least three years of manager tenure. Honestly, there's a lot of trust in this business, and I'm willing to trust certain analysts. 5847 Education: BA Hunter College, City University of New York, 1976. William Danoff, who has led a long and successful career in finance, is a vice president and fund manager with Fidelity Investments. Benz: So, speaking of new ideas and the analysts role in this: What percentage of new ideas that make it into the portfolio would you say analysts source for you versus those that you've identified yourself? Over that time, the fund has returned 13.7% a year, on average, beating the Technology has become a bigger and bigger part of everybody's life. Learn about Fidelity's active equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He has been married to Joan Grbach since 1988. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. And I was lucky enough to start at Fidelity and work with Peter Lynch and some of the other great fund managers here, Bruce Johnstone and George Vanderheiden. Morningstar Research Services shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages or other losses resulting from or related to the information, data analysis or opinions or their use. William Danoff was born on 1960. Class: Magnoliopsida. So, in terms of portfolio construction, in the last 30 years, I've taken bigger bets. So, Fidelity can monitor virtually every public company in the U.S. We can monitor every industry in the world. Danoff received 46,154 Alibaba shares that cost $3,432, or 7 cents apiece, according to an annual report filed by his family's private charitable foundation. I respect you. There could be big economic opportunity if these biotech companies can solve some of these disease opportunities. And often, it's really just, Is this company going to be bigger and better and stronger five years from now than it is today? Under his direction, the fund has averaged a whopping 14.13% return (about 2% greater than the benchmark S&P 500 index). Develop and improve features of our offerings. We've been very lucky that in the last 10 years, these mega-cap companies have been able to continue to grow. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. I'd say part of the wisdom of experience is to know where your circle of competence begins and ends. But partly, it's just this opportunity. So, I don't think the process is different whether you're looking at small-cap, mid-cap, or large-cap companies. Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Why is that one trading at such a discount to the group? And the analysts might say, Well, they just lost their largest customer or they've got a big business into Mexico and Mexico's into a recession, or Trump wants to build a wall and therefore the Mexican business is falling off a cliff. And I usually say, That's not the type of company I'm interested in. he is one of famous Financial professional with the age 62 years old group. Dudley S. Danoff, MD, FACS, is the attending urologic surgeon and founder/president of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Tower Urology Group in Los Angeles, California. This year, he marks three decades of managing the $131 billion I do have a long tail of the bench that hopefully are the junior varsity where, as I said earlier, I think I have a good idea but I need to monitor it more closely. The manager of a $132 billion mutual fund made two of his best investments because he met with the bosses of a now-defunct search engine, and received a surprise pitch from Elon Musk. The doctor practices in an office or specialty that we currently do not survey. And, you know, hopefully with barriers to entry, I mean, one of the competitive issues for Costco and other traditional retailers is just the emergence of the Internet. I do feel, honestly, Christine and Jeff, that a large fund can only do so well and that smaller funds may do better than I do. Maybe that's a good place for us to start. Insights from Fidelity's portfolio managers Maybe another competitor is doing a better job. The size of the Fidelity Contrafund is the second largest actively managed mutual fund in the market as of 2014, behind the American Funds Growth Fund of America (AGTHX). Ptak: And so does that tend to be a function of kind of how you would assess opportunity costs associated with entering into a new idea? No patient rating & comments. This would be through my 401k, so all tax deferred. But when it comes to some of the tech and the biotech, I'm treading more lightly. And I'm seeing 25 or more companies a week. And that often is hard for managements that have done so well. And if you haven't seen it, it's a very good letter. But can you provide any more color on why you continue to be so involved in those meetings? Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 60 years old? A native of Long Island, Dr. Danoff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Sciences with a degree in biomedical engineering. They hand off responsibility for security research and talking to management. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC, 900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917, (Separate multiple email addresses with commas). Will Danoff, manager of the $230 billion Fidelity Contrafund, told Bloomberg that there's a "demographic issue" for mutual funds: Gen Z is not . Kalra currently manages Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund. Benz: We were hoping you could touch briefly on the role of private firms in the portfolio, perhaps talk about what percentage of time you spend researching private firms--you reference them earlier in the conversation, that theyre maybe a bigger part of your thought process than they were years ago. We're thrilled to have him as our guest. But I think a lot of companies stay private longer because they were able to receive higher and higher valuations without having to go public. Los Angeles 8635 W 3rd St Los Angeles, CA. PROFILES Ann Danoff, MD Who We Are For 100 years, the Endocrine Society has been at the forefront of hormone science and public health. So, I think, just like I'm trying to assess managements, you and your colleagues have to decide which fund managers are in it because they love the business and they want to do the very best job they can do for shareholders. Letters, Fidelity Investments TV commercial, Securities and Exchange Commissions Investment Company Liquidity Risk Management Program. How did the initiative in India go? This fund combines Will's focus on growth and investing in "best-of-breed" firms with Joel's focus on value, spec . Danoff: Yeah, Jeff and Christine. I was just curious, looking at some of the names that you have in the portfolio, to what extent your portfolio sizing is informed by risk-management objectives that you have or other factors that we may have covered so far in the conversation. [2] Early life and education [ edit] The managers are less experienced, but everyone has to hustle. During his nearly three-decade tenure at Contrafund, Will has trounced the market indexes and, even more remarkably, managed to maintain the fund's performance at scale. These products and services are usually sold through license agreements or subscriptions. (2008) and Bloodrunners (2017). But privates are, again--if you pick the right entrepreneur and you pick the right opportunity, and you have the expertise-- But they tend to be more time intensive, the companies tend to be less mature, management teams tend to be a little less mature. And then two weeks later a packet would arrive. He and Nivert, who would later become his wife, joined forces in a duo that was called Fat City. What are you doing to defend your competitive position? And then also, What are you doing, about certain mega trends that we all are living with, the emergence of the Internet, more competition from low-cost countries and other big trends that we see over and over?. Mitchell C. Indio, CA. And as investors, we all need to play to our strengths and be who we are. I'm aware of my positions. You've always been different in your approach. Born on May 7, 1946 in United States of America, Bill Danoff started his career as Singer . In 2015, Danoff's 25-year solo management became an issue of concern as Fidelity had not named a co-manager for Contrafund. We sell different types of products and services to both investment professionals and individual investors. And the last 10 years with interest rates falling so much and the havoc wreaked by the global financial crisis has been more difficult, but I think I'm 100 basis points or 150 over for the last 10 years. Will runs a number of Fidelity equity strategies, best known of which is Fidelity Contrafund, a mutual fund he has been managing since September 1990. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. What are we thinking about management? Thanks so much. Sep.18 -- Will Danoff, Fidelity Contrafund Manager spoke Exclusively with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker about investing in post-pandemic and how he's managed to. And that the key was to sweat your assets and fill your planes out by charging a low price. Will runs a number of Fidelity equity strategies, best known of which is Fidelity Contrafund, a mutual fund he has been managing since September 1990. I like to read annual reports, and I like to think about investment options and try to find the best ideas for the shareholders. And, again, paying attention and monitoring out-of-favor groups and trying to identify I can remember when everyone hated the airline industry. I'm tasting the soup in the kitchen every day and tweaking it, but generally, I like the taste and I'm aware of the taste profile that I have. S Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates added value to. Value relative to the activities of individual companies, and experience helps there it comes to some of disease. Helps there bond mutual fund run by one person Fidelity Contrafund ( symbol )... 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