Desperate analysts languishing on the bottom rung of finance’s long career ladder aren’t the only ones committing suicide anymore.
Charles de Vaulx, a renowned value investor and co-founder of International Value Advisors, “died suddenly Monday afternoon, leaving the asset management industry in shock. It was an apparent suicide, according to the New York Police Department, who confirmed to the press that de Vaulx jumped from the 10th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper to his death. The apparent suicide comes just days after he finished winding down his investment firm.
As Barrons adds, “de Vaulx, 59, had built a long career as a risk-aware global investor who never deviated from his deep-value approach, even when it meant keeping as much as 40% of his funds in cash because he couldn’t find attractive investments during a 13-year stretch in which the markets favored faster-growing companies. De Vaulx’s conviction set him apart in the industry, even among other battle-tested contrarians.” He was also a father of two.
For de Vaulx and thousands of other dedicated value investors, the last decade or so, where the Federal Reserve has perverted the price discovery process by flooding the financial system with liquidity, has been led to an extended drought for their businesses. Though value enjoyed a brief resurgence earlier this year, momentum growth funds and cryptocurrencies have produced world-beating returns while dividend-producing value stocks have seen valuations stagnate at levels well below their momentum rivals as investors place a premium on projections in a low-yield universe.
And while even value-investing titan Warren Buffet has been forced to adapt by embracing Apple and other tech stocks, de Vaulx – a disciple of legendary French value manager Jean-Marie Eveillard at SocGen and then First Eagle, before he went on to launch IVA in 2008 – was a value purist until the literal end. He served as chairman and CIO of IVA until it closed up shop earlier this month.- READ MORE
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