Advertise on podcast: Behind the Balance Sheet

Tobias Carlisle is one of the best-known advocatesof deep value investing, author of several investing books and host of a great investing podcast which he produces live on YouTube. We talk about how he got into investing, having been a lawyer, why people worry too much about value traps but not enough about quality traps and how the podcast has influenced his thinking. We discuss his latest book, which includes an examination of what he regards as Buffett’s three best deals and why he has moved from the extreme “junk” end of deep value. He remains valuation-driven but is now more willing to own quality when he can obtain it at the right price. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! AlphaSense, the AI-powered expert network platform  Baseline, qualitative research on 3600 companies.

David Gardner is the co-founder of The Motley Fool and author of Rule Breaker Investing. He has built an amazing investing record by questioning conventional wisdom and applying his own logic to research. He operates on a principle similar to the VC community where he looks for innovative leaders, buys the stocks when people think they are expensive and after they have gone up. This reverse logic approach has generated huge returns for him and his readers thanks to two 1000-baggers in Nvidia and Amazon and many other 100+ baggers. He delivered over twice the S&P500 for almost 20 years. His strategy may not convince many listeners to abandon a value-oriented approach, but this conversation is guaranteed to make you question the received investment wisdom. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! ⁠AlphaSense⁠, the AI-powered expert network platform  Baseline, qualitative research on 3600 companies.

Alex Roepers is a concentrated deep value investor who takes a behind the scenes activist approach. Here he explains the strategy which he has exploited over the past near-35 years to outperform the S&P by delivering a 12.3% pa or a 48x return net of fees. We discuss his journey from the corporate to the investing world and his playbook for constructive activism, including how he interacts with management teams. Alex explains how he evaluates management quality, capital allocation and operational improvement opportunities. This is a masterclass in improving returns by persuading management to do the right thing for shareholders. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! ⁠AlphaSense⁠, the AI-powered expert network platform

Rich Pzena, founder of $80bn AUM Pzena Investment Management, explains his value investing philosophy and how he built a deep value franchise by buying good businesses when they are deeply out of favour. He talks through recreating Benjamin Graham’s net net research at Wharton, leaving a secure role at Bernstein to start his own firm, surviving ten quarters of brutal underperformance in the dot com bubble and how he nearly sold out but was persuaded to continue by Joel Greenblatt. Rich explains his clear framework for what makes a good business, how to judge if problems are temporary, and why most investors systematically misprice uncertainty and cyclicality. He thinks deep value investing is just common sense. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! ⁠AlphaSense⁠, the AI-powered expert network platform  Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! ⁠AlphaSense⁠, the AI-powered expert network platform

James Aitken, macro strategist to the world’s largest and most successful investors, takes Steve on a tour of the key themes in global finance today. You will learn why James is interested in Japan, his views on the new Fed Chair and why inflationary pressures are here to stay as post Covid, we focus on resilience rather than efficiency. James also shares his thoughts on gold, on AI, and importantly on a changing supply-demand balance in US equities. Finally he shares his perspective on what differentiates his clients who include some of the largest and some of the best performing investors in the world, so listen carefully to that and what he predicts we will be talking about in 3 years’ time. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! AlphaSense, the AI-powered expert network platform

Jeremy Grantham is known as a permabear and an expert on bubbles so you should not be surprised that he sees an AI-induced bubble today and thinks the market will fall by 50%. He points out that at peaks you always have high multiples applied to abnormally high profit margins and today is no different. We discuss his experiences at GMO, where they didn’t have a sales person for their first 22 years, how his refusal to participate in the dot.com bubble cost him half his clients and none of them came back when he was proved right, how he recruited some of the best minds in finance, and why timing the market can deliver outsize returns. Grantham is no longer managing portfolios, instead devoting his considerable energies to philanthropy. We discuss his foundation’s efforts to combat climate change, to resource depletion, and to toxicity which is affecting fertility – he highlights how population will be in decline unless this is addressed. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build convictionand manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! AlphaSense, the AI-powered expert network platform  Behind the Balance Sheet is aforensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors.Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build convictionand manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks foranalysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk,behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copystock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investingdiscussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5*rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! AlphaSense, the AI-powered expertnetwork platform

Michael Cembalest chairs the Market and Investment Strategy group at JP Morgan Asset and Wealth Management and effectively oversees $4tn AUM. He is responsible for market and investment insights across the asset management business and has produced the famous Eye on the Market publication for over 20 years now. We discuss AI, which formed the bulk of his most recent annual edition, why he believes Open AI is a weak link and why he thinks the Treasury market will have a crash, but not yet. Cembalest is known for his charts and he picks both his favourite and his least favourite charts. Michael is one of the most in-depth macro analysts I have met and it’s his depth as well as his breadth of knowledge which is truly impressive. We recorded in JP Morgan’s amazing new office in New York, check out the photos in the show notes. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! AlphaSense, the AI-powered expert networkplatform

Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of advertising giant Ogilvy UK, a behavioural scientist, TED speaker, organiser of the Nudgestock conference and so much more. Most important, he is one of the most original thinkers around. In this wide ranging conversation, he explains what accountants and analysts miss, why he believes family-owned businesses are long term winners, two reasons to own Costco, his views on luxury brands, why he thinks electric cars could reshape industries, what short selling has in common with behavioural science and much, much more. Rory is not an investor but there are some tremendous insights here for investors to take away. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips. For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! AlphaSense, the AI-powered expert networkplatform

The title “The Sculptor” is a play on a quote “every man can be the sculptor of his own mind”, as Jonathan Tepper is uniquely self-educated. Brought up in the slums of San Blas in Madrid, partly home-schooled, he made it to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. Tepper is a relentless learner, endlessly curious and in love with investing – as he sees it, you never stop learning and every day is an opportunity to learn. In this episode we discuss his childhood, as recounted in his new book Shooting Up; how curiosity and a desire to learn can transform your opportunity set; and we trace his investment journey, from a start as a junior analyst at Steve Cohen’s firm, through building a highly successful sellside research company to setting up his investment firm Prevatt Capital. He explains why he holds just 16 idiosyncratic stocks and what he looks for in a successful investment. Tepper has had a fascinating journey and has achieved more in just over 40 years than many do in a life of investing – his is a wonderful story. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word. Give our sponsors some love - check them out! AlphaSense, the AI-powered expert networkplatform

Terry Smith is the fund manager the professionals love tohate. A billionaire, he is in the third and most successful phase of a varied career. He trounced the index for years with a simple mantra of buy good companies, don’t overpay, do nothing. He thus built one of the largest funds inthe UK, made himself a fortune and moved to Mauritius. None of this made him popular with his peers and after 5 years of underperforming the S&P500 (his global fund has been mainly invested in the US) and underperforming the world index in 2025, there is quite a bit of schadenfreude around. Smith used to box for fun and you wouldn’t want to be on thewrong side of him, but in this interview, he reveals a side less often seen. He confesses to being unable to sleep at night, worrying about stocks and expresses an extreme desire to do the best for his clients. Smith has been incredibly successful as an analyst, as a public company CEO and now as a fundmanager. He attributes it to hard work and a strong desire to succeed, driven by his background – Smith comes from a poor family and grew up in a house with an outside toilet. He is frustrated with his recent performance but is resolutethat he has the right approach and will prevail eventually. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word.

James Anderson, former Senior Partner of Baillie Gifford and early backer of Elon Musk, now runs the Lingotto Innovation Strategy with Morgan Samet. I interviewed them in front of a live audience at Italian Tech Week, hence this shorter than usual episode. We discussed AI of course, China’s role in a portfolio as a leader in many areas of tech but with associated geopolitical risk, the future of autonomous driving, what it means to be a long term investor in innovation, investing in everything from start-ups to Nvidia and in between including Space X, flying cars and much more. I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you will too – let us know if the shorter format is a better option for busy commuters. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word.

Tom Gayner is the CEO of Markel Group and has run its investment portfolio for 35 years, beating the index by an astonishing 1.5% pa. This makes him one of the most successful capital allocators in the US stockmarket, yet he is under the radar. He explains why he holds 140 stocks, although the top 40 represent 80% of the value; why there are so few imitators of the insurance/equity and business investment strategy so successfully deployed by Berkshire and Markel; the simple way to analyse an insurance business; what he has learned from being on the boards of Graham Holdings with Warren Buffett and on the Coca Cola Company; and one secret of Warren Buffett’s success which you likely will not have heard before. Tom Gayner is anything but a plodder, but his thoughtful, modest and cautious approach to investing and life makes him a fantastic role model. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word.

Tim Guinness is the founder and Chairman of Guinness Global Investors. He has been in business 5 decades and has been managing money for 44 years. He has built up two firms, the first he sold and the second now runs $11bn. Age 77, he is still thinking about how to grow the business and secure its future. Perhaps controversially, Tim thinks it’s not difficult for activemanagers to beat the index, even today. This was a fascinating discussion with an incredibly experienced and normally under the radar fund manager who is unafraid to challenge consensus thinking.   Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word.

Nick Train is a seriously thoughtful growth investor with a highly impressive 40 year track record. He invests in eternal franchises and takes a 20 year view. He says his ideal holding period is forever. He was early to recognise that high quality consumer brands were great investments and accordingly his funds significantly outperformed their benchmarks. More recently, the last five years have been less kind and performance has lagged somewhat with weak performance from some of his biggest holdings, notably Diageo, which is down almost 50% from its peak, in a market which has gone up. Nick has taken this performance to heart and he explains why he has stuck with Diageo and continues to believe it’s as “forever” stock. He also explains his change in strategy to favouring 21st century asset light digital data plays which he sees as even more valuable than his old favourite consumer brands. He is particularly impressed with Rightmove, which I have described in the past as akin to a UK Zillow, and explains his rationale, as well as his enthusiasm for LSEG, RELX and Unilever. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word.

Christopher Tsai is a deeply thoughtful growth investor. He became one of the foremost collectors of the works of Ai Weiwei, recognising their implicit value and deeply studying the artist. His concentrated portfolio reflects his attraction to growth stocks with Tesla his largest position. In our conversation, he explains why he believes Tesla has deep moats across multiple verticals; why he thinks many of the growth stocks in his portfolio have optically inflated valuations as they invest now to create future value; why the second largest position in his portfolio is QXO, with his father, also a famous investor, being one of Brad Jacobs’ original backers; and what he looks for in managers. I am trying to meet more growth investors to understand their strategy better. Christopher’s portfolio is too racy for me, at over a 60x P/E multiple on my estimates when we recorded and probably higher today, but he makes an interesting case for holding long-term compounders. Behind the Balance Sheet is a forensic accounting and fundamental investing podcast for serious investors. Each episode dives into how real‑world investors source ideas, build conviction and manage their portfolios. You’ll hear frameworks for analysing industries, understanding business models, and thinking about risk, behaviour and incentives, so you can refine your own process rather than copy stock tips.For show notes, transcripts and additional resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. If you value thoughtful, process-driven investing discussions, follow the show and consider leaving a short review, or just a 5* rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Please help spread the word.