Leon in Winter

Leon Cooperman, one of the few living legends of the investment business, has recently announced his retirement from running client money. He will transition his Omega Advisors into a family office that will run his own money by the end of the year.

Lee waited until hitting his high watermark before returning client capital and is closing up at a high point, rather than after a prolonged drawdown. He’s one of the classiest, most altruistic people in the industry and his exit from the OPM business is just the latest example of this.

I really enjoyed listening to his second interview with my partner Barry for the Masters In Business radio show on Bloomberg. You can hear the whole thing embedded below. There’s so much good stuff in here it would be silly to even try to summarize it. My big takeaways:

1. The guy spent a lifetime doing what he loved, even if he didn’t love every moment of it
2. He teaches the importance of being nice. This is overlooked in our “eat what you kill” industry
3. The stuff about how individuals are loyal but institutions (groups of individuals) aren’t was killer
4. Also loved the stuff about changing his strategy to emphasize “after tax returns” – Lee is going to be lengthening his holding periods now that he’s “gotten the S&P 500 off his back”

Anyway, this is as good as it gets, a smart guy who has spent five decades on The Street and has made people lots of money. Please listen and let me know your reaction here.