Old West Investment Management’s Q1 2019 Investor Letter

Old West Investment Management is a Los Angeles, California-based investment manager, that was launched in 2008. It offers its professional investment assistance to both pooled investment vehicles and individuals, as well as institutions, corporations, charitable organizations, etc. The fund utilizes four main core investment strategies – long/short absolute return; large cap, long-only; income, and small/mid cap, long only. Recently, the fund has released its Q1 2019 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download below.

Dear Investor,

Now that the stock market bull run has celebrated its ten-year anniversary, I must admit I often wonder how and when it will end. We got a glimpse of how it would feel when the market fell just shy of 20% in December. I wasn’t terribly surprised by the December swoon, as I have been concerned about many red lights flashing over the past couple of years. What has surprised me though, is the strength of the snapback rally in this first quarter of 2019. Not only has the market recovered, but there is a bit of euphoria not seen since previous market tops. On the last day of March, ridesharing company Lyft went public. Lyft’s $911 million loss last year is more than that of any U.S. startup that has ever gone public. Lyft shares were up 8.7% on their first day of trading to much fanfare. Soon to go public is WeWork Inc, America’s new-age office leasing company. WeWork’s 2018 net loss of $1.93 billion (double the previous year) exceeded their revenue of $1.82 billion. Read this again to be sure you got it right. By contrast, Facebook, Google and Apple were all profitable years before they went public. I smell a whiff of market euphoria. As you can see in your enclosed statement, we had a strong first quarter and April is off to a great start for us.

You can download a copy of Old West Investment Management’s Q1 2019 Investor Letter here:

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You can also see the list of our 2019 Q1 investor letters and download them on this page.