For Canadian investors, Will and Joel co-manage Fidelity Global Growth and Value Class. And that often is hard for managements that have done so well. And maybe you have a king showing, and the other players have low card, so you can bet. So we can learn, but the monitoring of these companies takes a lot of time, but it can be very, very instructive as to the quality of the company that you're invested in or considering investing. And also Im at an age I know who I am, and I know when I'm on thin ice and doing something that I'm not great at. To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research. He served as portfolio assistant for the Magellan Fund. Learn about Fidelity's active equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). How did the initiative in India go? We're having a healthy debate and discussion about those ideas, and then I'm presenting ideas to them. I'd say part of the wisdom of experience is to know where your circle of competence begins and ends. He graduated from YALE UNIVERSITY in 1963. Will Danoff Joined Fidelity 1986 Industry experience 37 years Career experience Portfolio assistant, Fidelity Investments Equity research analyst, Fidelity Investments Education BA, Harvard University MBA, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania 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. So, it's a little easier. I think about trying to understand the facts, trying to use my accumulated industry and company knowledge to anticipate the future. We're thrilled to have him as our guest. And I would say, often because Joel and I and all the other fund managers started as Fidelity research analysts, when a new analyst arrives, they usually show up at my office with a list, and say I'm the new railroad analyst. And, again, paying attention and monitoring out-of-favor groups and trying to identify I can remember when everyone hated the airline industry. These products and services are usually sold through license agreements or subscriptions. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? But when it comes to some of the tech and the biotech, I'm treading more lightly. 5 years: Fidelity Contrafund 8.52%, S&P 500 Index 9.42%. Ptak: And at @Syouth1, which is, S-Y-O-U-T-H and the number 1. Low interest rates have created certain distortions in valuation. This has been a lot of fun. Will Danoff, Fidelity Contrafund Manager spoke Exclusively with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker about investing in post-pandemic and how he's managed to beat the S&P 500 by an average of more than 3 . But in every industry, there are new emerging themes, and hopefully, the Fidelity research department and I can identify those themes and find companies that are going to benefit from those themes. So I would say they're higher risk. I'd say a healthy research department is a joint effort. 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. So, we're seeing a lot of companies come to Fidelity as private entities, and I'm listening and learning. I'm considering fcntx- fidelity contra fund- .82 ER. And, as you know, there were constraints on when you can book and only one class and no free food and all that stuff. 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. 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? 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. Prior to becoming a portfolio manager, Will served as a retail analyst at Fidelity and for a time as assistant portfolio manager at Fidelity Magellan. 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. Our guest this week is Will Danoff. I'm aware of that. He is affiliated with Cedars - Sinai Medical Center. William Danoff is known for being a vice-president and portfolio manager of Fidelity Contrafund. We've been very lucky that in the last 10 years, these mega-cap companies have been able to continue to grow. I mean, when I was an analyst, I can remember calling companies after they reported and pleading with somebody in the CFOs office to either read me the details of the income statement and balance sheet, or then to fax me the information quickly, but I do remember part of the job was to call the company and ask for a packet. Joel Tillinghast, who's the great manager of the Low-Priced Stock fund, and I have done very well here at Fidelity. You know, if you think about it, Jeff, the larger companies in the S&P now are $1 trillion market caps. Will Danoff has been the fund manager of the Contrafund at Fidelity investments since 1990. These are behemoth companies. So, I don't know that many great investors who aren't great analysts. So, having this global research department can, again, help me understand trends, help me appreciate which of my U.S. companies are executing well all over the world, which ones are open to new ideas, which ones are monitoring these ideas and responding and strengthening their businesses. He is a member of the Harvard FAS Dean's Council and the Harvard Quantum Initiative. Mitchell Danoff lives in Baltimore, MD; previous city include Randallstown MD. Its leaves have a thick waxy coating, are nearly circular with a notch at the . And, in addition to casting a wide net, for me, the common language is earnings per share and earnings per share growth. Let's then call the company together. And I think that all experienced investors have made mistakes and are more aware of when they're approaching thin ice. And they've grown up with a smartphone in their pocket and can help me understand the trends that are a little more difficult for an older fund manager to appreciate and understand. Contrafund is one of Fidelity's largest mutual funds holding over $129 billion in assets, making it the largest single-manager mutual fund in the world. 14. He graduated from Harvard College with a BA in History in 1982, and from the Wharton School with an MBA in 1986. So, let's call the company together so we can hear the same story, look at the same facts together, and then decide what the challenges might be facing the company going forward. Prior to becoming a portfolio manager, Will served as a retail analyst at Fidelity and for a time as assistant portfolio manager at Fidelity Magellan. Age, Biography and Wiki. By using this service, you agree to input your real email address and only send it to people you know. It is not possible to invest in an index. And there are a lot of really good companies out there, but what I'm trying to do, as we talked about earlier, is find the exceptional companies and trying to bet bigger on the exceptional ones. Find Dr. Danoff's phone number, address, hospital affiliations and more. So, seven or eight years ago, there were a lot of very good opportunities. But I have experience. 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. Honestly, Jeff, you have to play to your strengths. 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?. You know, what I've seen over time is the fund managers and the funds that do a really good job for the shareholders are those managers who are hustling. And again, it goes back to who you are, and maybe certain money managers have to justify their higher fees by being out there pressing management, but you know, it's a very good point, Christine. Family: Nymphaeaceae. Or there's a better mousetrap that comes out of the competitive set that hurts you a lot. And sometimes it's just a matter of, Hey, you know, you haven't been to Boston in a couple of years. Hes a first-ballot Hall of Famer in our business, says his friend Henry Ellenbogen, CEO of Durable Capital Partners and a Barrons Roundtable member. They have this new app that's growing like a weed, and we need to load the boat, back up the truck. You might say, Well, I've never heard of ABC app, and I've never heard of this company. And if you're out there, somebody, I think, famous once said, You don't learn anything if you're talking all the time and something about You got one mouth and two ears, you should use them in that rough proportion, but it's just who I am. I tend not to do well when we have to make a quick pivot. 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. And I'd say try and stay optimistic. And, you know, I would say this business is sort of like a poker game. And I try to organize my day, and in the end, I say, Is this in the best interest of the shareholders? Total value December 31, 2022 for Contrafund was $457,343, compared to $234,530 for the S&P 500 Index. Dr. Dudley S. Danoff is a Urologist in Los Angeles, CA. And I was going to as many meetings as I could and just wanting to learn as much as I could. Adam Danoff net worth is $900,000. How did the new acquisition in Europe go? Danoff: Yeah, Jeff this business is really competitive. It's really hard for me to get excited about it like you. So therefore, you are trusting management teams and experts in certain industries to guide you, and hopefully I'll understand the financial ramifications if the company is successful, and I can make an assessment if I think the scientists or the technologists are going to be able to execute on their plan, and every industry is a little cyclical. We may use it to: To learn more about how we handle and protect your data, visit our privacy center. But at the time, people weren't paying attention to airlines and Europe was sort of a no growth, low growth space. And there are all sorts of companies that have had multiple owners. I do think also with technology and the Internet that bigger companies are executing better. Please see additional standard performance information. I would say I probably see two or three private companies a week. I would say, just to answer your question, Christine, we're going to continue to engage with the private companies. We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous Singer. I think the key to being a great investor is being open to new ideas, learning from new ideas, and finding that right balance between waiting for the right moment. 10 years: Fidelity Contrafund 12.40%, S&P 500 Index 12.56%. But we're working for the shareholders here at Fidelity, and I take that quite seriously. 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. Investments in foreign securities involve greater risk than U.S. investments. 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. He was previously married to Taffy Nivert. Identification: Nymphaea odorata is an aquatic perennial plant. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. Listen and subscribe to Morningstars The Long View from your mobile device. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe to and rate The Long View from Morningstar on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. And that it's really hard to know that you're going to win the hand when everybody only has two cards. Mistakes are made, but I think that's the other advantage I have at Fidelity where we have a lot of young analysts and associates who are more open to new ideas. His office accepts new patients. But capacity--you know, I'm my degree of difficulty is harder than a smaller fund. I think the book of business is about $185 billion now, maybe a little higher. Dr. Danoff has a research interest in outpatient joint replacement, rapid recovery protocols and multimodal pain regimens to decrease postoperative pain. I mean Fidelity is an unbelievable organization. The management teams come to Fidelity or want to call Fidelity when they're embarking on a new strategic direction or after a big strategic move has been made, whether it's a merger and acquisition, or when they appoint a new executive to run the company. Opinions expressed are as of the date of recording. The long view has to be that equities are going to perform better than bonds for the foreseeable future. Permanent link I think it would be hard if I hadn't grown up with the fund. Would I be better off choosing an actively managed fund that had a very well established manager with a long track record, like a will danoff at fidelity vs buying etf or index through my 401k? In a class by himself, Fidelity fund manager William Danoff keeps performance humming; Jason Kephart; Investment News; January 21, 2014, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The $108 Billion Man Who Has Beaten the Market", "Fidelity's Danoff is face of key man risk as he hits 25-year mark", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Danoff&oldid=1089496623, This page was last edited on 24 May 2022, at 04:27. William Danoff was born on 1960. I mean, I was the retail analyst at Fidelity in the mid 80s. And again, experience plays a role here. This includes companies that have shown a strong competitive position, high returns on capital, and solid free cash flow generation, as well as management teams that have been stewards of shareholder capital. The chart above illustrates the performance of a hypothetical $10,000 investment made in the fund and a benchmark during managers tenure. indexs 10.4%. And I introduced myself to the person to my left, who turned out to be the CEO of the company. Age, Biography and Wiki. Benz: So, you've mentioned circle of competence a couple of times. Owen Danoff was born on 3 November, 1989 in Washington, D.C., United States. Among these three, only. 5847 Education: BA Hunter College, City University of New York, 1976. Insights from Fidelity's portfolio managers. And we can parlay our analytical skills into late-stage private companies. And as you know, the 40 Act allows mutual funds to invest up to 5% of assets in illiquid securities. Dudley S. Danoff, MD. Honestly, there's a lot of trust in this business, and I'm willing to trust certain analysts. But if they don't, what are we learning from that? Will Danoff, the stock picker behind the $100-billion (U.S.) Fidelity Contrafund - the world's largest actively managed fund run by one person - is now accessible to Canadian investors. I tend to try to empathize with the executives that we're working with and try to think about what they're thinking about and maybe ask good questions. I've never heard of this company, and it looked like they were growing. And another 45-minute presentation had to be done. And I don't want it to fall by the wayside. And other investors may say, I'd want to crack the whip and push management faster or harder. That tends not to be what I do. I'm working for the shareholders. On average, the Fidelity Contrafund has beaten the S&P 500 Index by 2.31% per year. The private market has grown and, one could argue, became very overheated, let's say, in the 2017-2018 time horizon. You can't necessarily call your trader and say buy $1 billion worth of company XYZ. I'm leveraging your industry expertise. Taffy Nivert was born on 25 October 1944 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. Are we going to get sold again to some conglomerate or to some private equity firm?. Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 60 years old? But the ideas of delighting your customer don't go away, whether it's finding a new drug for a rare disease or developing a new software program, either for an enterprise or for a consumer. So, you know, I can monitor what's happening and review what's happening regularly. Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. We want to look before we leap. An error has occurred, please try again later. There are always reasons to worry. For me, it's the ability to make big bets it's harder. It's like, oh my gosh, you know, XYZ is going to hurt this company. So that's the other reason why I spend a lot of time going to these meetings. So, I'm trying to bet big with the bigger companies. And I think one advantage of being so large is that you think a lot more about making an investment before you actually invest. We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on . But there's a tremendous opportunity to learn and to monitor what's happening. Seems like, maybe that's a conscious choice you've made in how it is you're going to spend your time and focus as a portfolio manager. Danoff: That's a really good question, Christine. When he was just 15 years old, he created his first original song and produced it on his own. During Danoff's 30-year tenure, the Fidelity Contrafund has outperformed the S&P 500 in 100% of rolling 10-year time periods; it has outperformed the S&P 500 Index by an average of 3.21 percentage pointsRead More They've got their EarPods, they've got an iPad, they've got a computer. And as you know, Jeff and Christine, the stock market is a reflection of what's really happening out there. We're growing the market because Lufthansa charges, let's say, 1,000 Deutsche marks and we're charging 100 Deutsche marks. And if I like the management team, and I'm confident that they're going to be able to grow, and I like what they're doing. 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. Danoff said in an interview in the summer of 2013 to help explain his success - "Larger funds have a higher degree of difficulty. So, again, when the only part of the company that's growing is the number of shares outstanding, that's a concern, or you know, when losses are growing, that is almost a I don't have time for that we're finding. What are they going to be doing? Tom Ford. The subject line of the email you send will be "Fidelity.com: ", Will is dedicated to the long-term benefits of active management. I like to call companies. As of July 2018, the fund has continued its outperformance over the S&P 500. You know, you think about the great Warren Buffett. And the thought process was, Well, we have industry expertise, we have company expertise. So maybe 10% of my time. Discover William Danoff's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. But you and your listeners--you're sophisticated investors. And the entrepreneur and founder is able to build a team, and I think before it's all over, maybe it will be wise to wait until the company is public. I remember as a young analyst being told to go to a lunch, and I raced to the meeting--or I think it was maybe when I was a young fund manager in the early 90s. It's the largest single manager fund with about $130 billion and the track record of the fund is just outstanding. We so appreciate the time and insights you've shared with us and our listeners today. Finally, we'd love to get your feedback. No patient rating & comments. But partly, it's just this opportunity. He has crossed all the competition over 30 years. I hadn't really prepared, but I was just going to just learn about this new company. I feel really lucky to be here. the largest U.S. mutual fund run by a single manager. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate, so investors may have a gain or loss when shares are sold. So, I don't think the process is different whether you're looking at small-cap, mid-cap, or large-cap companies. Managers here at Fidelity have asked me to close in the past, and I've decided for political reasons that I would agree with my managers, but then we've reopened. And I'm constantly looking for better ideas. Drew Angerer/Getty Images. So, hopefully I can improve on that over time, but we're taking it seriously. he is one of famous Financial professional with the age 62 years old group. But this is what we do, and we try to do the best we can. Sep.17 -- Will Danoff, who as manager of Fidelity's Contrafund has beaten the S&P 500 for three decades, makes the case for active management in the era of E. Sometimes William goes by various nicknames including William A Danoff and Will Danoff. Will. The Fidelity Contrafund is a large-cap growth fund with $139 billion in . Fidelity Contrafund versus the S&P 500 index over five periods: 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and life of the portfolio. he is one of famous Singer with the age 75 years old group. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. You can't always assume that managements going to do the right thing. Bill Danoff In 1976, using Fat City as the core, Bill added Jon Carroll and Margot Chapman to form the Starland Vocal Band, which quickly gained national fame with the monster hit, "Afternoon Delight". Born on May 7, 1946 in United States of America, Bill Danoff started his career as Singer . Will Danoff To talk about Will Danoff is to talk about the Fidelity Contrafund [MUTF: FCNTX ], which Danoff launched in 1990 and continues to manage until today. 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