Bill Miller joined Legg Mason in 1981 and claims that at the time “my net worth was negative, and I was making $39,000 a year.” Over the next 40 years he would become known as the heavyweight investor that beat the S&P 500 for 15 consecutive years while managing the Legg Mason Value Trust.
Then, in 2008 the Great Recession became his undoing. He was on the wrong side of large contrarian bets on stocks like Bear Sterns and AIG. In response, the Value Trust lost 55% of its value and total assets under management fell from $77 billion to $20 billion.
Fast forward to 2020 and Bill is roaring back. Per an excellent interview published in Barron’s:
In 2020, Miller told me that Amazon had ballooned to 83% of his personal portfolio. Last week, in an interview for Barron’s, Miller, who has owned Amazon for more than two decades, said his investment in Bitcoin has produced such a windfall that it’s now worth even more than his Amazon stake: “I started buying around $200 to $300 per Bitcoin, and my average cost is around $500.” The price of Bitcoin is now about $53,000.
Miller’s bets on Amazon and Bitcoin have had a startling impact on his fortune. When asked if it’s fair to say he’s now a billionaire, he replied, “Yes, that’s fair.”
Click on the link below for an excellent read.