Matthew Kidman is a well-known entity to readers of Livewire, as host of Success and More Interesting Stuff, Buy Hold Sell, and most recently, Livewire Live.

Finally, we got him in the hot seat to run us through his own journey into funds management, his approach to investing, and the way he’s thinking about markets today.

From hard truths on a squash court to starting his own shop, Centennial Asset Management, Matt’s story is one of happenstance.

It’s also a story about the importance of mentors and networks. To steal a line from Top Gun, the list is long but distinguished. Geoff Wilson, John Sevior, Anton Tagliaferro and Peter Morgan, to name but a few.

Their influence can be seen in the way Matt runs Centennial Asset Management and its Level 18 Fund. While it focuses on value and small caps, it’s got a highly flexible mandate that lets it ride momentum when the market is on, go short when it’s not, and preserve capital when crises hit.

We cover all these topics, and more, in this bumper episode.

Note: this episode was recorded on September 20, 2023.

Timestamps

0:00 - START 2:16 - Hard truths on a squash court 5:50 - Getting a start in journalism 6:30 - Landing book deals with Geoff Wilson 16:30 - 13 years at Wilson Asset Management 20:30 - Taking time off to do a PhD 22:30 - Mentors in finance 26:20 - Bottoms don't have to be V-shaped 29:50 - Key lead indicators 33:40 - From hard landing, to soft landing, to no landing 36:30 - China's in the hurt locker 41:00 - Buying growth 43:50 - Financials 45:30 - A flexible mandate 47:40 - Hiding in large caps 51:30 - Riding a market bounce with smalls 54:20 - Moving into quality 58:30 - Is lithium crowded? 01:01:27 - Watch rates 01:06:16 - Bottom drawer stock

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