William Smead

CEO / Chief Investment Officer
Smead Capital Management
Seattle, Washington

William Smead is the founder of Smead Capital Management, where he oversees all activities of the firm. As Chief Investment Officer, he is the final decision-maker for all investment and portfolio decisions as well as reviewing the implementation of those decisions in the firm’s separate accounts and mutual funds.

William began his career in the investment business with Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1980. He left Drexel Burham Lambert in 1989 as First Vice President/Assistant Manager and joined Oppenheimer & Co., where he stayed until joining Smith Barney in 1990. William remained at Smith Barney until September 2001 when he joined Wachovia Securities becoming the Managing Director/Portfolio Manager of Smead Investment Group of Wachovia Securities. In 2007, William left Wachovia Securities to found Smead Capital Management.

Smead Capital Management's Smead Blog contains additional thought leadership through missives, quarterly newsletters and notices of appearances in the media.

William can be contacted by using this form or by phone at 877.701.2883.

Content by William Smead

The Grand Divorce

How does total domination in a sector of the economy play out for the shareholders of the leading company involved?

  • 01/24/2017
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

The Frightful Five and Investors’ Lament

Will tech have its problems in the future like it has had in the past? The most damning words in investing are, “It’s different this time.” Buyers beware.

  • 01/17/2017
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Mean Reversion and The Bell Curve

Over a three-year time period, stock prices tend to mean revert. This has spawned numerous investment approaches which try to squeeze capital gains out of those reversions.

  • 01/03/2017
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Net Neutrality or Level Playing Field

“Net Neutrality” is a worthy concept in theory, but the loss of its most powerful supporter and bureaucrat will significantly change the landscape of internet access and concentration issues in more traditional media outlets.

  • 12/20/2016
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Rising Rates Meet Nesting Urges

The evidence suggests that the demand for housing, led by new families among 30-40 year old Americans, could overwhelm progressively higher interest rates - leading to a home building boom.

  • 12/06/2016
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  • Residential Property
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  • Article

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter: Cheap and Wonderful

Buffett points out that the US economy is still “wonderful” and should create ever higher standards of living in the next 30 years.

  • 03/01/2016
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Most professional and individual investors want the long-duration benefit of common stock ownership but are unwilling to keep their portfolio intact through the market’s ups and downs.

  • 02/23/2016
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

The Big Long

The current circumstances could lead to a much better economy over the next ten years than most people imagine, and an all-in long position on the U.S. economy would be the “Big Long.”

  • 02/09/2016
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Stock Market Control

A look at the likelihood of the stock market going up or down in the next year, based on how it did the prior year - and what an investor can and can’t control in the stock market.

  • 12/15/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Historical Rates Impact Common Stocks

There are numerous implications for long duration common stock owners arising from the examination of historical interest rates.

  • 12/01/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Drilling for Oil on Wall Street

We believe we have entered a period of time where it might be cheaper to drill oil on Wall Street than it is to poke holes in the ground.

  • 11/17/2015
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  • U.S. Stocks
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  • Article

Contentiousness Du Jour

When the common stock of a meritorious company falls deeply out of favor, it is easy and obvious to point out the negatives. This makes a purchase of shares hard to do for psychological reasons.

  • 10/20/2015
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  • U.S. Stocks
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  • Article

Red Room, Green Room, and Beige Room

Looking at the difference between investing in common stocks based on excitement about future prospects versus buying stocks based on value or intrinsic value - a concept that is oversimplified when using monikers such as growth stock and...

  • 10/12/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

What’s the Market’s Biggest Risk?

Over the last century, we’ve observed a fairly consistent pattern associated with major stock market declines, and this article reviews them.

  • 09/29/2015
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  • Markets
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  • Article

Stuck in the Middle with You

As contrarians, we relish these corrective declines in the U.S. stock market. We use declines in the stock market to upgrade the quality of our portfolio and to concentrate our portfolio in the companies in which we have...

  • 09/15/2015
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  • Markets
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  • Article

Competing with the Alpha and the Omega

To better understand today’s commodity market circumstances, investors should examine the herd mentality and the psychological backing that may lead to contrarian investment opportunities.

  • 09/08/2015
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  • Markets
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  • Article

The Earbud Stock Market

Sharing your life with a spouse, with children, with neighbors and with your community drives the U.S. economy and allows businesses to thrive - hard to pull off in a solitary position with your earbuds in.

  • 09/01/2015
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  • U.S. Stocks
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  • Article

What Can Microsoft and Walmart Teach Us about Amazon?

Microsoft and Walmart went through the same kind of explosive growth which Amazon is seeing now. Since then, they both lost their glamour P/E ratio and are now questioned for their ability grow.

  • 08/19/2015
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  • U.S. Stocks
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  • Article

Video Didn’t Kill the Radio Star

The longer we are in the investment business, the more skeptical we become about the investment crowd’s ability to identify which innovative companies are truly disrupting competing companies.

  • 08/10/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

China’s Command Economy: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

It's probably a good idea to continue to avoid companies tied to China as it persists in pretending it is not subject to the recessions and depressions which are part of capitalism.

  • 08/04/2015
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  • Asia-Pacific Markets
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  • Article

Solomon’s Long Duration Investment Wisdom

Long-duration investors need to have the courage to stay invested - which will grow their wealth over time.

  • 07/29/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Where’s Warren?

Every now and then, some bizarre market event happens, and we must ask, where’s Warren Buffet?  

  • 07/07/2015
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  • U.S. Stocks
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  • Article

The 1982 Playbook

We believe the recovery has been anemic because it hasn’t yet included home building driven by household formation.  

  • 06/30/2015
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  • Markets
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  • Article

Peter Lynch on Today's Markets

Gauging where we are in the Peter Lynch bull market continuum - sentiment is comparable to the bottom of the bear market in 2002-03!

  • 06/16/2015
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  • Markets
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  • Article

Frank Sinatra on the Reinvestment of Unrealized Gains

We are conscious of the connection between reinvested unrealized gains and low portfolio turnover. We strive to make the practice of low turnover one of our most important competitive advantages and believe they are tightly connected.

  • 06/02/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Interest Rates Affect Intrinsic Value

Together with earnings growth estimates and longevity, the discount interest rate is a cornerstone of calculating the intrinsic value of a company.  

  • 05/26/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

No Looking Back in Stock-Picking

To understand the stock-picking opportunity, you must understand a major force in the US economy going forward. There are 86 million Americans between 19 and 37 years of age. Yes, there are differences in each generation.

  • 05/12/2015
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  • Economy
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  • Article

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice: Buffett’s 50th Shareholder Meeting

Three key takeaways from the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway. Investment wisdom from the most successful stock pickers and asset allocators of all time.  

  • 05/04/2015
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  • U.S. Stocks
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  • Article

Common Stocks: A Garden of Wealth Creation

Almost all the recorded history of stock market participation shows that investors make every attempt to avoid the bear. The psychological pain of losing is much more powerful than the joy of making money.

  • 03/31/2015
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  • Markets
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  • Article

Should You Buy into Oil’s Secular Bear Market?

We are still early in the energy sector as it moves from sheer excitement and enthusiasm to contentiousness and utter distaste. Better prices are still ahead.

  • 03/17/2015
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  • Oil Markets
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  • Article

Buffett on the Value of Patient Optimism

To Buffett, the key for most investors is the maintenance and expansion of purchasing power. It’s nearly a mathematical fact that interest-earning “currency” investments can’t provide long-term real returns which enhance purchasing power.

  • 03/03/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Find Hated, You May Find Wealth

Addicted customer bases or extremely “sticky” ones contribute greatly to the long histories of business success and long-duration wealth creation. The ultimate combination for long-term investment success is sticky-customers and ongoing disdain for a business.

  • 02/24/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Keynesian Contrarianism: Where is the Minority Today?

The largest endowments are heavily committed to the alternative investment space. They argue that they get equity-like returns with less volatility from alternative investments, provided they do it in a diversified manner.

  • 02/17/2015
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  • Alternative Investments
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  • Article

Woody Hayes on Portfolio Management

Since we have entered a corrective period in the U.S. stock market the last five weeks, it is extremely tempting for active managers to try and guess where the winds will blow in the next three-to-six-months.

  • 02/04/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

The Cacophony of Earnings Announcements

Today’s earnings reports are statistically inconsequential to intrinsic value. Huge price swings  based on perceived hits or misses in the quarterly earnings report are laughable for the long-duration investor.

  • 01/27/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article

Are Macroeconomists Rebuilding a Wall of Worry?

The problem with acting on the advice of respected macro-economic theorists is that it is a regurgitation of the advice they and other respected economists have given for the last four to six years.

  • 01/13/2015
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  • Economy
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  • Article

Ben Graham’s Mr. Market 2015

Successful investors use both quantitative and qualitative research to find meritorious businesses for long-duration holding periods.

  • 01/05/2015
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  • Intelligent Investing
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  • Article
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