Nor, Mr Sinquefield says, was it the investment ability of the managers.
Fortunately, this element is reasonably pitched; while many cosmetic changes demand investment, ability upgrades can generally be earned with or without payment.
Since 1965, in fact, the yearly percentage changes in Berkshire Hathaway's book value, one barometer of Mr. Buffett's investment ability, have been 16percentt less volatile than those of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.
His investment abilities and a wide range of philanthropic interests were an inspiration to a lot of people.
And yet Dalio's acuity prompts an awkward question: how much of Bridgewater's success comes not from the way it is organized, or any notion of "radical transparency," but from the boss's raw investment abilities?
It underlines a point Warren Buffett, a dogged sceptic of hedge funds, made at his Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting last month: "There's been far, far, far more money made by people in Wall Street through salesmanship abilities than through investment abilities".
What this means is that Dimon's profit model (not to mention personal compensation), which relies heavily on the type of on-the-wire trading that can generate huge profits, also requires a big capital buffer, which then hampers the bank's lending and investment abilities and, by extension, its contribution to our economic progress.
Guangzhou Metro considers that six abilities must be developed for integrated asset management: asset investment strategy ability based on integrated considerations, standard management ability, the ability to provide maintenance and extend the life of the asset, cost control ability, internal control ability based on risk management, and transparent information-sharing ability.
Amid so much economic uncertainty, the fund also tries to gauge an investment's ability to continue financing growth.
With the world looking on, and Italy desperate to attract foreign investment, the ability to meet this pledge has a lot riding on it.
The value of IRR is greater than 8%, high investment recycling ability.
