The Post House in Midtown Manhattan is frequented by Wall Street types who drain tumblers of scotch at the bar. Waiters glide across the wood floor in white jackets and black bow ties serving whole Maine lobster, filet mignon and the house specialty, Cajun rib steak.
Here, at one of Bill Miller's favorite haunts, the interrogation began. Miller, the star mutual fund manager at Baltimore's Legg Mason Inc., had questions; after all, $1 billion of his investors' money was at stake.
What's your long-term vision? Will you open any new distribution centers? What is your business model?
This give-and-take went on for more than an hour during the 2002 dinner. Then Miller, whose Legg Mason Value Trust has outperformed the stock market average for 14 consecutive years, said he posed his favorite question:
"Reading anything interesting?"
Jeff Bezos, the interrogation subject, billionaire and founder of Amazon.com, was reading Stephan Wolfram's book at the time, recalled Miller and two others at the table.
Miller had skimmed Wolfram's book, A New Kind of Science. It was a widely anticipated tome - 1,197 pages, a grueling read by any standard. Soon, the two were conversing about cellular automata, complex systems, scientific methodology and the nature of proof in mathematics, Miller said.
Bezos declined to comment.
More than four hours later, the maitre d' wandered over and asked them to leave, Miller said.
It was midnight. Closing time. That Miller could command six hours with Bezos is testament to the power of The Streak.
Over the 14-year period, Miller's fund posted a cumulative 834.68 percent return through Thursday. That's an average of about 17.3 percent a year, compared with the Standard & Poor's 500's 12.04 percent, according to mutual fund tracking firm Morningstar Inc.
But the conversation with Bezos also illustrates how Miller finds the little edges to keep him the most consistent stock picker in the $7.7 trillion mutual fund industry.
What do the food-gathering habits of ants, the triggering point of earthquakes or strategies of gamblers have to do with money management? Miller sees connections. He seeks to understand why people panic, how lines of communications develop.
"The great thing about investing is that there is almost no subject that doesn't bear on investing," said Miller in a recent interview on the 22nd floor of the Legg Mason tower, with a sweeping view of Baltimore. "For somebody who is an intellectual dilettante ... or intellectually promiscuous, it is a great thing to do."
The Streak started in 1991, the year after Miller took over as Value Trust's sole manager. The next-longest string of beating the market, according to Morningstar, is eight years. The Streak has withstood two recessions, three presidencies, two U.S.-led invasions of Iraq, the Internet bubble and the stock market crash of 2000.
His competitors are well aware of The Streak and what it has meant for his investors.
"He brings to the table," said Mario J. Gabelli, head of Gabelli Asset Management Inc. and a top mutual fund manager, "a decision-making process that is very ... focused."
Miller has also endured critics who say he has corrupted the definition of being a value fund investor - those who buy stocks at bargain prices - and taken unnecessary risks, particularly in technology stocks.
"His definition of value tends to be out of sync with the majority opinion," said Jeff Tjornehoj, research analyst at Lipper Inc., a mutual fund tracking firm. "That is why some people tend to believe he is not a true value manager."
Miller professes not to be obsessed with, defined by, or even all that conscious of The Streak. It is, he says, "an accident of the calendar," something that would have been broken long ago if years ended in a month other than December.
But as he faced the possible end of the run late last year, he second-guessed himself for missing the run-up in energy stocks. If he had moved sooner, Miller told shareholders in a letter, the fund might not be "behind our benchmark."
This is the Bill Miller that his colleagues, competitors, clients and chief executives around the country see - the tireless competitor, always on, always looking for an edge, never quite satisfied with himself or the people around him. He wants to beat the market every minute of every day, they say.
"He loves to compete. ... I think he wants to be known as one of the best ever," said David E. Nelson, a Legg Mason fund manager who has known Miller for 22 years. "His life is really the market. He lives to work."
Rich and respected
Nevertheless, The Streak has done its job.
It made Miller a superstar in the world of investing, giving him access to top CEOs, creating worldwide demand for his money management expertise, inspiring a Bill Miller Bobblehead doll.
