The quiet achiever who has returned 102% in just 5 years

Ruthless, risk-taking, dominant and charismatic. These adjectives spring to mind when I think about the portrayal of hedge fund managers in popular culture.

Without a doubt, watching Bobby Axelrod plot out his next big bet in the TV drama Billions series makes for excellent viewing. But there aren't too many Bobbies in the local hedge fund community.

The reality is that short selling is a highly specialised skill, often misunderstood as some form of nefarious activity undertaken by faceless short report promoters.

Josh Clark, Portfolio Manager of the QVG Capital Long Short Fund, is the antithesis of Bobby Axelrod. His demeanour is calm, considered, and calculated, but that hasn't stopped him from doubling his clients' money in the five years since the fund was launched in 2019.

Clark, who sits alongside QVG Founders Tony Waters and Chris Prunty, has been a quiet achiever. However, his performance numbers after five years are impressive, notwithstanding a testing year in 2022. Clark says the critical lesson he has learned is to remain focused on the factors that will determine a business's long-term value.

"I think you have to worship at the altar of mathematics; that's what is driving share prices. I think too often in this industry, it's easy to get caught up in the story," he says.

"If you continually focus on what the maths are telling you and what that means for that business' long-term value, then that can be a north star, and it makes decision-making a lot easier."

Watch the full interview for a deep dive into some of the long and short ideas Clark has found on the ASX.

Time codes

0:00 - Introduction
1:50 - Opportunities in the market today
3:48 - Long ideas powering the portfolio and recent additions
8:30 - EML Payments (ASX:EML) - long, then short, now long again
12:35 - Lessons from a tough year in 2022
15:34 - Owning stocks on high multiples
17:53 - A deep dive on Hub24 (ASX:HUB)
21:35 - An expert guide to highly shorted stocks
25:22 - Being on the wrong end of a short squeeze
27:04 - Two shorts
30:56 - The most-important lesson