Reports & videos
Letters, reports and videos
Everything here is written for our investors. We suggest that reading our letter is the best introduction to how we think.
Performance
Series F, year by year: gross to net
Most funds show you a net number and stop. Here's the whole picture: what the portfolio earned, and exactly what came out along the way, for every calendar year since Series F launched. Series B units were established on 30 September 1996 and Series F units on 1 January 2020, so the Series F record below begins in 2020.
Two things changed in 2026 that the table does not yet show. The hurdle for the performance fee rose from 6% to 7.5%, so we are paid a performance fee on a smaller slice of any return. And the merger of The Osler Fund into MVF in August 2026 spread the fund’s largely fixed third-party costs over a larger asset base, which brings that cost down as a percentage. Add our intention to lower the management fee as the fund grows, and we expect the all-in cost of the fund to be lower than the figures in this table.
| Year | Gross returnGross | 3rd party expenses3rd-party costs | Management feeMgmt fee | Performance feePerf. fee | Net returnNet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 16.7% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 2.0% | 13.3% |
| 2024 | 22.3% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 3.2% | 17.4% |
| 2023 | 5.1% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 0.3% | 3.1% |
| 2022 | 7.7% | 1.0% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 5.9% |
| 2021 | 40.8% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 4.9% | 34.5% |
| 2020 | 8.4% | 1.0% | 0.6% | 0.1% | 6.7% |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Series F calendar-year returns. Net return is the audited figure reported in the Fund’s financial statements. The breakdown (gross return, and what each category of cost took out along the way) is our best estimate of the impact of each type of fee. Third-party expenses above are what the fund actually paid in each year; we expect them to run at roughly 0.45% going forward at the fund’s current size. See how our fees work. Past performance may not be repeated.
Standardized performance is also published monthly by independent third parties: see Morningstar Canada or FundLibrary (Fundata). The fund was recognized with FundGrade A+ Awards in 2022 and 2023. Required Fundata disclosure
Letters
Letters to our partners
Twice a year we write to the people who own the Fund: what we bought, what we sold, what we got wrong, and what we are thinking about.
- Thank you Peter Cundill (2008)Tim’s thank you to his former boss, written in 2008
Fund documents
Financial statements & regulatory filings
Audited financial statements going back to 1996, the Simplified Prospectus, Fund Facts for each series, the Management Report of Fund Performance, our proxy voting record and the Independent Review Committee's report to unitholders are all on the regulatory information page.
Watch & listen
Interviews, talks and press
We hold an annual meeting for investors. In between, Tim turns up on podcasts and in the odd book. Here is most of it.
McElvaine Minutes
Short videos from Tim on how we think about investing.
- An introduction to ABBA
- Arithmetic, not optimism3 min · 2020
- Spock vs Homer: why bargains exist2 min · 2017
- Shades of grey: the trade-off in every investment
- Why I call us the anti-mutual fund
Interviews & appearances
- In conversation with John Mihaljevic, MOI GlobalApril 2024
- A Value Investor: podcast with Mark LetchumananApril 2022
- A Very Value Christmas CarolDecember 2021
Written about us
- Dealing in nightmares, not dreams, from Stock Market Superstars, Bob Thompson (PDF)2008
- Manager Monitor, Morningstar Canada (PDF)September 2006
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