Chris Paik

An investor at Pace Capital whose “right AND clever” observation Kyle uses as a caution against reflexive Contrarianism. Paik’s point: many public investors avoided FAANG despite it driving the majority of market returns, because owning it felt “too obvious” — “they wanted to be right AND clever.” Kyle marshals this in his Conviction-Led Contrarianism thinking to argue that conviction won’t always land you on a contrarian position; sometimes it lands on a widely held belief that simply happens to be true, and you shouldn’t reject an idea just because it’s obvious (Conviction-Led Contrarianism - Research).

What we know

• Made the point that many public investors avoided FAANG despite it driving the majority of market returns — because owning it felt “too obvious.” “They wanted to be right AND clever.”
• Kyle uses this to argue conviction won’t always lead to contrarianism: sometimes it leads to a widely held belief that happens to be true, and you shouldn’t reject it just because it’s obvious.

Mentioned in

• Conviction-Led Contrarianism — the “don’t be afraid to accept what’s obvious” playbook item.
• Conviction-Led Contrarianism - Research — research notes.

Connections

• Contrarianism — Paik’s “right AND clever” critique is a caution against reflexive contrarianism.
• Conviction — his point illustrates that conviction can land on a widely held belief that happens to be true.
• Capital Allocation — frames why public investors underweighted FAANG despite it driving most market returns.
• Investment Returns — the observation that FAANG drove the majority of market returns.