CSIC 2026: Third Avenue’s Matthew Fine Sees Value in a Market Dominated by Expensive US Stocks

Taking part in the Capstone Student Investment Conference 2026 was Matthew Fine from Third Avenue Management. Founded by the legendary Marty Whitman, Third Avenue is a pioneer in value investing,;  Fine took the chance to provide more in-depth information about Third Avenue’s value investing approach. Also, he discussed the performance of value investing strategies and the market enviroment

Third Avenue Perspective On Value Investing

Fine started working at Third Avenue in 2000, shortly after earning a B.A. in Economics from Hamilton College. The firm does have a global mandate, but it does not focus on a broad mandate; the goal is to find rare examples of businesses that become significantly undervalued relative to conservative estimates of their long-term business value.

From Fine’s experience, these instances happen when other people become too pessimistic. It can be a state on a macro level, industry level, or a business specific level, depending on the situation. From that perspective, Third Avenue is an opportunistic company. What other investors see as long-term or even permanent headwinds, Third Avenue hopes to identify opportunistic situations. Ideally, the investing horizon is between three and five years, but often it goes beyond that. While their approach can be viewed as contrarian, that is only a byproduct of the strategy. Matthew Fine and the Third Avenue team are price-conscious and aim to invest with a discount. Today, the risk of overpaying is real, but investors are often overlooking it.

Partnering management teams are often the deal-breaking factor, because a great team can pull a lot from limited resources. Remaining afloat in challenging situations shows the character they strive to find.

What gets the value investing a bad rap is performance over the past couple of decades. Fine doesn’t agree with that sentiment and points out that many value strategies performed wonderfully in prolonged periods of time.