Bill Miller bets on Freddie Mac

August 13, 2008 | By Jim Kim

It's fair to say that the financial crisis has been unkind to a lot of value-oriented fund managers. The mindset--by on valuation dips--has proved to be a loser's strategy. Anyone buying on the likes of Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers on the way down took some big hits. Miller was long on a whole lot of financial stocks, including Citigroup and Countrywide. At one point the Legg Mason Value Trust fund was down a whopping 40 percent. So what's the answer? How can he start a new 15-year streak? In true value fashion, Miller is loading up on Freddie Mac. Fortune reports his fund owns 80 million shares (12 percent of the total). That's up from 15 million shares at the end of last year. Some might call this desperation. We'll see.

For more:
- here's the Fortune article