Vitaliy Katsenelson: Full IMA Client Dinner Talk and Q&A (2026)

Vitaliy Katsenelson, CEO and CIO of IMA (Investment Management Associates), shares his full remarks and client Q&A from the 2026 IMA Client Dinner in Denver. In this conversation, Vitaliy talks about how IMA has grown from $100 million in 2020 to over $800 million today while staying obsessed with the same things, why he treats IMA as his "Sistine Chapel" rather than a profit machine, and the two values that guide everything the firm does: quality and kindness. He also takes questions from clients on: Why the portfolio has expanded from 20 to roughly 30 stocks, and how AI changed his thinking on position sizing How he uses AI tools (Grok, Gemini, ChatGPT, NotebookLM) in his own research process His evolving views on gold, Bitcoin, and the U.S. dollar in a world of 6% budget deficits Why he's never been more excited about investing, and how he thinks about risk in a wider range of outcomes Oil exposure, the war in Iran, and how the energy sleeve is acting as a hedge The Rick Rubin book on creativity that's reshaped how he approaches writing and investing Timestamps: 00:00 Introductions and welcome 02:00 From $100M to $800M: what hasn't changed at IMA 04:00 Quality, kindness, and Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act" 07:00 Introducing the IMA team 40:00 Why we own more stocks now (AI and portfolio construction) 43:00 Gold, the dollar, and 6% budget deficits 01:14:00 Bitcoin, institutionalization, and an honest "I don't know" 01:17:00 Using AI for research without getting fooled by it 01:24:00 Oil exposure and the energy hedge 01:26:00 Closing remarks Vitaliy is the author of Soul in the Game and the upcoming book What a Life, and writes regularly at investor.fm. Learn more about IMA: https://imausa.com Read Vitaliy's writing: https://investor.fm Subscribe to The Intellectual Investor newsletter: https://investor.fm Disclaimer: This video is for informational and educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.