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The best way to learn about a subject, it is often said, is to write a book about it. My books all reflect my longstanding interest in studying the ideas and methods of the most successful professional investors of my time – an interest that was first sparked more than twenty years ago when I completed a thesis on the methods of Warren Buffett for a Master’s degree at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Since then I have written three books about investment and edited or co-published several others.
My first book, Money Makers, is a study of the lives, methods and philosophy of eight professional investors who have reached the summit of their profession. The original edition is now out of print, but a revised and updated version will be published early next year by Harriman House. Those profiled include Anthony Bolton, Nils Taube, Mark Mobius, Ian Rushbrook, Colin McLean and John Carrington. The conclusions to be drawn from their experience remain only too valid today. Where appropriate, I have updated the book to include comments about the present opportunities and threats facing investors.
My second book is Investing with Anthony Bolton (first published 2004, with a revised second edition in 2006). This is the first and only full-length study of the methods and performance of a man who by common consent has been the most successful investment manager of modern times in the UK. £1,000 invested in Anthony Bolton’s Fidelity Special Situations at its launch in 1979 was worth more than £140,000 by the time he relinquished control of the fund in December 2007. During that period the fund outperformed its benchmark index by a remarkable 6% per annum, compounded over nearly three decades. The book tells the story of the fund from the beginning, analyses how it came to be so successful and draws out the lessons for investors generally. I was able to spend a lot of time discussing investment with my subject and co-author; an enlightening experience.
My latest book is Templeton’s Way With Money, co-authored with Dr Sandy Nairn, the CEO of Edinburgh Partners, who worked closely with Sir John Templeton for many years, latterly as Director of Global Equity Research for the Franklin-Templeton group. The book, published by John Wiley in March 2012, is the first wholly independent study of the investment philosophy and methods of one of the twentieth century’s greatest investors, written from a purely professional perspective. As well as interviews with some of his closest associates, we draw on previously unpublished letters to clients of Templeton’s investment advisory firm to explain his ideas and uncover, with the help of new proprietary research, why the stockpicking methods he developed were able to produce such exceptional returns over such a long period.
You can order all these books online, from the publishers or Amazon, or via the Independent Investor bookshop, which offers readers an attractive discount. Alternatively simply send me an email with your name (admin@independent-investor.com) and contact details and the title of the book you want and I will arrange for my publishing partners to contact you and take your order over the phone, offering you the best available discount.
Links to the books