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LESSONS ON INVESTING FROM MASTER TRADERS
'Whether a complete novice, or a professional portfolio manager, this book will give you access to the mindset and techniques of the most successful investors of our time and more importantly, it will help you avoid mistakes. The Great Investors will have a permanent place on my desk.' Mark Sheridan , Executive Director, Nomura International PLC Leading investors such as Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Sir John Templeton, George Soros and Anthony Bolton are known throughout the world. How did these people come to be so successful? Which strategies have they used to make their fortunes? And what can you learn from their techniques? In The Great Investors, Glen Arnold succinctly and accurately describes the investment philosophies of the world’s greatest investors. He explains why they are the best, gives details of their tactics for accumulating wealth, captures the key elements that led to their market-beating successes and teaches you key lessons that you can apply to your own investing strategies. From the ‘There are some very special people who seem to possess an exceptional talent for acquiring wealth. I want to explore not just the past triumphs of these masters, but also the key factors they look for as well as the personality traits that allow them to control emotion and think rationally about where to place funds. How does a master of investment hone skills through bitter experience and triumph to develop their approach to accumulating wealth?’ Glen Arnold The Great Investors is the story of a number of remarkable John Templeton, George Soros, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Philip Fisher, Peter Lynch, Anthony Bolton and John Neff. Whether you’re new to investing, have had success in the markets, or you’re a professional investor or fund manger, you’ll benefit from reading about their proven, and successful, trading philosophies. The Great Investors will show you how · Be a business analyst rather than a security analyst · Do your homework and develop a broad social, economic and political awareness · Control emotion so as not to get swept away by the market · Be consistent in your approach, even when you have bad years · See the wood for the trees and not over complicate your portfolio · Learn from your investing · Be self reliant, stand aside from the crowd and follow your own logic · Take reasonable risk
416 pages, Paperback
First published October 26, 2010
40 people are currently reading
425 people want to read
About the author
Glen Arnold
65 books26 followersGlen Arnold is a businessman, investor and professor of investment at the University of Salford. He is the author of numerous finance and investing books.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 23, 2021
Glad I picked up this book from my bookshelf of unread books. A solid grasp of basic finance knowledge is required to fully understand and benefit from the book. The structure applied to every chapter, which focuses each on a renowned investor, allows for a concise summary of the early experiences and the key investment principles of each figure. The selective case studies are very helpful, especially those in the chapter on Soros.
Since most of the chosen investors are strong proponents of value investing (except perhaps Soros and Fisher), there is more than a fair bit of repetition. The occasional typos and grammatical errors are annoying and embarrassing for a published book by FT. Nevertheless, this is a great book to construct a rudimentary value-oriented investment framework, particularly for the part-time, amateur investor.
Since most of the chosen investors are strong proponents of value investing (except perhaps Soros and Fisher), there is more than a fair bit of repetition. The occasional typos and grammatical errors are annoying and embarrassing for a published book by FT. Nevertheless, this is a great book to construct a rudimentary value-oriented investment framework, particularly for the part-time, amateur investor.
August 22, 2018
I love stock picking and I love stock pickers. Not the way I love my wife and kids, but still. This is a book that covers the strategies and processes of eight superb stock pickers plus one of the few persons ever who truly have mastered the game of market timing. The author Glen Arnold, investor and professor of investment and finance at Salford University, has in my opinion grasped the essence of value investors like Ben Graham and John Templeton, the GARP strategies of Peter Lynch and Philip Fisher plus all the other superstars this book covers.
Of course you could say that the reader would get a fuller picture of these investors by reading John Neff on Investing, The Essays of Warren Buffett, Investing with Anthony Bolton etc. but why not take this excellent short cut? It is a smorgasbord of some of the best concepts in finance. The reader becomes acquainted with Fisher’s in depth method for corporate research called scuttlebutt and Ben Graham’s concepts of Margin of Safety and Intrinsic value. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger teach you to stick to what you know, i.e. to keep within you circle of competence, and wait for the fat pitch when the opportunity in the franchise with an impermeable moat shows up. Top that off with George Soros theory for understanding market dynamics called reflexivity and you have a toolbox that will take the reader a long way.
It is always interesting to see how persons who know their subject interpret the deeds of the investment greats. There are also quite a few books in this format with John Trains The Money Masters from 1994 and Jack Schwinger’s 1989 classic text on top traders called Market Wizards as the prime examples. These two books and Arnold’s The Great Investors all share the structure of simply lining up a number of investors one after the other – in this case roughly 50 pages on each. To succeed with such an elementary story line you, as a reader, really have to get under skin of the portrayed investors. Arnold does a good, but not great, job with presenting the various personal backgrounds and the effects these had further on. On the other hand the book is pedagogic with pictures and flow charts that try to explain the quintessence of each investor’s methods. This and a text with a good flow make the book very accessible and both the novice investor and the more seasoned one may benefit from the reading.
Arnold also includes a very short introduction displaying some commonalities amongst the persons he portrays. Habits such as to be a business analyst rather than a security analyst, of controlling emotion, having consistency in the approach used and the effort to constantly try to learn from mistakes are selected as mutually used. Ideally I think the author could have made an additional effort to tie this together after presenting his all-star line-up. Why not end with a discussion on how the investors differ, which ones share the most commonalities, if someone is an odd man out (clearly Soros) and how all this ties in with differences in investment horizons, temperaments and much more?
One of Sir John Templeton’s many clever quotations is “The four most expensive words in the English language are ‘this time it’s different’”. Apart from pointing to the fact that the equity investor - both in times of panic and of hubris - should take notice of the fact that the stock market over time fluctuates around trend earnings that grow rather steadily, it also reminds us that successful long term investing really hasn’t changed over the last century. This is also why there is so much to learn from these previous masters of the money game.
If you have the time you should absolutely read the books written about and by each and one of these investors, but if not, Arnold’s book is a really good substitute.
Of course you could say that the reader would get a fuller picture of these investors by reading John Neff on Investing, The Essays of Warren Buffett, Investing with Anthony Bolton etc. but why not take this excellent short cut? It is a smorgasbord of some of the best concepts in finance. The reader becomes acquainted with Fisher’s in depth method for corporate research called scuttlebutt and Ben Graham’s concepts of Margin of Safety and Intrinsic value. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger teach you to stick to what you know, i.e. to keep within you circle of competence, and wait for the fat pitch when the opportunity in the franchise with an impermeable moat shows up. Top that off with George Soros theory for understanding market dynamics called reflexivity and you have a toolbox that will take the reader a long way.
It is always interesting to see how persons who know their subject interpret the deeds of the investment greats. There are also quite a few books in this format with John Trains The Money Masters from 1994 and Jack Schwinger’s 1989 classic text on top traders called Market Wizards as the prime examples. These two books and Arnold’s The Great Investors all share the structure of simply lining up a number of investors one after the other – in this case roughly 50 pages on each. To succeed with such an elementary story line you, as a reader, really have to get under skin of the portrayed investors. Arnold does a good, but not great, job with presenting the various personal backgrounds and the effects these had further on. On the other hand the book is pedagogic with pictures and flow charts that try to explain the quintessence of each investor’s methods. This and a text with a good flow make the book very accessible and both the novice investor and the more seasoned one may benefit from the reading.
Arnold also includes a very short introduction displaying some commonalities amongst the persons he portrays. Habits such as to be a business analyst rather than a security analyst, of controlling emotion, having consistency in the approach used and the effort to constantly try to learn from mistakes are selected as mutually used. Ideally I think the author could have made an additional effort to tie this together after presenting his all-star line-up. Why not end with a discussion on how the investors differ, which ones share the most commonalities, if someone is an odd man out (clearly Soros) and how all this ties in with differences in investment horizons, temperaments and much more?
One of Sir John Templeton’s many clever quotations is “The four most expensive words in the English language are ‘this time it’s different’”. Apart from pointing to the fact that the equity investor - both in times of panic and of hubris - should take notice of the fact that the stock market over time fluctuates around trend earnings that grow rather steadily, it also reminds us that successful long term investing really hasn’t changed over the last century. This is also why there is so much to learn from these previous masters of the money game.
If you have the time you should absolutely read the books written about and by each and one of these investors, but if not, Arnold’s book is a really good substitute.
March 13, 2021
The Skinny: Fairly in-depth summaries of the stories and strategies behind some of the greatest equity investors of all time.
The Good: I love how the chapters delved into the background of each subject and tied it into their philosophies and dispositions. There is a lot of overlap in beliefs but also plenty of differences which make it fun to decide which make the most sense to you and what you would adopt when creating your own strategy. The best part about this book is how you can easily flip back through chapters to remind yourself of the key points.
The Bad: This book is basically sparknotes for the subject investors own books on their careers and investment theses. While it is great to get the highlights, you definitely miss out on a lot of detail from the source texts, so I hope plenty of people read those as well. Also, the Financial Times books continue to make me angry with the amount of typos and grammar errors. Just shoddy editing.
The Good: I love how the chapters delved into the background of each subject and tied it into their philosophies and dispositions. There is a lot of overlap in beliefs but also plenty of differences which make it fun to decide which make the most sense to you and what you would adopt when creating your own strategy. The best part about this book is how you can easily flip back through chapters to remind yourself of the key points.
The Bad: This book is basically sparknotes for the subject investors own books on their careers and investment theses. While it is great to get the highlights, you definitely miss out on a lot of detail from the source texts, so I hope plenty of people read those as well. Also, the Financial Times books continue to make me angry with the amount of typos and grammar errors. Just shoddy editing.
January 19, 2025
The book is four-hundred-page long, but it is a good read. On financial intelligence, the author helps reader with filtering the complicated formulas and greek letters, and provides a clear cut message by focusing on the methodology. So this book is accessible to beginning level readers, who are hesitated by complex mathematics. I believe that this book is also good for professionals, who sometimes miss the core notion by spending too much time on financial calculations and modeling.
September 9, 2019
Sejujurnya buku ini beraatttt banget untuk orang awam ekonomi kayak saya. I managed to finished all the stories of 8 great people in investors but i still hardly understand about investing itself.
Mungkin nanti kalo saya sudah lebih paham lagi tentang ilmu investasi buku ini pasti akan saya baca ulang.
Mungkin nanti kalo saya sudah lebih paham lagi tentang ilmu investasi buku ini pasti akan saya baca ulang.
October 29, 2020
The main theme of the book is ‘do not to be a speculator, but be an investor’. However, all of the examples are great speculators. The advisements are very ordinary and not creative, nonetheless to learn from the lives of examples is precious.
November 10, 2020
Great book by all measures. read the book during my Bachelor of commerce special honors in Accounting, focusing on the Investment and portfolio management course.The superstars are like conjurers in the game of investing.....the white handkerchief is of cause pulled out of the hat...
March 20, 2022
Content is great in the book, each investor is examined carefully and their investment characteristics are laid out in a comprehensive way.
ps. Unfortunately the (Turkish) translation I had was pretty poor in terms of wording and sentence formation.
ps. Unfortunately the (Turkish) translation I had was pretty poor in terms of wording and sentence formation.
October 18, 2017
this is a good book for investor. we can learn from the giant investor of all time. they have philosophy of their investing activity. behind their choice many good wisdoms can be found.
October 20, 2018
A walk down with the legends of investing on their life, thought process, investing thesis and the pitfalls to avoid to become a better and rational investor.
January 25, 2019
Buku yang bagus bisa jadi jelek karena kualitas terjemahan yang buruk.
March 25, 2021
Apesar de eu não ter entendido 80%, acho que valeu a leitura. Pelo menos pelas biografias dos caras.
June 27, 2024
Valuable!!
Outstanding book.
Easy to read, well written.
It is good both for new and old investors.
Loved and enjoyed reading it.
Thank you very much!!!
Outstanding book.
Easy to read, well written.
It is good both for new and old investors.
Loved and enjoyed reading it.
Thank you very much!!!
February 25, 2025
Mükemmeldi,yatırımla ilgilenenlerin mutlaka okuması gerek.
February 4, 2023
A well-written overview of the background, context, careers and investment strategies of 9 great investors including Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham, Philip Fisher and George Soros. Good structure of introducing the investor, his background and career as well as a summary with lessons and key takeaways from each investor.
Great book if you’re interested in comparing and contrasting the investment styles and philosophies of some of the greatest money managers of all time. Also draws an interesting picture of different time periods and progression of ideas.
Great book if you’re interested in comparing and contrasting the investment styles and philosophies of some of the greatest money managers of all time. Also draws an interesting picture of different time periods and progression of ideas.
April 10, 2014
This book is incredible - and it has made me money.
Glen Arnold presents the essential financial investment concepts in a simple and easy-to-read way. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning the fundamentals of investment.
Glen Arnold presents the essential financial investment concepts in a simple and easy-to-read way. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning the fundamentals of investment.
November 15, 2014
Very easy-to-read book on investing. I actually enjoyed it because it didn't go too heavy on the industry jargon.
December 22, 2014
Good source for basic savvy about investing in stock and part of businesses, and how to be wise about it
December 20, 2019
Great book!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews