Investment Guru - Marc Faber

Marc Faber’s GloomBoomDoom website is insightful.

We can see his investment style and biography from the “About Marc Faber” section.

Some books authored or co-authored by Marc Faber: (I search in Amazon)

• Tomorrow’s Gold : Asia’s age of discovery
• Zukunftsmarkt Asien (in German)
• Riding the Millennial Storm: Marc Faber’s path to profit in the financial markets
• The Goldwatcher: demystifying gold investing (he wrote the Foreword)
• The Great Swindle: the story of the South Sea Bubble (he wrote the introduction)

Books on him, his investment, investment style etc :

• Riding the Millenial Storm
• Trading the World Markets

There is some old free sample in “GloomBoomDoom Report” and “Market Commentary” in the website. These are no longer free and require subscription. However, we can get a glimpse of how Marc Faber’s reports are like from these sample reports.

I would like to bring your attention to: the “Resources” section in his website. It is extremely useful, especially for peoples who wish to learn on investment analysis.

In the “Links” subsection, there are “Recommended websites” and “Recommended money managers”. A long list of websites are given, divided into many categories.

In “Investment wisdom” subsection, we can see some articles by him (I strongly think that these are articles by him that he thinks are the best of his ideas), Marc Faber’s top 6 investment books, recommended newsletter.

He recommends many books to understand economics and financial markets too: PDF

From the “Lifestyle” section, I saw these words:

“…..Investing has a lot to do with common sense and personal observations. The man on the street frequently knows far more about the state of the economy than politicians, university professors and financial analysts who seldom travel, or if they do so, only from one first class hotel to another first class hotel and from one golf course to another…..”

How true these words of wisdom !

An archive of his articles in Daily Reckoning.

There is a blog tracking Marc Faber’s ideas and I have put it in my investment bloglist. Though the blog may not be his but it is a good way to track Marc Faber’s ideas.

Peter Bernstein

Just saw a news article that Peter Bernstein, an economic consultant and historian, a guru in risk management and modern investment theory, dies on 5 June 2009, at the age of 90.

Peter Bernstein Inc.

He is a proponent of Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). Though EMH is controversial among investors, it's still an important concept in investment.
He has written many books (refer to Peter’s Book from the website above). Many of his books are "bridges" between academic theory and methods in investment industry; good reads to understand history of risk management and modern investment theory.

Among these books, many are classics, for examples:

• Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street
  (This book traces the historical development of modern investment and finance theory.. A list of who-is-who in modern investment theory, for e.g..Harry Markowitz, William Sharpe, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, Franco Modigliani, Merton Miller and a lot more..)
• Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
  (This book traces the historical development of risk and risk management.)
• The Power of Gold: The Story of an Obsession
  (This book is on obsession of gold.)

A video clip (from McKinsey's website) of Peter Bernstein talking on risk.

Investment Guru: Bill Gross

Bill Gross is PIMCO’s Managing Director.
He is an investment guru of fixed income/bond.
He is writing the monthly "Investment Outlook" article which can be read from PIMCO’s website.
His "Investment Outlook" articles are not only informational, they are very insightful.
website

Books by him:
1. Everything You've Heard About Investing Is Wrong!
2. Bill Gross on Investing
(but I don’t have these two books yet)
a book on him:
1. the bond king: investment secrets from PIMCO’s Bill Gross

Some examples of great insights I got from his "Investment Outlook":
November 08 article on "nuclear-like global financial system".
June 08 article on "authenticity of US inflation data".
Mar 07 article on "asset carry path" (10 little assets, much like Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians)

I also learnt from the "Investment Outlook" terms such as shadow banking system, deleverage etc..

Investment Guru: Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing

Benjamin Graham is considered the
"father of financial analysis",
"father of value investing".

Graham mentored (among others) Warren Buffett.

Books by Benjamin Graham or co-authored by him:
1.The Intelligent Investor
2. Security Analysis
3. Benjamin Graham: memoirs of the dean of Wall Street
4. The Interpretation of Financial Statements
5. Storage and Stability
6. World Commodities and World Currency

I only have the 1st two books.
"The Intelligent Investor" is easier to read and more affordable than the great classic "Security Analysis". English version of "Security Analysis" is very expensive. Chinese version is much much cheaper.

More elaborated list of his works
(click on "Benjamin Graham")

The Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing at Columbia Business School
value investing history

Some students who had studied with Graham or Murray (Graham’s successor of his course) became legends in investment management, including
Warren Buffett MS ’51,
Mario Gabelli ’67,
Glenn Greenberg ’73,
Charles Royce ’63,
Walter Schloss and John Shapiro ’78.

The Rediscovered Benjamin Graham:
has 10 lecture texts by Benjamin Graham (presented at NY Institute of Finance in 1946 – 1947).
A summary of his life, method etc.

Some of his important concepts are:
intrinsic value,
margin of safety,
Mr. Market etc..

History of CFA Institute
Benjamin Graham had proposed the need for a rating designation for analysts. The idea which eventually become CFA designation.

One of the articles on Benjamin Graham (on his life) from CFA Institute.

Book : The Snowball – Warren Buffett and the business of life

"The Snowball – Warren Buffett and the business of life" is Warren Buffett’s authorised biography to be published on 29 Sept 2008.
website on the book

Thre is an article which features Warren Buffett "10 ways to get rich":
article

It’s a good read with condensed wisdoms.
I try to "re-phrase" the main points using my own words (after reading the "10 ways to get rich").

1. Reinvest your profits

Power of compounding;

2. Be willing to be different
Beware of "herd mentality";
Own yardstick to judge yourself, not the world’s;
Live your own life, not others

3. Never suck your thumb
Gather info/database before hand to enable fast decision making;
Set a deadline for decision;
Don’t procrastinate on decision

4. Spell out the deal before you start
Get the specifics/details before start

5. Watch small expenses
Beware of any cost that can eat into profit;

6. Limit what you borrow
Be debt free, then work on savings, then only invest

7. Be persistent
Importance of cost reduction;
Importance of negotiation;
Persistance even when in "underdog" situation;

8. Know when to quit
Beware of "mental accounting";
Know when to quit;
Learn from mistakes;
Never repeat mistakes;

9. Assess the risks
Risk analysis by using scenario analysis: best case scenario, worst case scenario;
Decision making analysis : "and then what ?" (much like decision tree)

10. Know what success really means
Success is not measured by dollars nor monuments;
Success is charity, be loved

Investment guru: Warren Buffett

There are many books on Warren Buffett, some of which that I like are:

The Warren Buffett Way
This is my 1st book on Warren Buffett. Works great as a summary, introductory book on Warren Buffett.

The Real Warren Buffett
I like this book very much. It touches on Warren Buffett in aspects of People Leader, Capital Manager and To Act Like An Owner. More insights on his concepts.

Buffettology
written by Mary Buffett. Perhaps she has a better understanding on Buffett’s method.

Of Permanent Value
emphasis is on his life and deeds.

There isn’t a book by Warren Buffett on his investment method yet but we can get a glimpse through his own writings/lectures.

From Berkshire Hathaway’s website, we can get:

Owner-related business principles:
website
Berkshire Hathaway annual reports:
website

Besides that, here is another good Buffett’s resources online:
website

Investment Gurus, Money Masters

Gurufocus
website
many many investment gurus, in fact it is too many :-)

Greatest Investors from Investopedia
website

World’s richest people 2006, in investment industry, from Forbes:
website
(2008 list exists, but it doesn’t have the filter to choose the industry)

For the books mentioned below, you can search in Amazon and look for "table of content". An excerpt is available too. With the investment gurus name or their fund’s name, we can search using Google or Wikipedia.

book : money masters of our time, by John Train

Warren Buffett, Paul Cabot, Philip Fisher, Benjamin Graham, Stanley Kroll, T. Rowe Price, John Templeton, Larry Tisch, Robert Wilson

book: the new money masters of our time, by John Train

Jim Rogers, Michael Steinhardt, Philip Carret, George Soros, George Michaelis, John Neff, Ralph Wanger, managing Harvard’s Money, Peter Lynch

book: the winner’s circle – Wall Street’s best mutual fund managers

Richie Freeman, David Dreman, Bill Miller, Christopher Davis, John Calamos, Wallace Weitz, Richard Aster, Jr., Jeff Cardon, Joel Tillinghast, Bill Ricks & team, Bill Wilby, Jeff Everett, Sam Isaly, Bob Rodriguez..

It can be seen that (from the book’s Table of Contents) it includes large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap, global/foreign, sector/bond successful mutual fund managers.