The Stock Picker
A financial history from the sharp end
By Paul Mumford
Jacket text
Paul Mumford is a noted stock-picker with over 50 years’ experience in the markets – first as a stock broker and then as a star fund manager. In The Stock Picker, Mumford takes a deeply personal look back at his time investing: exploring not only the secrets of his successful approach to the markets and how to find great shares but reminiscing about the changes that have taken place in the investing world since the early 1960s.
This book is not an investing how-to: instead it is a financial history straight from the horse’s mouth. While there is much for investors to learn from, it is an also evocative window into a vanished City of stock jobbers, messenger boys, luncheon vouchers and ledger-keepers – not to mention financial crises, booms and busts, and the life and death of companies great and small.
Mumford also covers how his own personal life has influenced his stock-picking approach: from running his own bookmaking business as a schoolboy to an ill-fated attempt at oil painting at night school (not to mention the vibrant music scene of the late 1950s).
The Stock Picker is a charming and readable autobiography that pulls no punches – ideal for any investor interested in what has made a leading fund manager tick, or who simply wants to spend some time nostalgically looking back at how the investing and wider world has changed over the years.
About the author
Paul Mumford is one of the longest-serving fund managers in the UK, with 50 years' experience in the markets as a stockbroker and fund manager. He currently runs the TM Cavendish Opportunities Fund and the TM AIM Fund, having launched the first in 1988 as the Glenfriars Opportunities Fund. He is a stock picker who aims to find shares in undervalued companies and often ends up swimming against the tide and buying unloved shares. Paul has three daughters and two granddaughters. His outside interests include bridge - he has obtained the rank of Life Master - supporting live music at local venues, and following two football teams as a season ticket holder.
Reviews
The Stock Picker is an engaging read for those interested in the investment industry and wider world nostalgia.
My current favourite out of the books we received in the office is Paul Mumford’s The Stock Picker, a history of the last 30 years from the perspective of the fund he has run and the companies he has invested in. Mumford, who is reckoned to be the longest serving fund manager on the same fund, is a classic stockpicker and if you spend more than half an hour with him you will see why.
He constantly gets calls from brokers and has an incredible knowledge of the companies he has or hasn’t invested in. His ‘process’ doesn’t neatly fit into the ‘tick-box’ analysis system many work under now but this book gives you a brilliant insight into the way a real, old school, but still very active, active investor works.
“It’s an honest and enjoyable read.”
“A wonderfully eccentric and engaging insight into the mind of an extremely accomplished investor.”
“A fascinating life of kaleidoscopic colour and a wonderful anthropological study that confirms how those formative years shape the way we are as adults.”
“As his clients will attest, Paul Mumford is no ordinary investor and, as I know from trying to maintain a semblance of control chairing conferences, he is no ordinary speaker. So it should come as no surprise that, with this entertaining and insightful blend of personal and professional experience, he has produced no ordinary investment book.”
“Paul Mumford is a wise and engaging guide taking you through his five decades in the City: booms, bear markets, rogues, successes and fads are all here. So too is a rich store of ideas for those who are serious about successful long-term investing.”
“Paul Mumford’s wealth of experience and accumulated knowledge as a stock picker over many years of turmoil is worth its weight in gold!”
Media coverage
From What Investment:
Paul Mumford has been running the Cavendish Opportunities Fund making him one of the longest serving fund managers anywhere in the UK, and his returns match his longevity.He is far from a household name, but he is a brilliant example of a stock picker. Mumford’s knowledge of companies is exceptional and this book is a… Read more »
From Transparency Times:
I am what most people term as a “stock picker” which means that I chose buy individual shares in which I hope to make money. My type of stock picking is selecting shares which look undervalued on investment merits.
From Informed Choice Radio:
Interview from Martin Bamford with Paul Mumford about his book The Stock Picker.
From Hedge Magazine :
Paul Mumford – fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management – is different to the rest, and it’s clear to see from the book he’s penned that he’s as focussed on his personal life as making money, says SAFI THIND. AN ANTIC DISPOSITION – the feigned madness and irrationality – that Hamlet assumes when setting up… Read more »
From Share Radio:
Audio file – please follow link to listen
From FT Adviser :
In The Stock Picker, veteran investor Paul Mumford recounts five decades of experience hunting for value in the UK stock market. Looking back at a career that began in the 1960s, Mr Mumford reminisces about the development of the investment world and gives his take on what has been a successful approach to markets. Although… Read more »
From Bloomberg Radio:
It is possible to find returns of 7 or 8% on UK stocks, according to Paul Mumford fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management. Speaking to Daybreak Europe’s Caroline Hepker and Manus Cranny, he argues that the drop in sterling will be a boost to companies like North Sea oil producers, but that sterling could return… Read more »
From What Investment:
Paul Mumford, the veteran manager of the Cavendish UK Opportunities fund, has been buying shares in retailer Next, despite the shares falling almost 40 per cent in a year. Next delivered a much worse than expected trading update last week, sending the shares, which had already been battered by the shift in sentiment away from… Read more »
From ValueWalk:
Paul Mumford is a noted stock-picker with over 50 years’ experience in the markets – first as a stockbroker and then as a star fund manager for Cavendish. In this new book, The Stock Picker, Paul Mumford takes a deeply personal look back at his time investing: exploring not only the secrets of his successful… Read more »
Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I - School and the Stockbroker Years
1. Bleak Prospects
2. Animals in the Zoo
3. Under Starter's Orders
4. Gigs, Gee-Gees and Trees
5. Boom Boom
6. What on Earth is Going on?
7. The Final Throw 73
Part II - The Fund Management Years
8. The Start of the Journey
9. Cavendish Opportunities Fund - The Early Years
10. Dotcom and Millennium Bug
11. Lose Some, Win Some
12. "Whoops"
13. 'Baggers'
Part III - Putting it Together
14. Processes
15. Horses for Courses
16. Big is Beautiful?
17. Ten Years of Train Crashes
18. Hitting the Buffers
19. AIM Moves into the Picture
20. More Down the Plug 'Ole
21. The Zookeeper and the Penguins
22. Footie not FTSE
23. Other Distractions
Index
| Published: | 14/11/2016 |
|---|---|
| Edition: | 1st |
| Pages: | 312 |
| Formats: | hardback - ISBN 9780857195548 ebook - ISBN 9780857195555 paperback - ISBN 9780857197573 |
If you’d like to get in touch with the author for interview or comment, or you’d like a review copy of this book, please contact us at pr@harriman-house.com or call +44 (0)1730 233870.
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