Enjoyable journey with successful investors

There have been over a dozen books published over the years on the most successful traders, investors, and hedge fund managers. These include three books on traders written by Jack Schwager, and others authored by Ari Kiev, Fari Hamzei, Ronald Chan, Cathleen Rittereiser, Lawrence Kochar and Ian Floyd. Matthew Partridge, a British author, joins this group with a worthwhile glimpse into the investing approach of twenty noteworthy individuals. Although this book does not provide a comprehensive review of each investor/trader or their many successful trades, it does provide a well-written and enjoyable look into their careers and accomplishments.

As a voracious reader of investment books over the last 60 years, I was not surprised to be familiar with sixteen of the profiled individuals, however, I had not heard of two individuals from the UK and two others from the US. Among the individuals profiled are well-known names such as Warren Buffett, John Templeton, Jack Bogle, George Soros, Peter Lynch and Jesse Livermore.

This book features insight into the investing career of a varied group of professional investors. The author provides a brief 7- to 10-page profile of each person using the same format. That is, Partridge begins with background information on the individual, followed by a discussion of their investing approach, their best or worst trades, what can be learned from them, and finally an overall numerical score for that person. The rating is an overall number with 20 being the highest score focusing on four categories: performance, longevity, influence, and ease of replication of their strategy. Fortunately, the author rates each category separately, using one to five stars which provides useful to the reader. For example, a reader who is looking for performance could focus on those individuals who received a five star rating. Not surprising were the top 3 scorers: tie with 18 for Graham and Bogle, and 17 for Buffett.

At the book’s conclusion, Partridge provides a summary of the ten key lessons learned from these investors. He posits that Graham was the best investor of all-time. Readers may disagree with that choice, but this book is a worthwhile addition to the category. Also, readers who want to obtain more detailed information on any of the investors profiled in the book can use the Internet and other books to further their knowledge. Anyone considering investing in the stock market for the first time or even with years of investing experience will benefit from the insight provided by these super investors.