How to invest like…the hedge fund manager with a magic formula

“Few fund managers are capable of explaining investing in simple terms. Most prefer to keep what they do a mystery – something that’s best left to a handsomely paid professional.

Wall Street hedge fund legend Joel Greenblatt is an exception. He founded Gotham Capital – now Gotham Asset Management – in 1985, and has been a professor at Columbia Business School since 1996, specialising in “value” investing.

According to Frederik Vanhaverbeke’s 2014 book Excess Returns, Mr Greenblatt managed to achieve a compound annual return of 45pc over 19 years.

By comparison, the famed Fidelity investor Peter Lynch managed an annual rate of 29pc over 13 years, and Warren Buffett has managed a 20pc plus average, although that has been sustained for more than 50 years.”