"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."
