Superinvestors

About the Author
Foreword by Clive Moffatt

Introduction: Opportunities for Ordinary Investors
- A world of highly-paid coin-flippers?
- Greatest investors
- Rating the investors

1. Jesse Livermore - The Trend-Following Boy Plunger
- A self-made man
- From the farm to Wall Street via bucket shops
- Reading the tape like a conductor
- From rags to riches to rags
- The man who brought down the market
- Blowing money on other investments
- What Livermore's story teaches us

2. David Ricardo - The Napoleonic Speculator
- Introduction
- How did he start out?
- Taking advantage of hysteria
- Small profits add up to a lavish lifestyle
- Ricardo's Waterloo
- Difference between investing and speculation

3. George Soros - The Alchemist Who Broke the Bank of England
- Feared rather than loved
- From immigrant to billionaire
- Using reflexivity
- Breaking the Bank of England
- Mauled by the Russian bear
- Lessons from George Soros

4. Michael Steinhardt - The Contrarian Hedge Funder
- Introduction
- The sociology of the markets
- From block trading to variant perception
- The not so Nifty Fifty
- The trades that didn't work out
- Huge returns
- Worthwhile, but difficult

5. Benjamin Graham - The Father of Value Investing
- Introduction
- Buying value and smoking cigar butts
- Graham-Newman Corporation
- GEICO
- Value matters

6. Warren Buffett - The Elder Statesman of Finance
- Introduction
- From Omaha to Wall Street
- From value to growth
- Six decades of success
- Picking up where Graham left off
- What we can learn from Buffett

7. Anthony Bolton - The British Warren Buffett
- Introduction
- From stock picker to 'Silent Assassin'
- Three decades of success - both at home and abroad
- Bolton's best calls
- Bolton's turbulent Chinese experience
- The importance of value investing

8. Neil Woodford - The Top Current Value Manager in Britain
- Introduction
- From flying planes to City high-flyer
- Value investing for the long term
- Strong performance
- Skipping down Tobacco Road
- Missed opportunity with banks
- Upsides (and downsides) of value investing

9. Philip Fisher - The Inventor of Growth Investing
- Introduction
- Career break proved a hidden blessing
- Finding fast-growing companies
- Texas Instruments and Motorola
- Companies for all seasons

10. T. Rowe Price - The Pragmatic Growth Investor
- Introduction
- From chemistry to money management
- Growth - but not at any price
- Strong track record
- High-flying stocks
- Other lessons for investors

11. Peter Lynch - The Man Who Beat the Street
- Introduction
- From the golf course to fund management
- Bottom-up investing
- Outpacing the bull
- Liked the company, bought its shares, made a packet
- Growth investing simplified

12. Nick Train - The Inactive Optimist
- Introduction
- Apprentice becomes the master
- Finding value in growth
- Buying shares in good-tasting companies
- Stocks - and stock markets - for the long run
- Exceptional performance
- What has worked...
- ...and what hasn't
- Keeping it simple

13. Georges Doriot - The Venture Capital Pioneer
- Introduction
- Buying a stake in a business
- Short-term problems, long-term success
- Doriot's best investment - Digital Electronic Corporation
- Lessons from ARDC

14. Eugene Kleiner and Tom Perkins - The VCs of Silicon Valley
- Introduction
- The refugee and the executive
- Investing in edible dog food
- Two big successes
- What you can learn from Kleiner Perkins

15. John Templeton - The Global Investor
- Introduction
- From poker player to star fund manager
- Investing abroad - and against the herd
- Getting Japan right, wrong and right again
- Importance of overseas investing

16. Robert W. Wilson - The Short Seller
- Introduction
- Putting his investing before his day job
- Adding leverage to hedged investments
- Turning a nest egg into a large fortune
- Success on both the long and short sides
- Squeezed in Atlantic City
- The eighth wonder of the world

17. Edward O. Thorp - The Revenge of the Quants
- Introduction
- From blackjack to the stock market
- Systematic and scientific investing
- High returns, low risk
- Other good investments
- How to follow in Thorp's footsteps

18. John Maynard Keynes - The Stockpicking Economist
- Introduction
- Combining academia and money-making
- From asset allocation to stock picking
- Mediocre speculator but outstanding stock picker
- Mining shares and car companies
- Importance of flexibility

19. John 'Jack' Bogle - The Founder of Index Investing
- Introduction
- Poacher turned gamekeeper
- Buying the dartboard
- First they laugh at you, then they copy you
- Does passive investing work?
- Depressing or liberating?

20. Paul Samuelson - The Secret Investor
- Introduction
- Random walk
- Commodities Corporation
- Private investments
- Pretty efficient market

Conclusion: Lessons of the Superinvestors
- 1. The market can be beaten
- 2. There are many roads to investment success
- 3. Be flexible...
- 4. ...but not too flexible
- 5. Successful investing requires an edge
- 6. When you do have an edge, bet big
- 7. Have an exit strategy
- 8. Ordinary investors have some advantages
- 9. Big isn't always beautiful
- 10. It's good to have some distance from the crowd
- The best superinvestor?

Bibliography
- A. Published books
- B. Journal articles and working papers
- C. Newspaper and magazine articles
- D. Other sources

Thanks
Afterword
Index