Book Description

Investing legend Warren Buffett once said that “success in investing doesn’t correlate with I.Q. once you’re above the level of 125. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.”

In an attempt to understand exactly what kind of temperament Buffett was talking about, Ronald W. Chan interviewed 12 value-investing legends from around the world, learning how their personal background, culture, and life experiences have shaped their investment mindset and strategy. The Value Investors: Lessons from the World’s Top Fund Managers is the result.

From 106-year-old Irving Kahn, who worked closely with “father of value investing” Benjamin Graham and remains active today, and 95-year-old Walter Schloss (described by Warren Buffett as the “super-investor from Graham-and-Dodsville”), to the co-founders of Hong Kong-based Value Partners, Cheah Cheng Hye and V-Nee Yeh, and Francisco García Paramés of Spain’s Bestinver Asset Management, Chan chose investment luminaries to help him understand the international appeal – and success – of value investing. All of these men became strong advocates of the approach despite considerable age and cultural differences. Chan finds out why.

In The Value Investors, readers will also discover how these investors, each of whom has a unique value perspective, have consistently beaten the stock market over the years. Do they share a trait that allows this to happen? Is there a winning temperament that turns the ordinary investor into an extraordinary one? This book answers these questions and more.
"Value investing is often misunderstood and misapplied. You will make neither mistake if you read Ronald Chan's book on the subject."

-Donald Keough,
Chairman of the Board of Allen & Company Inc.

"Ronald Chan's work is an essential starting point for any nascent value investor and an invaluable reference for experienced investors."

-Bruce C. N. Greenwald,
Director of Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing, Columbia University

"Ronald Chan's book contains two of my favorite subjects--investing and biographies. Seeing them combined in such a flowing format is very enjoyable."

-Donald Yacktman,
President and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Yacktman Asset Management Co.

Simplified Chinese Version
简体中文版

Traditional Chinese Version
繁體中文版

Thai Version
เวอร์ชั่นไทย

Japanese Version
日本語版

Portuguese Version
Versão português

Meet The Author

Ronald W. Chan founded Chartwell Capital Limited in 2006 and currently serves as Chief Investment Officer. Seeking undervalued investment opportunities based on fundamental analysis, Ronald believes that the company’s strength lies in its value-driven principles, backed by a long-term investment horizon and keen awareness of the need for a margin of safety between an investment’s market price and its intrinsic value.

Ronald holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Accounting from the Stern School of Business at New York University, and is a columnist whose informative articles appear regularly on Reuters and in The Standard newspaper in Hong Kong and Better Investing magazine in the United States.

In 2010, he published a book about the career successes of Warren Buffett’s top managers – Behind the Berkshire Hathaway Curtain: Lessons from Warren Buffett’s Top Business Leaders. In 2012, he published his second book, The Value Investors: Lessons from the World’s Top Fund Managers, which focuses on the investment philosophy and careers of twelve value investors from around the world.

In all of his writing, Ronald argues that investors should always keep their activities simple and focus on what they know best. He is convinced that a sensible investment decision should never be more than a page long.

Q&A on The Value Investors: Lessons from the World's Top Fund Managers with author Ronald W. Chan

Why did you decide to write The Value Investors: Lessons from the World's Top Fund Managers?
As a value fund manager myself, I have never felt that an investment skill set alone is the determining factor in beating the stock market. Rather, it has more to do with one's temperament and investment philosophy. To learn more about these qualities, I tried to look into the life and career experiences of successful value investors around the world, but was able to find only information on their investment performance or current outlook.
 
The idea of writing this book emerged with the realization that to truly understand the essence of value investing, I needed to learn more about the career paths and life encounters of its successful practitioners. In 2011 and 2012, I interviewed 12 renowned value investors from different parts of the world. They told me about their personal background and shared their life stories, and in the book I inform readers of why and how they became value investors in the first place and what has made them successful.

Who should read this book?
I believe anyone who is interested in investing and in sensible money management should read this book. As Professor Bruce Greenwald, Director of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing at Columbia University, put it, the book is a good "starting point for any nascent value investor and an invaluable reference for experienced investors." 
 
It is important to note that the book is not an in-depth analysis of investment theories or formulas. Instead, it tells the life stories of tried and true value investors, who inform us of how they started out and how they became who they are today.

What is the one thing that all of the value investors you interviewed have in common?
They are all curious about the world. They are curious about human psychology, about how businesses function, and about how the world is progressing. In effect, this means that they never stop reading and learning because they always want to know more. By that, I don't mean that they read romance novels or gossip magazines, but rather useful materials and information that will improve their knowledge and give them an edge when it comes to investment decision making.
 
People often ask these investors how they generate ideas, and their answer is simply "I read a lot." Although this answer may not seem helpful on the face of it, idea generation involves more than waking up one day and deciding to look for inspiration. It is important to have a disciplined reading and learning routine, to try to understand the world in a systematic manner, and to synthesize all of the information you have accumulated. Then, inspiration may strike.