The Great Investors: Anthony Bolton’s Philosophy

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The Great Investors by Glen Arnold. First, a little excerpt from capitalideasonline and then a little on the book.

In a wonderful book, “The Great Investors”, the author, Glen Arnold, writes on the Anthony Bolton’s investment philosophy.

“Anthony Bolton believes that every share you own should have an investment thesis. That is, you should be able to summarize why you own, or want to own, a share in a few sentences that your teenage son or daughter could understand.

The investment thesis should be retested at regular intervals. When testing it you should think about what might lead to the share becoming ‘bad’; what might the ‘bear’ in the market place latch onto? Can you provide convincing counter- arguments to those who are much more negative about the share? Bolton is one of those rare individuals who goes in search of disconfirming evidence – people are naturally inclined to search for evidence that confirms their currently held views, so it takes a lot of self-discipline to hunt out disconfirming facts and opposite views. For example, Anthony Bolton likes to read broker research that disagrees with his view and then discuss this with colleagues to firmly establish in their minds why they think the broker is wrong. It is very important to build conviction about a stock, but conviction must not develop into pig-headedness in the face of new (negative) information – keep an open mind.

Even after a collecting a lot of facts and testing your views against those of others do not think that you will be hugely sure about what you are doing at all times; business is inherently uncertain and your conviction is bound to wax and wane, and a lot of the time you are going to be uncertain about everything. However, when you do get a strong conviction then it is important to back it strongly.

The Categories of Shares Anthony Bolton Favors

Recovery shares

Full article here

The Great Investors

The Great investors Peter Lynch Anthony Bolton

The Great Investors by Glen Arnold.

‘Whether a complete novice, or a professional portfolio manager, The Great Investors will give you access to the mindset and techniques of the most successful investors of our time and more importantly, it will help you avoid mistakes. The Great Investors will have a permanent place on my desk.’
Mark Sheridan , Executive Director, Nomura International PLC

Leading investors such as Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Sir John Templeton, George Soros and Anthony Bolton are known throughout the world. How did these people come to be so successful? Which strategies have they used to make their fortunes? And what can you learn from their techniques?

In The Great Investors, Glen Arnold succinctly and accurately describes the investment philosophies of the world’s greatest investors. He explains why they are the best, gives details of their tactics for accumulating wealth, captures the key elements that led to their market-beating successes and teaches you key lessons that you can apply to your own investing strategies.

From the foreword:

‘There are some very special people who seem to possess an exceptional talent for acquiring wealth. I want to explore not just the past triumphs of these masters, but also the key factors they look for as well as the personality traits that allow them to control emotion and think rationally about where to place funds. How does a master of investment hone skills through bitter experience and triumph to develop their approach to accumulating wealth?’

Glen Arnold

The Great Investors is the story of a number of remarkable men: John Templeton, George Soros, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Philip Fisher, Peter Lynch, Anthony Bolton and John Neff. Whether you’re new to investing, have had success in the markets, or you’re a professional investor or fund manger, you’ll benefit from reading about their proven, and successful, trading philosophies.

The Great Investors will show you how to:

  • Be a business analyst rather than a security analyst
  • Do your homework and develop a broad social, economic and political awareness
  • Control emotion so as not to get swept away by the market
  • Be consistent in your approach, even when you have bad years
  • See the wood for the trees and not over complicate your portfolio
  • Learn from your investing
  • Be self reliant, stand aside from the crowd and follow your own logic
  • Take reasonable risk

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