Just One Thing: Twelve of the World's Best Investors Reveal the One Strategy You Can't Overlook - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471738735 ISBN 13: 9780471738732

Publisher: Wiley, 2005

Synopsis

In Just One Thing, author John Mauldin offers an incomparable shortcut to prosperity: the personal guidance of an outstanding group of recognized financial experts, each offering the single most useful piece of advice garnered from years of investing. Conversational rather than technical in tone, each contributor’s personal principle for success is illustrated with entertaining and illuminating real-life stories.

About this title

Review:

Whether from business-focused cable TV channels, newspapers, magazines, Web sites, or friends and family, investment advice comes these days from every corner. The nagging question for conscientious investors remains, though: how to separate good advice from bad? In a world of squawking television commentators and garish headlines, who and what should we trust? With Just One Thing, veteran investment writer John Mauldin offers his answer: take just the best advice, from the best investors, and discard everything else. Mauldin has solicited 12 leading investors for what each considers his most valuable insight or lesson over a long and illustrious investment career--the "one thing" he considers most important to investing--and gathered the tips for future generations of investors to learn.

The lessons which Mauldin has compiled in this thin, readable volume range widely. Some readers may enjoy the folksier tone of hedge fund manager Andy Kessler's piece, which analogizes investing to a hike up New England's Mt. Washington, on a foggy day. Other may prefer the approach of bond investor Gary Shilling, who argues for finding and developing a consistent and long-term narrative (or "story" about a market) around which to build investment picks. Yet others may find it most comforting to go with financial analyst Rob Arnott, who runs a multi-billion dollar fund for Pimco and who anchors his market analysis in deep skepticism and extensive quantitative analytics.

As with the larger market, Mauldin's group of 12 expert investors brings its own mix of philosophies, tactics, and personalities to investing, and in his notes between each selection, Mauldin is careful not to tip his hand favoring one or the other. Instead, quality for Mauldin rests in the survey of the masters, and the restriction of those masters to "just one thing" each. Mauldin should know: as the author of Bull's Eye Investing: Targeting Real Returns in a Smoke and Mirrors Market, as well as a weekly investment newsletter with readership over one million, he has seen his share of both charlatans and geniuses.

Mauldin's work can be taken a couple of different ways. For younger investors, it may provide a valuable survey of different investment philosophies, and the opportunity to learn just enough to undertake further research elsewhere. For more experienced investors it can provide the possibility of a new idea gleaned here or there, some new concept that may have been overlooked previously. Either way, both audiences will benefit from the diversity of perspectives included in this book. In an increasingly chaotic and noise-filled world, trusted sources which give such sure-handed perspective on the business of investments deserve high praise. --Peter Han

From the Inside Flap:

Now, more than ever, the business of investing can be a daunting task. Communications technology has advanced at a dizzying pace, and streams of data have swelled to torrents. How can investors isolate the essentials without being swamped by a glut of information?

Having successfully navigated the treacherous financial waters of investing for over twenty years, renowned financial expert John Mauldin knows the value of an experienced guide. In what is sure to become an immediate classic, his newest book is a priceless anthology of investment advice—nuggets of practical wisdom offered by a stellar assembly of market masters. And, in a master stroke of his own, Mauldin has hit upon a perfect remedy for information overload, asking each contributor to share the single most useful insight gleaned from long years of experience: just one thing.

In Just One Thing, you will not be overwhelmed by unwieldy formulae and tedious data. Mauldin's esteemed colleagues—with refreshing and liberating clarity—get right to the heart of the matter, offering time-tested trading methods that can be put to immediate and profitable use. Conversational rather than technical in tone, each contributor's personal principle for success is illustrated with entertaining and illuminating real-life stories. These are not mere theorists, but practitioners—men who have enjoyed extraordinary success in the market; professional investors who can tell you what works, because it's worked for them.

In Just One Thing you will learn:

• How to boost returns with "the 2% alpha solution"
• The risk-return fallacy
• Why you should use "volatility throttling" when assembling your portfolio
• The secret of "investing in the fog"
• Why "the winner's rule" really works
• Why the best-performing funds have the highest percentage of realized losses
• How psychology often trumps economics
• The strength of a nonconsensus investment theme

Rich with sage advice, refined in the crucible of the market, this collection represents both an uncommon trove of wisdom and an unparalleled investment tool. Applying any one of these financial principles can increase the value of your portfolio—imagine what they can do for your personal wealth when collectively applied!

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0471738735
• ISBN 13: 9780471738732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Mauldin John