Will Bolton spill the beans?
Posted on May 17, 2007 by Richard Beddard
Filed Under Reading list, Investing |
If you think Tony Blair’s retirement is a protracted affair, think again. Compared to Anthony Bolton, Britain’s most celebrated fund manager, he rushed into it. In June 2006 Fidelity announced Mr Bolton was to hand over half of his fund to Jorma Korhonen the following January. Earlier this week it announced he is to hand over the other half to Sanjeev Shah next January.
The fuss is understandable. The nation may be divided on Mr Blair, but Mr Bolton’s track record of 20% a-year returns is indisputable. Apparently he’s going ‘upstairs’ at Fidelity where he’ll work on strategy and mentoring young fund managers.
Let’s hope he thinks of private investors too. There’s a precedent. US fund manager Peter Lynch retired as manager of Fidelity’s flagship Magellan fund in 1990 after a thirteen year tenure in which he averaged returns of 29%. His gift to private investors was three books:
- Learn to Earn,
- Beating The Street, and…
- One Up on Wall Street
They’re all favourites of mine, but ‘One Up On Wall Street’ has influenced my investing more than any other book.
Mr Bolton likes books. He wrote one chapter in a book by Jonathan Davis, a journalist, called ‘Investing with Anthony Bolton‘. It was entitled ‘Daring to be different‘ in which he devoted not much more than a page to each of his twenty-five years as a contrarian investor. It’s a taster of just how good the book in him could be. In it he puts his choice to be a value investor (as opposed to growth) down to reading:
I have always liked reading books on investment that are written about, or by, the great investment gurus. In my opinion the weight of the evidence of these supports the idea that value is more likely than growth to deliver superior returns over the long term.
So come on Mr Bolton. Once you’re freed from the daily grind of stock selection and portfolio management, you can be less circumspect. Tell us how you did it 
.
A word of warning for Mr Shah and Mr Korhonen. Mr Lynch’s successers never matched him for performance. Perhaps Magellan just got too big. Or perhaps the likes of Mr Lynch and Mr Bolton prove that individuals really do make a difference.
Footnotes:
- Chalk up another member of the doom and gloom club. In fact make that two. Mr Bolton’s nervous about this market, much to the delight of Michal J Panzer, blogger and author of ‘Financial Armageddon‘. Makes the ‘Great Crash of 2009‘ seem a bit tame, doesn’t it?
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