Investing the Templeton Way: The Market-Beating Strategies of Value Investing's Legendary Bargain Hunter [Hardcover]

Lauren Templeton (Author), Scott Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2008

“To buy when others are despondently selling and to sell when others are avidly buying requires the greatest fortitude and pays the greatest ultimate rewards.”-Sir John Templeton

Called the “greatest stock picker of the century” by Money magazine, legendary fund manager Sir John Templeton is revered as one of the world's premiere value investors, widely known for pioneering global investing and out-performing the stock market over a five-decade span. Investing the Templeton Way provides a never-before-seen glimpse into Sir John's timeless principles and methods.

Beginning with a review of the methods behind Sir John's proven investment selection process, Investing the Templeton Way provides historical examples of his most successful trades and explains how today's investors can apply Sir John's winning approaches to their own portfolios. Detailing his most well-known principle investing at the point of maximum pessimism- this book outlines the techniques Sir John has used throughout his career to identify such points and capitalize on them.

Among the lessons to be learned:

• Discover how to keep a cool head when other investors overreact to bad news
• Become a bargain stock hunter like Sir John-buy the stocks emotional sellers wish to unload and sell them what they are desperate to buy
• Search worldwide to expand your bargain inventory
• Protect your portfolio from yourself through diversification
• Rely on quantitative versus qualitative reasoning when it comes to selecting stocks
• Adopt a virtuous investment strategy that will endure in all market conditions

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The First Insider Look Into Sir John's Investing Strategies

Sir John Templeton is “The greatest stock picker of the century.”
-Money

“Sir John Templeton's savvy went beyond that of the investment world. A mother asked him what was the best investment advice she could give her son, and he responded 'to tithe.' He encouraged me and others to seek the spiritual truths that are every bit as incontrovertible as the physical laws that impact our universe, and then make a commitment to live by them. He was a giant not only in his 'out of the box' investment acumen, but also for his understandings of the broader issues of life.”
-Foster Friess, Founder/Fund Manager, Friess Associates Inc.

“Sir John Templeton knows well the royal road to riches for passive investors. First, be price conscious-buy bargains. Second, focus on the long term outlook. Third, don't pay attention to the short term outlook knowing that most bargains are created when the near term outlook is poor to clouded. Investing the Templeton Way provides an excellent road map for investors who seek to get into the details of how best to emulate Sir John and his fabulous success.”
-Martin J. Whitman, portfolio manager, Third Avenue Value Fund

“Through his generous counseling sessions at Lyford Cay in our early days, his sagacious investing, and personal example, Sir John inculcated more important principles into our culture at Southeastern Asset Management, Inc. than any other. Similarly, Investing the Templeton Way offers the novice as well as the professional invaluable guidance that will make you a better investor. It should not only be read, but absorbed.”
-Mason Hawkins, chairman and chief executive officer, Southeastern Asset Management, Inc., advisor to the Longleaf Partners Funds

About the Author

Lauren C. Templeton is the sole owner of Lauren Templeton Capital Management, LLC. She is the founder and Chairman of the Southeastern Hedge Fund Association, Inc.

Scott Phillips is the lead analyst and portfolio manager of the Lauren Templeton Global Maximum Pessimism Fund.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (January 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071545638
• ISBN-13: 978-0071545631
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Too superficial June 1, 2008

By moneymanager

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book hoping to learn more about how to invest in foreign stocks since Templeton was known for that. Unfortunately other than a few simple things like checking to make sure a government's debt is no more than 25% of GDP, there were very few specifics. The author presents a couple of examples where "Uncle John" took advantage of distrust in foreign markets (like investing in South Korea during the Asian financial crises) to make great investments, but doesn't go enough into enough detail to be of any real benefit to anybody.

The book is more about the very basics of being a value investor and the attitudes needed to be successful in investing (ie, don't follow the crowd, buy low P/E or low PEG stocks, diversification). But even that is presented in somewhat of a haphazard way compared to other books, such as Peter Lynch's books or some of the books about Warren Buffet. Chapter 6, "No Trouble TO Short The Bubble", is not much more than a recount of the tech wreck and an admonishment to people who bought tech stocks at high P/Es. The main points of the book could have been made in half the pages. Only the last chapter on China was interesting.

I gave three stars because this would be an ok book for a beginning investor, but for an intermediate or advanced investor this in not much more than a rah-rah book about value investing and is more like one or two stars.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not much for the dough April 20, 2008

By Dipak Thakur

Format:Hardcover

My expectations out of this book got dashed. It has little to offer. I found it tough to take down even half a page of notings / learnings from this book. On an average the learnings for such a book run into multiple pages.
Narrative style is vague and book lacks continuity and core theme and details.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Advice, horrible writing September 10, 2008

By Max7777

Format:Hardcover

Templeton was truly one of the greatest investors of all time. This book does give you insight into his thinking and methodology. So it should be a great book since there are very few books about him. However be warned the writing is just horrendous. I never cared about the writing style of a how to book, but this one is just terrible. Extremely hard to keep you interested, as if a 11 year old wrote this. It repeats the small irrelevant points as if it was the greatest discovery ever. It is just very annoying to read. Still I did learn from it. It explained that Templeton used bottom up approach to pick countries, if he found many companies to buy in Japan then he picked that country (He did not look at Macro factors and then decide to pick stock in that country)It gave good examples about how not to follow the crowd into hot markets and simple pointers like look for low P/E's, and use diversification unless you are right 100% of the time. But it was truly very hard to read.