Lessons from the Legends of Wall Street : How Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T. Rowe Price, and John Templeton Can Help You Grow Rich [Hardcover]

Nikki Ross CFP (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 2000

For the first time, investors will discover how to apply the three vital investment steps for todays markets along with time-tested strategies for acquiring wealth and keeping it. Nikki Ross profiles five legends, revealing how they gather and evaluate information and make investment decisions.

Each chapter provides vital strategies for creating a sound investment plan.

*WARREN BUFFETT: the super-combination investor shares insights about how to profit from annual reports and what to look for in stock research reports. *PHIL FISHER: the investigative growth investor tells how to pick stocks with tremendous profit potential by evaluating management, products, and policies of companies. *BENJAMIN GRAHAM: the value numbers investor provides important financial numbers and ratios to evaluate companies. Grahams followers give expanded criteria for 21st century value investing. *T. ROWE PRICE: the visionary growth investor discusses how to evaluate the life stage of a company, warning signals of slowing growth, and trends affecting stocks, updated by disciples. *JOHN MARKS TEMPLETON: the spiritual global investor, and one of the first money managers to invest internationally, gives 16 timeless investment rules and strategies for global investing in todays volatile markets.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The five investors named in the subtitle of this book are undoubtedly among the most influential American investors of the 20th century: Graham and Fisher primarily as teachers, the other three for building large, successful investment companies. Ross summarizes their methods, then presents a composite version of their strategies. Is such a "greatest hits" compilation useful? After all, three of these investors have written their own books, and one could fill a small library with works by their interpreters and disciples. Many investment students will still find this book valuable as a starting point or as an accessible alternative to the originals. Ross packs a large fraction of each investor's ideas into an average of 45 pages, including enough details and formulas to make the ideas usable, yet the book is still easy to read. Benjamin Graham, by contrast, can be tedious to read and Warren Buffett is fond of dropping aphorisms that sound indisputable but provide little useful guidance for real investment decisions. One advantage here is that each method is broken down into three systematic steps, making it easy to see the commonalities and departures of each system. Biographical information is also included, giving context to the teachings. Purists will justifiably complain that this approach does not adequately capture the essence of each investor, and some will argue that grasping this essence makes all the difference between serious, disciplined investing and dilettantism. But most readers will find at least some useful insights. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

"Nikki Ross has wisely simplified most of the commonsense policies used by famous investors for the best long-term results."

John M. Templeton Founder, Templeton Mutual Funds The Templeton Foundation

Nikki Ross has captured the spirit of our founder and provides valuable information for investors of stocks as well as mutual funds.

George A. Roche Chairman, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

Would you like to learn about investing and have fun too? With decades of Wall Street wisdom woven into this delightful book, I learned lessons, and relearned and remembered my way back to being a better investor. Thank you, Nikki, and thank you legends.

Gail M. Dudack Chief U.S. Strategist and Managing Director, UBS Warburg LLC and Guest commentator, CNBC, PBSs Nightly Business Reports and CNNs Moneyline

Nikki Ross tells how the great investors achieved success and provides a plan for investors to apply the information. This book is a must-read for NAIC members and belongs on the shelf of every investor.

Thomas E. OHara Chairman of the Board of Trustees, National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC)

Take all this hero worship with a grain of salt; but take it. I wish there were books like this around in the first decade of my investment career.

Kenneth L. Fisher Founder and CEO, Fisher Investments, Inc., and Forbes Portfolio Strategy Columnist

This book is a worthwhile read for anyone who takes their investments and money seriously.

Muriel F. Siebert President and Chairwoman, Siebert Financial Corp.

The legends advice will help you to make wise decisions. I suggest every serious investor buy a copy of this book and give one to friends and family members.

Vern Hayden, CFP Past Chairman National Endowment for Financial Education, and Regular guest advisor, CNBC, NBC, and Bloomberg

Provides unprecedented insights into the best financial minds of our timemust reading for all investors.

Christopher L. Hayes, Ph.D. Founder and Director, National Center for Women & Retirement Research

(endorsements continued inside)

All investors can benefit from studying how others have made fortunes in the market, and Lessons from the Legends is an excellent way to discover the strategies of five of Americas best known stock market investors. Use this book to see how you can adapt the strategies of Graham, Buffett, Price, and the others to help your own portfolios. You will surely benefit from it.

Stephen Sanborn Director of Research, Value Line Publishing, Inc.

Over a 35 year career in equity investing, I have come across few books which I have found to be useful. This book is one of the few. It belongs on my very short list of recommended reading for any serious investor.

Philip K. Swigard Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder and Private Investor

If you want to understand literature, you study the great authors; music, the great composers. Why, then, do most investment courses ignore the great investors and instead preach the efficient market theory, which tells us no one can beat the market and ignore those who do? Thankfully, Nikki Rosss Lessons from the Legends of Wall Street helps to right the score. Youll find more practical advice in this one book than in a dozen academic investment texts.

Don Phillips CEO, Morningstar, Inc.

Well done! An excellent book for the investing public. The blend of biography and academic text is unique. It makes learning more fun.

T. Wayne Whipple, CFA Executive Director, The New York Society of Security Analysts, Inc.

Articulating lessons from the deans of the investment world, this wonderful how-to book is a remarkable resource for investors.

Bernadette B. Murphy Chief Market Analyst, Kimelman & Baird LLC and Regular panelist on Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser

The markets always remind us of the necessity of wise investment counsel. The insights offered by the investment Dream Team put together by Nikki Ross are as timely as they are brilliant. The wisdom and insights of these five legends can help consultants, money managers, financial advisors, stockbrokers, and most importantly the investor, develop successful investment strategies. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this outstanding and informative book and recommend it to all types of investors.

Michael T. Dieschbourg CIMA, Consulting Group, Salomon Smith Barney

Nikki Ross has meticulously mined the gold from some of the richest veins in modern timesand has refined it in a way that makes it valuable for all who want to invest intelligently. Shes made required reading for the experienced investor understandable for the novice.

Ellis Traub Chairman, Inve$tWare Corporation

Entertaining and informative, five legendary investors speak to you through Nikki Ross. She details the strategies they used to acquire and preserve their fortunes and explains how you can create your own blueprint for wealth. I highly recommend it.

Gail Liberman Syndicated columnist and author of Rags to Riches: Motivating Stories of How Ordinary People Achieved Extraordinary Wealth!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Business (June 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793137152
• ISBN-13: 978-0793137152
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #816,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Buffett, Warren

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The missing link among investment books, October 13, 2000

By 

Timothy Vick, author, How to Pick Stocks Like... (munster, indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lessons from the Legends of Wall Street : How Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T. Rowe Price, and John Templeton Can Help You Grow Rich (Hardcover)

I have to admire any investment author who starts with the premise that the past is just as worthy of study as the future. We are fortunate to have among us, though not for much longer, a number of living legends in the world of finance -- Fisher, Templeton, Buffett, Tisch and others -- who will one day take their habits, idiosyncracies, and wealth-building secrets to the grave. When they are gone, there will be no one to take their places, or enrich us with their wisdom.

For years, we have been deluged with repetitive texts on how to become a millionaire like your neighbor. Isn't it better to have a manual on how to emulate the titans? There's an old saying in the school yard that if you are going to cheat on an exam, copy off the person who gets the A+, not the C students. Nikki Ross' book has been sorely needed and will prove just as pertinent today as it will in 20 years -- when the memories of these legends grow more faint.

What I liked most about Nikki's work is its translation value -- her ability to condense the lingering, sometimes philosophical synapses of these great men into lingo that lay investors can use practically. She avoids the temptation of delving at length into their biographies (which are rich enough and worthy of a sequel) and instead presents us with step-by-step instructions (almost as if she was taking dictation from Fisher and Buffett themselves).

A savvy stock-picker will quickly pick out the common threads that run throughout the book. All of these titans boiled down investing to a few core principles:

1) They view stocks as pieces of businesses and put all their efforts into determining the value of their prospective purchases. 2) They focus on price but understand that the real value of an investment is procured over time as the company grows. 3) They shun convention and believe today's dissertations on portfolio modeling are recipes for mediocrity. 4) They don't give a hoot about day-to-day fluctuations in the stock market. 5) They are all humble men who delighted in increasing clients' net worth just for the sake of proving it was possible.

It helps that Ms. Ross is a certified financial planner and a columnist. Her experience in giving real-world advice to individual investors lent itself to an easy-to-read, well planned book that any investor -- sophisticated or otherwise -- can use to their advantage. This book successfully bridges the gap between stock-picking and financial planning without coming off as self-serving, as many financial planning books are.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amalgamation of Past Success Styles for Financial Investing, July 18, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lessons from the Legends of Wall Street : How Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T. Rowe Price, and John Templeton Can Help You Grow Rich (Hardcover)

Before commenting on what's in the book, I would like to take a moment to point out what is not. When the history of the great investors is written about the years 2000 to 2020, it will be filled with names different than those studied in this book. We don't know who those people are yet, but they will probably do something different from what these great investors of the past have done. Caveat investor! A backwards look at investment styles often does not translate into superior rewards in the future. That's one reason why 80 percent of professionals cannot beat the market averages. See John Bogle's Common Sense About Mutual Funds for more details on that perspective.

If you already know who Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T. Rowe Price, and John Templeton are and what their investment styles are or were, you don't need this book. If these people or the details of their work are unfamiliar to you, this book will serve as a good introduction to those perspectives. It will also take you less time to study than reading the more definitive works on these people. If any of the approaches excite you, I suggest you go in for more depth elsewhere.

What is unique and valuable about this book is an attempt to blend the styles into one you can use to pick stocks and bonds. I thought that it was done reasonably well. Each investor is laid out in the same format, and then the results are summarized in the last part of the book. Basically, you are shown how to gather and evaluate the most appropriate information, and then to make a decision based on your evaluation.

There is also some good material to help you understand your risk profile, so you can focus on the relevant types of investments for you. There are also some questions to fill out like those that financial planners often use (that should be no surprise, given that the author is a certified financial planner).

My only concern is that this book could encourage you to try to do too much of your own investment picking and monitoring. Most people don't want to be that involved. And most people don't have the time or interest to do the job well, even if they want to. Although it is exciting to think about getting great investment returns, the odds are actually against you. If great results interest you, even after those caveats, I suggest you read ChangeWave Investing and think about putting 10 percent or less of your money into that approach. It could be the outstanding result that will become equally respected with the past greats in the future.

In any case, enjoy using this well done book to overcome your misconception, disbelief and procrastination stalls about personal investing. Your brief apprenticeship with the masters outlined in this book will give you a better understanding of what successful investment processes have looked like. Then see if they fit you.

Live long and prosper!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Investing Approach, July 30, 2000

By 

Philip Boudreaux (Aventura, Fl) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lessons from the Legends of Wall Street : How Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T. Rowe Price, and John Templeton Can Help You Grow Rich (Hardcover)

Nikki Ross presents a common sense three-step approach to investing. This approach is based on applying time-tested strategies that five successful giants have applied. Their experience through market crashes and the market highs demonstrate that their strategies are time-less and will be as valuable tomorrow as they were yesterday.

The first step is gathering the information. She shows where the information can be gathered using Internet resources (over twenty-five are listed), SEC reports, annual reports, magazines, and newspapers.

The second step is the evaluation process. Here she brings to life some of the insightful questions applied by Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T.Rowe Price, and John Templeton. The quantitative aspects of the evaluation are addressed (such as the company's sales, profit margins, and earnings). In addition the qualitative aspects (the company management's abilities, products and policies, market position, and company life cycle) become part of the investigation that leads to the third step, making a decision. In reading Nikki Ross' "Lessons from the Legends of Wall Street" I found questions of these legends most valuable and applicable in the evaluation of my own portfolio.

The third step, making the decision, requires that the investment meet a personal set of criteria before making a purchase. This also would be applied when making the decision to hold or sell the investment.

Nikki Ross presents these same strategies of the legends (that are used even today by mutual fund managers, money managers, and investment counselors) in an useable format that can be applied by the reader. In comparison to some other investment type books, this one cuts through the complex theory and offers common sense strategies for investing.

This interesting book is well written and timely. I would recommend this book for reading to help develop a solid investment strategy.

Philip Boudreaux, MBA