Customer Reviews

The Money Masters

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I studied Ben Graham, Warren Buffett and Phil Fisher fairly carefully and came to this book after the fact. And I was surprised how thoroughly John Train neatly encapsulates the approaches of these investment masters. The chapter on Ben Graham may in fact be the definitive place to start one's study of this great thinker's initially intimidating body of work.

I'd give the book 5 stars, but the author sometimes uses finance terms loosely when clarity is absolutely critical (when he's describing key financial insights). For instance, in the chapter on Warren Buffett, Train notes that one of the ways Buffett distinguishes winners from losers via the balance sheet is to make sure payables are more than offset by receivables. Train's description appears to provide a key insight, but it's vague to the point of being meaningless. (He does it again in his follow-up book THE NEW MONEY MASTERS when in a discription of how Train's firm estimates approximate growth in unit sales from financial statements, he writes that he multiplies "the retained operating margin on sales and the turnover rate of gross operating assets.")

If you want to read a concise book about the investment styles and philosophies of historic "golden age" investors this book might be the one for you. Any student considering asset management as a career should read this one as well as The New Money Masters, its counterpart that highlights investors post 1975 or so.

I would encourage everyone to understand the difference from this book and its latter brother, the NEW MONEY MASTERS. This book is primarily focused on investors that became household names via the companies that are their legacy such as T. Rowe Price, John Templeton and Warren Buffett. Other notable investors are Paul Cabot, Philip Fisher, Benjamin Graham, Stanley Kroll, Larry Tisch, and Robert Wilson. If you want to know how the experts do it, this is a great anthology to get you started. Listen to the best and forget the rest!

Both of Train's books are in the form of interviews he has with them. Train's writing is crisp and entertaining, and his interviews uncover many pearls of wisdom applicable to any investor's philosophy.

The Money Masters covers the origins of the value and growth philosophies of investing that many managers practice variations of today. The sections on Ben Graham and Sir John Templeton both outline the development of the fundamental approach to valuation as well as its original application in stock markets throughout the world. Phil Fisher and T. Rowe Price represent the two most celebrated proponents of what has come to be known as the growth strategy, adding the additional rigor of another layer of criteria to the value-style approach. Warren Buffett stands as one of the first great synthesizers of the ideas of both Graham and Fisher, while other investors like Larry Tisch represent variations on one particular strand, in Tisch's case that being value-investing.

If anyone is interested in books on the people behind the financial industry read Money Masters, New Money Masters, Predators Ball, Money Culture, Den of Theives and F.I.A.S.C.O. 25 Investment Classics and Goldman Sachs: the Culture of Success are other notable books. I gave the book 4 stars because; while it was very concise and well written I didn't find any information within the book that was of great help to me. It was entertaining and informative but not ground breaking or made me say "AH HAH" or have that light bulb go off in my head.

The Money Masters by John Train describes the winning strategies of nine excellent investors.  The investors described include:Warren Buffett, Paul Cabot, Philip Fisher, Benjamin Graham, Stanley Kroll, T. Rowe Price, John Templeton, Larry Tisch, and Robert Wilson.  If you want to know how the experts do it, this is a great anthology to get you started. Listen to the best and forget the rest!

Perhaps the best place to start learning about investing. Read the conclusions first, then read the book, then re-read the conclusions. Peter Lynch said he read this book 3 times. I have read it probably 5 times over the years (Lynch may have caught up by now). I would give this more than 5 stars if I could. After reading the Money Masters, then you may be ready for The Intelligent Investor (Graham), A Random Walk down Wall St (Malkiel), & Where are the Customers Yachts (Schwed). then start investing for real. VERY readable, VERY enjoyable, BEST insights.

In this book, John Train details the lives and asks about the investing strategies of nine great investors. This is I think the right approach to learning about something, the apprentice method. All too often, investment books start with sophisticated math, ignore the human element, and have a dogmatic and psuedo-scholarly approach.

John Train's book is none of these. He details the lives of some of the greatest investors of this century, if not ever: Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, John Templeton, and others. Yet not everyone can follow Train's approach with equal success. He has a real gift for grasping the essence of a situation, and the importance of character and philosophy in success. Moreover, he grasps investing for what it is - a zero sum game, where some win and some lose, and that those who win use successful strategies and have superior characters to their adversaries.

There is I think objectively no better introduction to the thought of these great men. Moreover, this book is eminently readable, and a book that you will come back to over and over again as you read and compare and contrast the writings of these individuals. Train's understanding is surprisingly deep, subtle but not pedantic, and he writes with grace and conviction. It is great stuff!