What investment gurus read

A major part of the education of the world's most successful investors can be put down to having studied at the most renowned educational institutions, but also to what they have picked up from books and time-honored experience. In fact, the leading financial gurus often refer publicly to the texts that have shaped them the most, and they themselves end up writing their own books. In the BBVA New Gen catalog, we have included some of the great investing geniuses, where you will learn what positions they have in their portfolio.

For example, the Oracle of Omaha, as Warren Buffett is known, one of the wealthiest men in the world thanks to his skills investing in companies undervalued by the market, usually mentions a few titles at his annual meetings with shareholders. The most talked about over the years is The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham (economist, teacher and investor), where he argues the importance of investing in companies that generate real profits. He has also shown an interest in Security Analysis, another book by Graham that Buffett read while studying economics at Columbia University USA), and which contains lessons from the 19th century's great investors. As for Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, by stock market investor Philip Fisher and also cited on several occasions, its author notes the importance of taking into account a company's management, and not just its financial situation.

Buffett has also recommended The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, written by the founder of Vanguard, John C. Bogle. A benchmark in passive investing, he spent his entire life upholding that the best thing to do is to mirror a certain stock or fixed return index and wait. Bogle has also inspired other investors with The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, which warns of the rhetoric that often surrounds financial advice and market unpredictability. 

Meanwhile, Peter Lynch, known for managing the Magellan fund of Fidelity Investments, which has yielded annual profits of nearly 30% for two decades, thus doubling the historic return of the S&P 500, has shared his investment advice in several works. For example, his book One Up On Wall Street, is easy to read and summarizes his investment philosophy and his criteria for choosing a company, or Beating The Street, which details some of his most successful ideas. 

In the case of Bill Gross, co-founder of the PIMCO management company and another famous financial guru, in this case because of his mastery of fixed-income, he found his inspiration to win by investing in a betting book. The legend tells of how after losing all his money playing blackjack, he came across Beat the Dealer, in which Edward O. Thorpe explained how to count cards to beat the house. Over the years, he wrote Everything You've Heard About Investing is Wrong, in which he announced the beginning of a new financial era where the rules for investors would be radically different, which has come to pass.

For one of the top experts in emerging markets, American Mark Mobius, it is essential to have read, for example, Sixteen Rules for Investment Success by John Templeton, founder of the management firm in which he pursued his career, today called Franklin Templeton. He also occasionally noted the usefulness of reading The Battle for Investment Survival, written by veteran investor Bernard Baruch. He also wrote The Little Book of Emerging Markets: How to Make Money in the World's Fastest Growing Markets. 

As for Georges Soros, famous both as a speculative investor (expert in hedge funds) and for his philanthropic work, he was inspired by The Open Society and Its Enemies, by philosopher Karl Popper, to develop his own economic and political thinking, uphold liberal institutions and allocate part of his fortune, Open Society, one of the most influential philanthropic organizations in the world.