John Neff on Investing Book

John Neff is one of America's superstar mutual fund investors. Over 30 years, his fund has consistently outperformed the market by a wide margin. This may seem like no mean feat, but in stock markets where even the good eventually succumb to the average, this is truly Herculean. And here he tells his story.Broadly speaking, growth investors seek those companies with fast growing earnings; value investors, of which Neff is one, seek those companies that other investors have discarded into the waste heap. Neff teaches how to sift through the rubble to uncover those valuable gems and nuggets that others ignore. He says, "if you do the work and answer the right questions, you can dine out on the down-and-out". The book divides roughly into three: the first third is his Horatio Alger, rags-to-riches story: how all the New York investment banks turned up their noses at this mid-western lad; but he had the last laugh. The second section is where the meat is. Neff outlines techniques which value investors can employ to pick shares. He preaches a key indicator for readers to use to determine whether the company's growth prospects and low price warrants an investment. Neff provides numerous examples. The third section is a year-by-year description of his investment decisions, where he offers insights about the rational behind the decisions. Over the last decade, value investing has fallen by the wayside, in favour of growth investing with a technological bent. Many investment managers have changed their style to meet the demands of retail and institutional investors. Neff believes this is a mistake. He says those that follow stock to towering heights do so at their own peril: "The capacity of investors to believe in something too good to be true seems almost infinite at times", especially at a market peak.Neff, speaking from a vantage of a lifetime in the market, argues that staying the value course always wins out. This is a great handbook for those new to the game as well as the most seasoned portfolio managers. --Bruce McWilliamsRead More