Mutual fund manager John Templeton passed away on this Tuesday. The Wall Street journal has a nice writeup on his life, and an article today titled “Maximum Optimist”. Both are must reads for long term investors.
Sir John Templeton, the legendary mutual-fund manager who was a pioneer of international investing and later committed much of his fortune to scientific and religious causes, died Tuesday. He was 95.
Over the course of a Wall Street career that began in 1937 and spanned more than five decades, Sir John earned a reputation for prescient, bargain-minded stock selection that consistently rewarded shareholders in his Templeton Funds family.
Like many successful investors he took the road less traveled…
Early in his investing career, Sir John showed that he was willing to take roads less traveled. He extolled the wisdom of buying superior stocks at what he called points of “maximum pessimism” in order to take advantage of temporarily low prices. He applied that strategy to countries, industries and companies, displaying a rare ability among investment professionals to avoid following the crowd.
Investors who get caught up in the day to day gyrations of the market, or who wake up every day getting out of the wrong side of the bed, like local curmudgeon RC Lloyd would be well served to read about John Templeton, the optimist.
