John Templeton
For anyone who has investing in a mutual fund, this is basically the guy that created it. He founded a mutual fund in 1939. At this time, he purchased 100 shares of every company on the New York Stock Exchange trading under $1 a share. In total, he purchased stocks for 104 companies for a total of $10,400. Now over the following four years, 30 percent of these companies did go bankrupt, which is more common than people might think. Despite this, the remaining 70 companies he purchased stock in allowed him to sell the original $10,400 investment for $40,000. By multiplying his investment by four, he discovered that by purchasing a wide range of stocks, the successful companies will always cover any loss from failing companies. This is why having a diverse portfolio is important and why having stocks in a wide selection of different companies is important as well. Of course, John also made all of these investments from the Bahamas, which started another trend of “off shore trading.” However, he did this primarily to stay out of the light of Wall Street so others wouldn’t catch on.
John Templeton
Carl Icahn
Carl is one of the most famous investors in the entire world, but he can also be feared as well. This is because he locates a company that he believes can be successful but is poorly managed. He then goes and purchases enough shares to be able to vote himself into the Board of Directors and is able to gut the company of the people making the poor decisions. He then is able to sell his shares of the now much more successful company at a higher profit. Naturally, this is something that requires some money to begin with, but for someone who understand the market and business, it is a valuable operation.
Carl Icahn