In this article, we will take a look at the 15 most famous investment gurus of all time.
Investment gurus do not have a monopoly on wisdom. The markets have changed over time and investment gurus who have done well in one period may not do as well in another period.
With that said, investment gurus do have a lot of experience in the market. Many have invested in the markets for decades and some are successful to a point that they have become billionaires.
Different Types of Investment Gurus
There are different types of investment gurus ranging from value investors to quantitative traders.
Billionaire Warren Buffett is arguably the most famous value investor guru. Buffett’s style is to buy high quality companies with competitive advantages and hold on to them preferably forever. Buffett tends to only buy things he understands and he would prefer to buy stocks at fair to attractive prices.
Billionaire Jim Simons is arguably the most famous quantitative guru. Simons style is to use computers and algorithms to buy and sell thousands of companies with holding periods ranging from very short to forever.
Many of the most famous investment gurus in history have done more than invest well.
Some investment gurus like Benjamin Graham have written books that have inspired other investors. Others like David Tepper have created firms that manage substantial amounts of capital. Another investment guru, John (Jack) Bogle of The Vanguard Group, has helped pioneer a form of investing with The Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares (VFIAX) that has saved tens of millions of people substantial fees.
In terms of the most famous investment gurus of all time, each one has invested in the American stock market. One reason for this is that the United States has been the largest economy in the past eight decades. With the American capitalistic system, the United States stock market as a whole has done well in the long term given the growth in the American economy. Even today, the United States is the largest economy by nominal GDP and its stock market is worth more than any other country’s stock market.
Many of the investment gurus on our list have also been long term investors who buy quality companies with competitive advantages and hold them for a long period. Given the growth over time in the United States economy, some of the leading companies that the gurus owned have done really well as a result. With their wealth, many investment gurus have become leading philanthropists.
In terms of the future, it is likely that many of the future investment gurus will also be American given the continued strength in the American economy. The United States continues to lead the world in innovation and its financial system remains the world’s best given the status of the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency.
2022
2022 has been a challenging year for the markets as high inflation has caused the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates six times. Although inflation has shown signs of potentially peaking, the Federal Reserve has signaled it will raise interest rates further albeit at a slower pace than before.
Given the substantial rise in interest rates, the broader markets have declined and the investing climate in 2022 is different from the investing climate during the low inflation and low interest rate period before this year. Given the changes, it is important to realize that the markets can change.
Methodology
For our list of 15 Most Famous Investment Gurus of All Time, we picked 15 investors that several other websites also rank as investment gurus. We then aggregated the picks.
15 Most Famous Investment Gurus of All Time
15. Michael Steinhardt
Michael Steinhardt is regarded as one of Wall Street’s greatest traders in history whose firm, Steinhardt Partners, averaged an annual return of 24.5% between 1967 and 1995. As a result of his successes, Michael Steinhardt has a net worth of $1.2 billion according to Forbes. Michael Steinhardt is also regarded as a pioneer of the modern hedge fund.
14. David Swensen
David Swensen was an endowment fund manager for Yale University who was known for ‘The Yale Model’ which he invented with Dean Takahashi. Under Swensen, Yale’s endowment averaged an annual return of 11.8% from 1999 to 2009 which beat the market. As a result, numerous other endowments and institutions have tried to copy the Yale Model with many realizing only mixed success given that a big reason for Swensen’s outperformance was manager selection. Swensen ranks #14 on our list of 15 Most Famous Investment Gurus of All Time.
13. Philip Fisher
Philip Fisher is most famous for being the author of the book, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. Fisher is also known for being an early proponent of growth investing. Like Benjamin Graham, Philip Fisher was an inspiration to famous value investor Warren Buffett.
12. Peter Lynch
Peter Lynch is a mutual fund manager famous for managing the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments where he averaged a 29.2% annual return between 1977 and 1990. That was more than double the performance of the S&P 500 during the time period. Peter Lynch is also the author of the book, One Up on Wall Street.
11. John Templeton
John Templeton was an investor and fund manger who created the Templeton Growth Fund which famously averaged growth of more than 15% per year for 38 years. As a student of the father of investing, Benjamin Graham, Templeton was a contrarian investor who liked value stocks that were overlooked by investors. He was also one of the first investors to invest in Japan in the 1960’s.
10. Benjamin Graham
Benjamin Graham was an economist who is known for being the father of value investing. Graham wrote the book entitled The Intelligent Investor and is famous for being an inspiration to value investors Warren Buffett and John Templeton. Benjamin Graham was also a fund manager who averaged annual returns of around 20% from 1936 to 1956.
9. Charlie Munger
Billionaire Charlie Munger is the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway which is also a giant conglomerate in addition to being an investing fund. Like Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger is a value investor who believes in buying quality companies below their intrinsic value and holding them forever if possible. Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holding at the end of the third quarter was Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with a stake value of $123.7 billion.
8. Stanley Druckenmiller
Stanley Druckenmiller is the founder of Duquesne Capital which has a 13F equity portfolio value of over $1.7 billion at the end of Q3. Although Druckenmiller technically closed Duquesne Capital to investors in 2010, it still issues quarterly 13Fs. As of the end of September, the fund’s largest position was Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) with a stake worth almost $324 million. While he has had great success at Duquesne Capital, Stanley Druckenmiller is perhaps best known for working for George Soros at Quantum Fund where they made $1 billion shorting the British Pound in 1992. According to Forbes, Stanley Druckenmiller is worth $6.4 billion. He ranks #8 on our list of 15 Most Famous Investment Gurus of All Time.
7. David Tepper
David Tepper is the founder of Appaloosa Management and the owner of the Carolina Panthers. After having headed up Goldman Sachs’ junk bond desk, Tepper realized substantial success given his career running Appaloosa Management where he became a billionaire. David Tepper is perhaps best known for his fund buying a substantial stake in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) during the 2009 that made him a $7 billion profit. Appaloosa Management’s largest position at the end of Q3 was a $218.8 million position in Constellation Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CEG).
6. Carl Icahn
Carl Icahn is a billionaire activist investor who is the founder of Icahn Capital. As an activist, Icahn sometimes goes on CNBC to explain his views on the market or to try to gain more support among a company’s board for his initiatives. Given his successes, Icahn ranks as one of the wealthiest people in the world with a net worth of $17.6 billion according to Forbes. Icahn Capital’s biggest holding at the end of September was Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP) which was worth over $14.3 billion. Carl Icahn ranks #6 on our list of 15 Most Famous Investment Gurus of All Time.
5. Steve Cohen
Billionaire Steve Cohen is the founder of Point72 Asset Management. Although other investment gurus ranked later in this list such as Carl Icahn may be slightly wealthier than Steve Cohen according to Forbes, Steve Cohen owns the Mets and his sparring with the SEC has been the inspiration for the show Billions. Cohen’s trading style has evolved from rapidly trading in and out of stocks in his early days to hiring talented individuals to buy and hold onto stocks for longer today. Point72 Asset Management’s top position at the end of Q3 was Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) with the fund increasing its shares by 269% to 1.68 million shares.
4. Jim Simons
Billionaire Jim Simons is the founder of what is arguably the leading quantitative fund in the world, Renaissance Technologies which routinely buys and sells thousands of stocks each quarter based on sophisticated computer algorithms. Given that Renaissance Technologies has become gigantic over time, the fund’s performance has lagged the market in some time periods in recent years. Nevertheless, Renaissance Technologies’ flagship fund that’s employee only, Medallion Fund, is still a top fund. Jim Simons is also one of the wealthiest men in the world with a net worth of $28.1 billion according to Forbes.
Renaissance Technologies biggest 13F equity position at the end of the third quarter was Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in which the fund held 15.31 million shares.
3. John (Jack) Bogle
Jack Bogle was the founder of The Vanguard Group which is a leading asset manager which has assets under management of $8.1 trillion in 2022.
Bogle was a champion of the average investor and helped tens of millions invest better by being the ‘father of indexing’ given The Vanguard Group launched the first index fund for individual investor in The Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares (VFIAX). The Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares (VFIAX) “is a low-cost way to gain diversified exposure to the U.S. equity market. The fund offers exposure to 500 of the largest U.S. companies, which span many different industries and account for about three-fourths of the U.S. stock market’s value.” It has a 0.04% expense ratio and its performance in the long term has beaten many active funds over the years.
2. George Soros
George Soros is the founder of Soros Fund Management which is one of the leading macro funds in history. Soros is famous for shorting the British pound in 1992 and making a $1 billion profit as a result. Given his dedication to giving to philanthropy earlier, George Soros isn’t as wealthy as Warren Buffett even though he has had a similar level of success. Soros Fund Management’s top position at the end of Q3 was a stock that hasn’t done very well in 2022, Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) with 16.36 million shares.
1. Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is the founder of Berkshire Hathaway which is also one of the largest conglomerates in the world. Of the people on this list, Buffett is the most famous given his media appearances and his annual meeting for Berkshire Hathaway investors. Buffett is known for being a value investor who likes to buy high quality companies with competitive advantages and hold them ideally forever. Despite having already donated over $49 billion, Buffett is still worth around $109.5 billion given his investing prowess. Buffett plans to donate over 99% of his wealth.
At the end of September, Berkshire Hathaway’s largest position was in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with a holding of 894.8 million shares. Warren Buffett ranks #1 on our list of 15 Most Famous Investment Gurus of All Time.
You can also take a look at 15 Biggest Banks In The World and Ken Griffin Stock Portfolio: Top 10 Stock Picks.
Follow Insider Monkey on Twitter
Suggested articles:
- Warren Buffett Stock Portfolio: Top 10 Stock Picks
- Obama Stock Portfolio: 10 Year Returns
- AQR Capital’s Performance, AUM and Top Stock Picks
Disclosure: None. 15 Most Famous Investment Gurus of All Time is originally published on Insider Monkey.
