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| Peter
Lynch |
"You should always buy a company that any fool can
run, because one day, one will." These were the words of one
of the world's most successful investment managers, Peter
Lynch, speaking at an awards lunch in London.
Lynch, former head of the Fidelity Magellan Fund, is
said never to have given a speech for money. But it's easy to
talk for free when it adds kudos to your success. Between
1977 and 1990, Lynch built his fund from $20 million to more
than $14 billion, which prompted him to pen two best-selling
books on investing.
But this was all a long time ago and the vice-chairman of
Fidelity could do with some new material. His speech, by his own
admission, repeated anecdotes from his 1989 book, One Up on Wall
Street.
Entertaining though it was to hear how the 1987 crash cut short
his golf trip to Ireland, his advice could have been more
contemporaneous. Telling jittery investors in uncertain markets
that they have plenty of time to realize returns on their
investments fell on deaf ears.
As one member of the audience pointed out, if every investor
followed Lynch's advice and held on to stocks for the long term,
brokers would soon be out of business because there would be no
trading. And no broker would ever run the risk of letting its
clients do that.
