Investment book author and former Forbes columnist John Train passed away on August 13th.
He’s my favorite investment book author of all time. I regard The Money Masters as required reading, because it profiles several of the top investors, including Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham. Some of the stories about the more speculative investors were particularly interesting. Rod Wilson’s unsuccessful short sale of Resorts International convinced me to avoid short selling. I couldn’t understand how Stanley Kroll made so much money in commodities, and that convinced me to always avoid speculating in commodities.
Another John Train book that should be required reading is Famous Financial Fiascos. It’s important to recognize the signs of asset bubbles so that you do NOT get caught up in the speculative frenzy. These bubbles happen regularly, and it’s impossible to predict when they will burst. The only prudent thing to do is to just steer clear of them and avoid both the long and short sides.
I’m part of the Goonies/Saved By The Bell generation. I’ve relied on old, wise, and wealthy investors like John Train, Warren Buffett, and Charlie Munger to describe how different things were before I was born and during times when I was too young to pay attention to financial markets. I was in elementary school during the peak of the Volcker credit squeeze, and I was born during the bear market of 1973-1974, but I know about the Nifty Fifty bubble of the early 1970s and the -onics and conglomerate bubbles of the 1960s.