TIP720: Investing Against The Tide

You're listening to TIP. Anthony Bolton is one of the most fascinating investors to emerge from the UK. Over a 28-year period, he compounded at an annual rate of 19.5%, significantly outperforming the market's 13.5% return, before stepping away from fund management. But he couldn't stay retired for long. He ended up staging a comeback, this time focused on China.

However, things didn't go as planned, and over the course of four years, his performance was actually negative 5%. In this episode, we'll focus on what made Bolton such an exceptional investor during his prime. We'll examine aspects such as the core traits he observed in himself and other top fund managers. Things including vision, temperament, and the ability to anticipate change before it became apparent to others. Similar to Buffett and Munger, Bolton believed that staying even keeled under pressure was just far more important than having a sky-high IQ.

We'll also explore a topic that deeply resonates with me, which is being comfortable with incomplete information. Since Bolton covered so many sectors and geographies, he had to accept that he'd never know as much as the specialist. And rather than let that paralyze him, he figured out how to use that reality to his advantage. We'll dig into how he assessed sentiment not just by ignoring it, but by actively studying it. While he didn't want to be swept up in market emotions,

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