Finance
Pioneered global investing with Templeton Growth Fund
John Templeton founded the world's first truly global investment fund and pioneered contrarian value investing across international markets.
“Buy at the point of maximum pessimism.”
8 Courses · 40 Lessons · 5 Hours
Biography
Born in 1912 in rural Tennessee to a modest family, he financed his Yale education during the Depression by playing poker and winning scholarships; he then went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and traveled the world, visiting thirty-five countries, learning that opportunities don't end at borders.
In 1939, at the start of World War II, he borrowed $10,000 and bought 100 shares of every listed company trading under a dollar on the New York Stock Exchange: 104 stocks, many on the verge of bankruptcy. In four years, he quadrupled his capital.
He founded the Templeton Growth Fund in 1954; an investment of $10,000 at the outset grew to over two million fifty years later. He was the first major American manager to invest in Japan in the 1960s, when no one on Wall Street considered it, and to exit when it became a bubble.
A contrarian by discipline: “Buy at the point of maximum pessimism, sell at the point of maximum optimism.” Global diversification, absolute valuations, a very long horizon, and an almost monastic serenity toward market noise.
He sold his management company in 1992, moved to the Bahamas, and dedicated his life to the Templeton Prize and his foundation, with over a billion dollars earmarked for research. He died in 2008 after being called “the greatest global stock picker of the century.”
His library
8 Courses · 40 Lessons · 5 Hours. Select a course to see every lesson inside it.
New to John? Start here
Understand how market pessimism fueled a legendary global investment vehicle.
Beginner
5 lessons
Post-War Europe: The Ultimate Buy-Low Opportunity
8 min readAssembling a Global Portfolio from Scratch
8 min readIdentifying 'Companies That Grow in Value'
8 min readThe First 100 Bargains: Why Templeton Went Global
8 min readEducating Investors on Foreign Market Potential
8 min readTiptico courses are independent educational analyses based on publicly available information, writings, interviews, speeches and documented decisions. The individuals featured are not instructors, employees, partners, sponsors or endorsers of Tiptico unless explicitly stated.
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