Peter Lynch headed Fidelity's Magellan Fund for 13 years. He is considered a mutual fund legend, according to a Business Insider report because he was credited for growing the fund's assets under management from USD 18 million to over USD 14 billion.
Information from Investopedia also revealed that when he headed the fund from 1977 to 1990, he reportedly beat the benchmark S&P 500 Index for 11 years out of those 13 years, posting an average return of 29% each year. His books like "One Up On Wall Street" and "Beating The Street" are also considered as "mandatory reading for any investor," Investopedia added.
Although Lynch does not normally give a lot of interviews, he recently had one with Charlie Rose on December 5 in Bloomberg TV where he shared his "Three C's" of investing which are complacency, concern and capitulation.
Lynch said the worst C is being complacent. However, this can be avoided if one works hard. When mulling about a potential investment, Lynch said you should ask yourself if it's still early in the game for that company or if can grow in the years to come. He says it's important to make certain that you first get the correct facts and that you take your time. One example he gave about not rushing was Wal-Mart. Lynch said you could have purchased Wal-Mart a decade after their IPO but still would do quite well.
Shorting stocks is not also one of his strategies, saying that it's better to be right on the long side. Lynch said, "When you're short you can only make 90%; when you're long you can make tenfold."
Lynch also said that that the high-frequency trading today which are driven by computers has changed in the market. He thinks that this kind of trading is disruptive and is a waste of time. He does acknowledge that the information given online has aided investors.
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