The Davis Dynasty: 50 years of successful investing on Wall Street

[reverend]

I just finished this book and really liked it. I was sent the book by The Motley Fool as a promotional item (for their Service "One") a while back.  It's far more a biography of the Davis clan, but it also covers the major movements of the markets from the early days of the 1900's until very early 2000's.
The thing is that it's not a dry financial book, but the financial stuff is more of a wrapper that explains the Davis family and their actions a little more.

I highly recommend it, which is rare for anything remotely financial. I either think it's too dry and boring, or it's too far removed from reality. :)

I'll see if I can link a picture to it here, or you can see it on my webpage (link in my sig, if I got that working right)

[JohnGalt]

I was sent the book by The Motley Fool as a promotional item (for their Service "One") a while back.

Do you find the Motley Fool stuff useful?  I somehow got on one of their subscription lists for trying to get me to sign up for their paid service and it just seems like a bunch of fear-mongering about why Apple or some other large, popular stock is about to tank and how there is "one" company in position to take advantage of it - if you just pay us $X/mo, we'll tell you what that company is. 

[arebelspy]

Thanks for the book recommendation.  Sounds interesting!

I was sent the book by The Motley Fool as a promotional item (for their Service "One") a while back.

Do you find the Motley Fool stuff useful?  I somehow got on one of their subscription lists for trying to get me to sign up for their paid service and it just seems like a bunch of fear-mongering about why Apple or some other large, popular stock is about to tank and how there is "one" company in position to take advantage of it - if you just pay us $X/mo, we'll tell you what that company is.

The MF used to be really good.  Now they are a lot more fear / hype / ad based.  It switched a few years back.

Their forum went downhill as well, IMO (compared to what it was), and now I favor the Bogleheads forum.

[reverend]

I was sent the book by The Motley Fool as a promotional item (for their Service "One") a while back.

Do you find the Motley Fool stuff useful?  I somehow got on one of their subscription lists for trying to get me to sign up for their paid service and it just seems like a bunch of fear-mongering about why Apple or some other large, popular stock is about to tank and how there is "one" company in position to take advantage of it - if you just pay us $X/mo, we'll tell you what that company is.

That's actually pretty interesting.  Their public posts (that you can read on facebook and fool.com) are very fear mongering and "sign up and we'll show you how to make millions", whereas the subscriber posts are far different. They are all about "buy and hold in great companies" and "don't monitor the market daily" etc. In the "Stock Advisor" newsletter, they have two recommendations a month, which I usually mull over and compare to my own risk aversion (they recommended LUV and I just don't like airline stock - one madman and all stocks drop. On the other hand, one madman and I will *buy* LUV after a drop...) before I decide to buy.

Remember, the public posts are to drum up business and get people to subscribe.  The Stock Advisor service is $199/year I think, so it's about $18/month.  Picking up NFLX at $17 more than paid for that. WU, DLB, WPRT and others have made up the subscription cost many times over.  In the 6 or so years I've subscribed, I'm averaging 12% ROI.


In short, I definitely would recommend the Stock Advisor service. I have "Rule Your Retirement" too, and I have had the "MF One" service. The problem with more 'active' services is that I don't have time to monitor stocks too much, so the buy and hold technique really works for me. Invest in a solid company with solid management and ignore short-term fluctuations.

[markbike528CBX]

I once had a Davis managed-money account.

I distinctly remember they were heavy into AIG pre-2008 

The account was a learning experience in large-fee money management (>>1%/year).
That said, the account did go up greatly during 2002-2007  :-)

Fortunately for me, my financial adviser was a friend, who when he left his job, my money followed him, so I was out before the crash.

One of the selling points for the account was that  Davis funds can get to see presidents of companies and really look under the hood.     See AIG point above.

I probably won't read the book though, since I'm not a customer of theirs any more.

[comp@26]

I once had a Davis managed-money account.

I distinctly remember they were heavy into AIG pre-2008 

The account was a learning experience in large-fee money management (>>1%/year).
That said, the account did go up greatly during 2002-2007  :-)

Fortunately for me, my financial adviser was a friend, who when he left his job, my money followed him, so I was out before the crash.

One of the selling points for the account was that  Davis funds can get to see presidents of companies and really look under the hood.     See AIG point above.

I probably won't read the book though, since I'm not a customer of theirs any more.

The main charachter Shelby Cullom Davis is an interesting case study.. He was a great investor who focused on insurance companies. He understood that investors had mis valued them heavily and expeceted that profits growth combined with multiple expansion was going to make them very profitable long term investments. He was right. He called his tactic the double play. He turned a $100,000 investment in stocks in 1947 into over $800 million at the time of his death in 1994. The book is worth reading.

[grantmeaname]

What would a comparably risky market portfolio have done with $100,000 and 47 years?