The Big Win: Learning from the Legends to Become a More Successful Investor

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Legends I Have Met: A Behind the Scenes Look at What Makes a Legend 5

Wanted: The Truly Successful and the Truly Interesting 7

Tying the Common Threads Together—The Portrait of the Perfect Investor 16

Chapter 2 Follow the Money: The Ugly Reality of Whale Watching 19

Chapter 3 The Glass Ceiling of Performance: Renée Haugerud 35

Puts and Calls and Corn 36

A Feel for Trading 39

Commodities as Mover and Shaker 42

Managing Risk 48

Renée Haugerud's Big Win: The Three-Instrument Trade 49

Chapter 4 The Boom Goes Bust: James S. Chanos 59

A Fan of the Facts 61

The Baldwin-United Short 64

Short Seller Supreme 67

Doggedly—and Successfully—Cynical 68

The China Short 70

Chapter 5 Digging Deep, Coming Up Big: Lee Ainslie 83

Nurturing a Tiger Cub 84

Apprentice to Journeyman to Master 86

Mapping Maverick 88

The Cognizant Big Win: Challenging Conventional Wisdom with Research 93

Chapter 6 small caps, BIG GAINS: Chuck Royce 109

On the Not-So-Fast Track 113

Reaping Value 118

RBA: A Classic Big Win in the Royce Style 125

Chapter 7 The Prophet of a Profitable Vision: A. Alfred Taubman 133

Native Wolverine 134

Big Wins: The Enclosed Mall and the Irvine Ranch 136

Core Competency 139

Defeating Threshold Resistance 142

The Process 146

Chapter 8 The Twenty-First Century Belongs to China—and Commodities: James Beeland Rogers Jr. 153

Easy Rider Explores the World 156

A Father's Gift 159

Bullish on China 160

The Commodities Connection 162

Chapter 9 Opportunity Is Where You Find It: R. Donahue Peebles 171

No Limitations 172

Finding the Deal 177

On the Beach 179

The Peebles Way to a Win 181

Chapter 10 Finding Value in Junk: Martin J. Whitman 193

Educational Value Added: On-the-Job Training 195

Solo 197

The More You Know . . . 200

Bringing the Carcass Back to Life 201

Conclusion: So There You Have It . . . 211

About the Author 215

Index 217