Charles Ellis and Michael Barr exchanging copies of their books

Yesterday, I had the great privilege of meeting Charley Ellis, a legend in the investment industry. Charley has more than 500,000 copies of his book ‘Winning the loser’s game’ in print, and it is now in its 5th edition. In any other non-fiction genre it would be described as a blockbuster.

With Charley’s books out there in great numbers, it always surprised me that so few of those I met had any idea about the ’secrets’ of investing, and hence I identified the need for ‘How to invest better than the average primate’ which is written primarily for the UK investor. It has been well received, so much so, that during the pre-launch period we have had to arrange a second print run.

There is a similarity between the two books. Most books about investing are complicated, whereas these are written simply, they use interesting anecdotes and stories, and they provide compelling evidence to support their recommendations. Each contains numerous references to the chronic under-performance of many of the investment funds sold, and how investors can avoid them.

10% of my book sales have been to other financial advisers. I think that many advisers have started to look at the evidence more carefully and this is becoming a burden for those who continue to recommend funds that are expensive and will have a high chance of failure. I believe the book is useful to advisers as it gives an insight to the types of conversations they should really be having with their clients.

Thank you to all of you who have bought the book which is appreciated by UNICEF and MAG.

Please don’t keep it to yourself!

Michael

To order the book and raise funds for MAG & UNICEF click here
Charley’s achievements are really too many for a blog but here are a few - Graduate of Yale University, Ph.D. from New York University, M.B.A. from Harvard University, founder of Greenwich Associates (a consulting firm that serves virtually all the leading financial service organisations around the world), taught at Harvard and Yale, author of 12 books, a director of Vanguard.