The Ideal Investment Personality 4747
CHAPTER
6
The Ideal Investment Personality
The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not
intellect. You don’t need tons of IQ in this business. You don’t
have to be able to play three-dimensional chess or duplicate bridge.
You need a temperament that derives great pleasure neither from
being with the crowd nor against the crowd. You know you’re
right, not because of the position of others but because your facts
and your reasoning are right.
—Warren BuffettWhen I give talks on personality styles and investing, people ask,
“Is there an ideal personality type for managing money?” I confess
that when I first started researching the personality styles of mas-
ter investors, I got very excited about this question. Was there a
possibility of finding an “ideal” type for money management? What
if Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch were the same personality type?
What if investment firms could recruit portfolio managers based
on their type? Sound far-fetched?
In the professional sports arena, a man named Niednagel is
doing just that. Simply by watching a player walk and talk,
Niednagel can determine which position he should play. An article
by Martin Dugard in American Way magazine (Dec. 15, 1998)06 ware 47 1/19/01, 1:07 PM