The Best Hedge Fund Manager of All-Time
Long before traders started whipping around pork bellies in Chicago, they were trading rice in Japan. And few traders have been as resourceful as this guy:
Into this market came Munehisa Honma in the 1750's. Homma's family, who lived in Sakata, had a huge rice farming estate, and held considerable sway over the market. Over the years Homma kept careful records, of rice prices, weather conditions and records of trading on the exchanges.
The conclusions enabled him to understand the psychology of investors and forecast the direction of the markets.
His accuracy in prediction was such that he never left home to conduct his trades. Instead, he placed men on the tops of houses from Osaka to Sakata with a series of flags giving his selling or buying instuctions. CandleCharts.com
A slow trading day gives you a chance to bone up on the story of the greatest trader of all-time, according to Veryan Allen:
That person was of the great Munehisa Honma who managed a long/short commodities hedge fund during the 18th Century. His house is well designed and much larger than most (modern day) hedge fund managers, but his book, “Fountain of Gold” is brilliant. Probably the best investment book ever written. His trading ability enabled the Honma family to go on to become the largest land owner in Japan for over a century. In today’s money his likely net worth was much more than $100 billion. Some years he would have “taken home” the equivalent of $10 billion so it is curious those excited about John Paulson’s “record” pay of $3 billion; fair compensation for the $12 billion absolute alpha he generated for investors that they would not OTHERWISE have. Hedge Fund Blog
You might not use candlestick charts, but you should probably read the story of Munehisa Honma, the greatest trader of all time.
Best hedge fund?
Hedge Fund Blog
Samurai Trader
John Needham
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