Master Investors
Two dozen investors whose ideas shaped value investing. Each profile covers who they are, the philosophy they built, their track record, and the lessons that translate to individual investors.
This quarter’s standouts
Auto-updated each 13F season from public GuruFocus filings — the value managers leading on return, scale and conviction right now.
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Browse master investors
Warren Buffett
Wonderful businesses at fair prices, held for decades.
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Charlie Munger
Mental models, inversion, and the avoidance of stupidity.
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Benjamin Graham
The father of value investing and the margin of safety.
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Peter Lynch
Invest in what you know — then do the homework.
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Seth Klarman
Risk-first investing and the discipline of holding cash.
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Howard Marks
Second-level thinking and reading the market pendulum.
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John Templeton
Buy at the point of maximum pessimism — anywhere on earth.
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Philip Fisher
Scuttlebutt research and holding great growth almost forever.
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Joel Greenblatt
Special situations and the Magic Formula.
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Walter Schloss
47 years of pure Graham deep value from a one-room office.
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Bill Ackman
Concentrated bets on simple, high-quality businesses.
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Ken Fisher
Price-to-sales pioneer and disciplined contrarian.
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The $25 million lesson that changed Buffett
In 1972 the sellers of See's Candies asked $30 million; Buffett, trained on Graham's cigar butts, refused to go above $25 million — roughly three times book value, a price the old Buffett would never pay. The deal nearly died over $5 million. Charlie Munger pushed back: a beloved brand with loyal customers and genuine pricing power deserved a premium.
They paid the $25 million. See's went on to ship more than $1.65 billion of cumulative pre-tax earnings back to Omaha while needing almost no additional capital — raising prices every year without losing a single loyal customer. Buffett later called it 'the prototype of a dream business' and credits this one purchase with rewiring how he invests.
Quality compounds quietly for decades. Temperament and a clear circle of competence beat chasing the cheapest price.
The only deal Munger ever pushed
In the depths of the 2008 crisis, Munger did something he had never done before: he actively lobbied Buffett to invest in BYD, a Chinese battery and car maker led by engineer Wang Chuanfu — a man Munger described as "a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch". The conviction came through Li Lu, whose circle of competence covered what Omaha's did not.
Berkshire paid $232 million for about 10% of the company — a tiny position by its standards, in an industry Buffett had publicly sworn off. At its 2022 peak the stake was worth roughly $9 billion, close to a forty-fold gain, before Berkshire began trimming.
A circle of competence can be extended honestly — by trusting someone who genuinely has one where you do not.
About these profiles
These biographies are educational summaries of public records and writings. They are not investment advice, and none of the individuals profiled are affiliated with or endorse Valuefocus.
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