Walter Schloss

Bio Highlights:

• Returns of 20% per year for 47 years (15.3% net to his investors, double the 7% return of the S&P during that period).
• High school graduate without a college degree
• First got a job on Wall Street at age 18 in 1934 as a runner. Wanted to learn investing and got a piece of key advice from a mentor: “Read Graham and Dodd’s Security Analysis, and that’s all you’ll need to know”
• Later worked for Ben Graham at Graham-Newman, spending his time methodically looking for cheap stocks
• After Graham decided to retire and close his fund, Schloss started his partnership with 19 partners and $100,000 of capital in 1955
• Operated a solo-operation until his son Edwin later joined him. The two of them never had any other employees, despite managing 9 figures later in their career (in one of his later years, his firm made $19 million in profits against just $11,000 of expenses!)
• Famous for being frugal, simple. He worked out of the same small one room office for the entire duration of his career. Never owned a computer, never used the internet.