Author: Cliff Walsh, CFA

My grandfather, an avid stock market speculator in his day, once told me when I was a kid that most market participants had terrible investment performance even through some of the strongest bull markets. “Humans are herd animals, just like sheep,” he told me. “Even the professionals?” I asked. “They might be the worst.

Basically, Wall Street is filled with a bunch of monkeys in suits.” I was shocked, but apparently not enough to deter me from pursuing a career on Wall Street. The conversation with my grandfather pushed me to look at things a little differently throughout my career. I studied the great investors to understand what made them great and then applied what I learned…