Getting a Better Class of Enemy - Money, Markets and Manias
My investment book: Dedication and Preface
Getting a Better Class of Enemy
Money, Markets and Manias
by Robert Marstrand
For Sophia and Oliver. Always remember the following:
"Money can't buy you friends, but you do get a better class of enemy."
Spike Milligan, Irish-English author and comedian (1918-2002)
Preface
Put bluntly, if I'd known the contents of this book thirty years ago, then I'd have a lot more money today.
This book's aim can be simply stated: to explain the main topics of investing in plain language, based on the experience I've gained over three decades.
At the time of writing, I’m fifty years of age, and going on fifty one. I had little to no exposure to investment or finance until after university. I grew up in rural, South-East England. As a kid I used muddy water to make pretend "cups of tea", climbed trees, and sometimes fell out of them.
My father had a small business in the agricultural sector, which involved a lot of hard labour and long hours. My mother was a traditional housewife who raised my three sisters and myself.
I did well at school, getting top grades in maths and the harder sciences. Following a change of direction at university, my main achievement was a first class degree in social pursuits.
Fortunately, this was the perfect combination of skills for my financial career, which began in the City of London in September 1993. Investment banks are all about people and numbers. They just happen to be highly demanding people and vast numbers.
It was challenging work but also interesting, and even exhilarating at times. At the tender age of just twenty two, I had to send nearly a billion pounds to another bank, albeit under supervision. But it was still my hesitant finger that had to hit the send button. This was quite a change of scene for a lad from the sticks.
Later, I also got to live in Hong Kong for a few years, and work across the vast Asian region. That was also a major contrast from my rural upbringing in England.
I'm only telling you all this so you know what you're dealing with here. A mud-eating former mathematician that once moved amongst the multi-national mega money mob.
Anyway, that's enough about where I've come from. This book is meant to be about investing.
Every investor makes mistakes, even the true greats. There are mistakes of omission, meaning missed opportunities. There are also mistakes of commission, meaning owning the wrong things.
I can promise you that I've made both kinds of error, and learned some hard lessons along the way. But I hope that my biggest investment clangers are now behind me.
Like most parents, I want my children to have successful and fulfilling lives, wherever the future may lead them. At some indeterminate point, my kids are likely to be faced with making important investment decisions.
This book is intended to be read and understood by anyone with reasonable intelligence and a decent command of English, but who doesn't have the benefit of a formal financial training. It aims to help my children out when the time comes, and to provide a reference guide that can be dipped into at any time later.
As such, this is a kind of legacy project. It's something I will leave to my children, and that I hope will last. With that in mind, you can be sure that I want it to be as accurate as possible, and certainly not rushed or poorly thought through.
If it's useful for other people as well, and not just my kids, then so much the better.
Overall, it draws together all the main topics that I believe are most essential for private investors to understand. It's also intended to stand the test of time, rather than being rooted in the present.
Naturally, it can't cover everything, including the specific investment choices that any investor will face in future. But I believe that it provides a comprehensive investment framework, and a set of guiding parameters for investment decisions.
Obviously enough, there are already loads of investment books. So why on Earth would I write yet another one? Put simply, none that I've read do what this book aims to achieve.
Other investment books, at least the ones that I know of, tend to fit into one or more of the following groups:
Dry technical books, which are heavy on dubious academic theories and complex financial formulae. This makes them barely comprehensible to most people, or simply too much of a grind to get through.
Market histories, which examine past market events, usually with a view to learning from them. These are great resources, but do little to explain how to actually invest.
Analyses of historical market data, with a view to formulating market-beating strategies. These often conclude with simplified, formulaic, one-size-fits-all solutions, which ignore the complexities and nuances of the real world.
Biographies or autobiographies that chart the experiences of high-profile high financiers. These can also be a great read, but once again rarely provide much practical help for investors.
Claimed get-rich-quick schemes, with snappy titles written by marketing people. These are generally a scam, preying on the greed or desperation of the public.
To reiterate, this book's aim is to explain the main topics of investing in plain language, based on the experience I've gained over three decades.
For fifteen years, that was within the heady atmosphere of a global investment bank and wealth manager. Since then, it's been as a private investor, and a writer of investment newsletters for private investors.
I'm grateful that I learnt a huge amount during both periods. That's not least by witnessing the very best and worst behaviours of the investment banking and financial newsletter worlds. As they say, forewarned is forearmed.
A lot of this book's focus is on stock markets, but it covers other types of investment as well. Importantly, it doesn't just talk about what to invest in and why. It also talks about what to avoid.
This crucial area is usually ignored, not least since investment people get rich from persuading you to buy things, and not from persuading you to sit on your hands.
Part of this book will address that risky omission. Dodging bullets is just as important as firing them accurately at a target.
The jargon-infested and fee-grabbing worlds of finance and investment are turbulent seas to navigate. My aim for readers of this book is to improve their chances of safe passage, including my children in future.
With that said, I still have to persuade the kids to actually read it one day. If I fail in that through my own efforts as a father, perhaps necessity will become the mother of that particular invention.
Rob Marstrand
Buenos Aires, April 2023