Investment Style
One of the past century’s top contrarians, it is said about John Templeton that “he bought low during the Depression, sold high during the internet boom and made more than a few good calls in between.”
His investing style can be summed up as looking for value investments, what he called “bargain hunting,”by searching out such targets in many countries instead of just one. Templeton’s investing mantra was “search for companies around the world that offered low prices and an excellent long-term outlook.”
As a value-contrarian investor, Templeton believed that the best bargains were in stocks that were completely neglected – those that other investors were not even studying. In this regard, he had an advantage not readily available to the average individual investor – his residence in Lyford Cay in the Bahamas. The Lyford Key Club was populated with successful businessmen from all parts of the world.
Templeton found he could easily exchange ideas and opinions with them in that attractive ambiance, which, for him, worked better than networking with Wall Street contacts with limited information who were always trying to sell him things. Not unlike fellow legendary investor Phillip Fisher, Templeton systematically mined his numerous contacts for valuable, objective investment data, which in his case related to market conditions and investment targets around the world.