Jim Rogers taught an investing class back in the late 1980s at Columbia Business School so he could play squash there. He had the students take a market cycle and study everything they could surrounding what made the market go up and down. Why did cotton boom and bust from 1860 to 1865? Railway shares in 1856? Soybeans in the 1970s?  He taught case studies.

Discovering more of Jim Rogers. 1987-1993 by a Jim Rogers Fan

Rich
Dallas, Texas

After I discovered Jim Rogers, through an incredible night lecture, while a student at Columbia University, I never expected to bump in to this guy again. I graduated in 1987, and began working as an architect in NY. My interest in the stock market was there, but I had very little training, little money, and nothing to go on, other than a few dull books, watching NPR, and an occasional effort to get my hands on some Value Lines. And I had the memory of Roger’s lecture, where he gave a lot of basic tips and advice, not all unlike the kinds of simple tips I would read about in Peter Lynch’s first book, One Up on Wall Street.

One day, probably around 1989 or 1990, as I walked past a newstand in the Union Square subway, I happened to look down at a stack of Barrons’, and I saw the words “Barrons Round Table” and “with Jim Rogers.” After a doubletake, I jumped on that copy. My buddy Rogers has showed up in my life again. And so began my worship of the Barrons Round Table. Not only was Jim Rogers there, but a few other names I had begun to get acquainted with over the years. . including Peter Lynch, John Neff and others. This was great for me – an education in the stock market by watching these guys predict the year. I had never heard of the Barrons Round Table before. Had I not seen Roger’s name, I might never had noticed it.

From that day on, my own investment strategy worked like this. I read the Barron’s Round Table, every January, during it’s 3 weeks of publication, to determine how the year would go. Then I would pick my favorite 3 or 4 ideas from the group, and invest. I was too busy with other things in my life to worry with stock analysis every day, or every month. And since I invested long term, this was good enough for me. To this very day, I wait patiently for the third week of January to roll around, so I can read what the famous group has to say about the coming year. It’s become a ritual that I can’t stop doing. I love it. And I’ve learned a lot just listening to these guys, observing how they think, and checking their results the following year.

And of course, I have to go with what fits my own senses. I never like the whole group. Not every idea appeals to me personally. Not every idea I can understand. Since my attitude is very black sheep, I quite naturally cozy up to the black sheep like Rogers. To Lynch’s credit, who is less black, his ideas often paid me well. I still remember his recommendation on British Steel. Good one. And Rogers’ ideas were often so weird, or foreign, I had no way to buy what he was recommending. I could not buy Botswana’s stock market. I couldn’t buy apple farms in New Zealand. But once I did buy a CD’s from a New Zealand bank and a Danish bank, indirectly following his advice on the currency — paid back nicely after 6 months. Roger’s pick on silver back then did not do me well at all. Big loser. One of my worst buys of all time. As he readily admits, he ain’t perfect. Couer D Alene Mines – what a haunting story that stock has been over the past 15 years. Of course, if you use this technique of annual buying, you are on your own in terms of figuring out when to sell.

This was all before Rogers showed up on cable TV. Before his books came out. Eventually, he disappeared from the Round Table for a while so he could travel the world on a motorcycle. But upon hearing that, it did force me to recall his words from back in 1987 at Columbia. He told the audience, which was 99% MBA students, that the biggest waste of time and money was getting an MBA. They all laughed, of course, since they were paying a fortune to be there, and Rogers was being paid to teach them. He said if they wanted to be successful, they would be better off traveling the world, working abroad, and getting to know another country. When I heard Rogers was circling the globe on a motorcycle, I figured he was practicing what he preached.

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Andrew Weiss (economist)

From Wikipedia

Early Years and Education