For a 13-year stretch, Peter Lynch was one of the biggest names on Wall Street. As the manager of Fidelity’s Magellan fund between 1977 and 1990, he consistently managed to more than double the yearly returns of the S&P 500, posting an average annual return of 29.2 per cent during the period.
Magellan was, by a distance, the best performing fund of its day, making Lynch a strong contender for the title of its most successful investor.
That this all occurred during one of the most buccaneering periods in American finance makes it particularly impressive. But lest anyone think that Magellan’s record was the product of the market’s most connected or smartest player, Lynch sought to dispel any notion of his own gift with the release in 1989 of the popular investing book One Up on Wall Street.