In any investors’ hall of fame, Peter Lynch would undoubtedly have a spot. As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between 1977 and 1990, Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return, consistently more than doubling the S&P 500 market index and making it one of the best-performing mutual funds in the world. According to Wikipedia, during his tenure, assets under management increased from $18 million to $14 billion. Lynch has also co-authored a number of books and papers on investing.

At the apex of his tenure with the Magellan Fund, Lynch sat down for an interview for the September 1985 issue of the AAII Journal: Blending Conservative, Growth and Cyclical Stocks Into a Winning Strategy.

The interview covered a wide variety of topics, including:

• The impact of assets under management on mutual fund performance
• How Lynch went about beating the market on a consistent basis
• Lynch’s definition of a “conservative stock”
• His thoughts on efficient market theory
• Lynch’s biggest investment mistakes

The interview also covers Lynch’s basic approach to picking stocks. It concludes with some words of advice from Lynch for individual investors and his belief that, yes, individual investors can outperform the market.

As both an individual investor and a value investor, I was excited to read this interview with Peter Lynch. Not only did he achieve an unbelievable track record while managing the Magellan Fund, he followed a straightforward, pragmatic approach that is understandable to the typical investor. It is encouraging to see that successful investing doesn’t have to be overly complex. To learn valuable investing insights from a true investing guru, be sure to read the article Blending Conservative, Growth and Cyclical Stocks Into a Winning Strategy.

Stay tuned: Tomorrow I highlight an AAII Journal article that reveals mistakes made by legendary investors that we can all learn from.