So Far, So Good: The First 94 Years
Memoir of a hedged-equity pioneer's seven decades on Wall Street
Summary
Neuberger founded Neuberger Berman in 1939 and worked on Wall Street for almost seven decades, having started at Halle and Stieglitz in 1929 shortly before the crash. This memoir, written at ninety-four, covers his career, his investment approach and his art collecting.
The investment content centres on hedging. Neuberger paired long and short positions from early in his career, and he describes shorting Radio Corporation of America in 1929 against his long positions as the trade that preserved his capital through the crash. He is a trader rather than a buy-and-hold investor, and his stated approach emphasises attention to price, willingness to take small losses quickly, and scepticism about holding a position because of an attachment to the company. He also discusses the mutual fund business he built and the shift in the industry over his lifetime.
The art collecting is a substantial part of the book. Neuberger bought contemporary American work by living artists, including Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko and Avery, on a policy of never selling and of donating to public institutions, and he founded the Neuberger Museum at Purchase College.
The book is a memoir rather than a manual, with anecdote rather than method, and readers looking for a systematic investment framework will not find one. The reference has not verified many of the specific claims about individual trades, which rest on the author's recollection decades later. Its value is as a first-hand account of Wall Street across an unusually long span and as an early statement of long-short practice.
Key takeaways 7
- Holding short positions against a long book preserved capital through the 1929 crash and became the basis of Neuberger's approach for the rest of his career.
- Taking small losses quickly is the discipline that separates traders who survive from those who do not.
- Attachment to a company as an institution is a source of investment error, and a position should be judged on price and prospects alone.
- An investor should pay attention to what the market is doing rather than insisting the market recognise a valuation.
- Buying art from living artists at low prices and never selling produced both a collection and a public institution, and Neuberger treated the no-sale rule as essential to the approach.
- A long career in markets is survived by avoiding ruin rather than by maximising any individual result.
- Investment management as a business changed from a craft practised by partners to an asset-gathering industry over the course of his career.
Who should read it
Investors interested in a first-hand account of long-short practice and Wall Street across seven decades, read as memoir rather than method.
Who recommended it 2 · 2 direct
“I sometimes reread older books like 'So Far, So Good - the First 94 Years,' written by Roy Neuberger in 1997. It always fascinates me how things are basically the same on Wall Street. Sound…”
“Roy never fails to amuse and enlighten. Over the years, he's taught me many things I didn't know I didn't know.”
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Where it sits in the reference 2
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