Since a picture is worth a thousand words or something, I'll start this off by showing you how well his Chest Fund's performance was. He did this through the Great Depression and World War 2. I can't imagine what his performance would have been like during a true bull market!
You might think of John Maynard Keynes as a great economist. That's all I knew of him until I started reading more about the history of other investment greats. John Maynard Keynes intrigues me because he's the type of investor I can really understand. I also can get behind his key principles:
A portfolio should be concentrated on a few investments based on the cheapness of said investment in relation to its intrinsic values many years ahead and compared to alternatives.
Long-term holdings periods are to be the norm. Hold through thick and thin. Sell only when your investments have fulfilled their promise or when it's clear that the purchase of a loser was a mistake.
Your portfolio's holdings should be exposed to a wide variety of risks. Meaning, don't own a few stocks competing in the exact same industry.
These are a few of the principles I most definitely have instilled into my own investing axioms. I think a concentrated portfolio is the only way to outperform. I have taken Buffett's "the best time to sell is never" to heart and prefer sticking with companies that I know better than most investors rather than constantly trying to find new ideas. Keynes nailed it that your portfolio should be exposed to a wide range of risks, this ensures that if one of your holdings underperforms, it won't mean your entire portfolio is moving in lockstep with the industry.
One quality I appreciate about Keynes was how he was able to change his mind on one key investing philosophy: speculation. He actually began his "investing" career as a speculator. He initially felt his insights into economic cycles could help improve his chances of succeeding while speculating. But as time went on, he came to the realization that his expertise in that area wasn't giving him the edge he thought he'd get, and he moved from speculating to being a true investor.
I can actually draw a parallel to Keynes myself. I actually took a pretty similar route to my path to becoming an investor. I actually started my "investing" journey by speculating on Cryptocurrency in 2017. I was very happy to see my portfolio pump up 3x in only a few months' time, only to see it all fall down to a fraction of what it had been at the top. After that poor experience, I still held onto most of my holdings and mainly forgot about them for 4 years.
During the beginning of the pandemic, I kind of stumbled into learning more about value investing. My rationale would've made Buffett proud. I reasoned simply that since the market had taken a giant dump on everyone, there must be cheap stocks available. That pretty much jump-started my obsession with investing that now consumes much of my time and focus!
Looking at my current portfolio, even though, I knew the least, my best performers were purchased within a few months of the initial Covid drop. This goes to show that buying great companies during market meltdowns are most definitely a recipe for success!