READING ROOM

The Detective and the

Investor: Uncovering

Investment Techniques from

the Legendary Sleuths

(Texere; 2002; $24.95)

By Robert G. Hagstrom

The

Detective and the Investor: Uncovering

Investment Techniques from the

Legendary Sleuths

The Warren

Buffett Way

New York Times

Three popular and legendary fictionaldetectives are the heroes ofRobert Hagstrom's new book, . Hagstrom, whomanages Legg Mason's Focus CapitalFund, compares the techniques of SirArthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes,Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin, andG. K. Chesterton's Father Brown toshow that the samemental skills thatcharacterize a gooddetective also define a good investor.Like Holmes,investors need toanalyze details and stay open to newinformation. Like Dupin, investorsshould be skeptics and depend on theirown analysis. Like Father Brown,investors need to tune in to the psychologyof the market that can driveherd investors to irrational exuberanceor irrational pessimism. Hagstrom'searlier investing book, , spent 5 months on thebestseller list.