Eleven of modern history's greatest investors

Warren Buffett is considered one of the most successful investors in history

Buffett is the former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a local resident of Omaha, Nebraska, and a billionaire. People often refer to him as the "Oracle of Omaha."

Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing'

Graham was an investor, author, and professor who was also Warren Buffett's teacher and mentor during his time at Columbia University. Graham is still considered one of the most influential people in the world of investing today.

Jim Simons, mathematician turned government codebreaker turned trader, revolutionized quantitative investing

The late Jim Simons is remembered as one of the most successful (and profitable) hedge fund managers of all time. He went from physically gathering microfilm on commodities pricing decades ago to overseeing a firm that led Wall Street in daily trading volume.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

A deep dive into Enron, one of the largest accounting scandals in history

Investing comes with great opportunities for reward, but it also carries great risk. Investors learned that the hard way when Enron collapsed. Everyone lost money—from the largest institutions on Wall Street to mom-and-pop investors who bought S&P 500 index funds. This series from American Scandal starts with a close-up into an investment manager at Enron who started to unravel the accounting scandal happening behind the scenes. Listen here.

The dot-com stock bubble taught Howard Marks about markets

Annual investment letters from Howard Marks, the billionaire cofounder of top distressed debt shop Oaktree Capital Management, are required reading on Wall Street. The prolific writer and investor explains the distinction between the folly of trying to time the market and the necessity of paying attention to market cycles. The difference makes all the difference in returns.

Financial advice from America’s founding fathers

Several of America's founding fathers—Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton—espoused various financial platitudes during their lives. According to the financial publication Kiplinger, much of their advice holds up in modern times. This article rounds up a few wise words from the founding fathers (and even one first lady) about compound interest, taxes, and education. For money-management tips from America's early days, click here.

One $100 investment in the Medallion Fund skyrockets over time

The Medallion Fund, the famously secretive quant fund that invests billions of dollars for the partners and employees of a single firm with a legendary track record, has trounced the market for more than three decades. While its results are an extreme outlier, this visualization showcases the power of compound interest.

How Ivy Leagues are worth billions

Ivy League universities manage massive endowments to support their operations—but instead of simply spending donations, they invest them for long-term growth. Yale’s David Swensen helped reshape this approach in the 1980s by diversifying beyond stocks and bonds into private equity, hedge funds, and real estate.

See a list of 2024’s top 10 VC firms

A list of the top 10 VC firms, like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, ranked by assets under management shows how those two firms stack up against their competitors—and what kinds of companies those competitors invest in.

How COVID-19 brought new investors into the market

With fees removed from the equation and more time at home thanks to pandemic-related lockdowns, Americans who had never bought or sold stocks before started participating in the market. Charles Schwab dubs this cohort “Generation Investor” and notes individuals from all age ranges took part in this phenomenon. Study up here.

A successful angel investor can multiply their investment by 3 to 10 times

Angel investor Naval Ravikant explains what it takes to be successful in his field, from building an authentic brand to developing the judgment to choose which startups to back.

The wealthiest Americans own the vast majority of the stock market

Recent data from the Federal Reserve shows that the richest people in America own 93% of all the country's stock—the highest level ever recorded. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of Americans held just 1% of all stocks.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Active investors try to 'beat' the stock market's performance

There are two primary types of investment strategies that professional investors use: active investing and passive investing. While active investors try to "beat" the stock market's performance, passive investors have a bit more faith in the system.

The original 'four horsemen' of tech were Intel, Dell, Microsoft, and Cisco

These companies became known as the "four horsemen of tech" for the influence the companies had both on other businesses and investors in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The expansion of internet infrastructure throughout the 1990s and the dot-com bubble lifted these companies to incredible heights.

Famed American investor Jesse Livermore made millions when the stock market crashed in 1929

Livermore made his first major short against rail company Union Pacific in 1906, coincidentally before an earthquake in San Francisco, which ultimately tanked share prices. During a financial panic the next year, JP Morgan reportedly asked Livermore to increase his long-term investments to restore hope and restabilize the market—which Livermore did. However, Livermore began betting against the market in 1929, sensing that stocks were too hot, and was one of the few people to benefit from the 1929 stock crash.

The 'Seinfeld' characters would likely be financially successful today

Even though Kramer probably doesn't have a 401(k) plan, he also probably struck gold as an investor with many side hustles.

The history of the Rockefellers in 60 seconds

John D. Rockefeller—the world's first billionaire—once controlled 90% of the US oil refining market, built Standard Oil through vertical integration, and used his fortune to fund universities, museums, and landmarks like Rockefeller Center.

Why some nations reach economic success and others don’t

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics winners, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson, were honored for their compelling research on the factors that influence a nation’s prosperity. Spanning two decades, their work presents insights into how societal organization can explain the income discrepancies between different countries. In general, their research shows that economic success favors more free and open societies. Listen for more fascinating insights.

Hear history nerd Ray Dalio talk about making decisions during times of uncertainty

For Dalio, history is the best teacher. Dalio emphasizes relying on and respecting the past as a framework for the future, so that during unsettling times, people still make good decisions.

S&P 500 stocks that have increased their dividends for 25 consecutive years are called 'dividend aristocrats'

Dividend aristocrats are considered the best of the best on the S&P 500—all with market capitalizations above $3B, more than $5M in daily trading volume, and consecutive dividend growth for a minimum of 25 years. Some examples of dividend aristocrats are Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Walmart.

How to visualize the enormous wealth of Elon Musk

The disruptive innovator and founder of SpaceX and Tesla is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, an unimaginable sum. This simple interactive visual uses pixels (representing $1K each) on a scrolling screen to demonstrate the billionaire's wealth compared to other known financial values, like the cost of building a Boeing 777 or the net worth of Tiger Woods.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Seventeen strange historical heists

High-dollar chocolate and cheese robberies to art thefts and audacious train robberies. Explore history's most peculiar stories of stealing with this list of seventeen tales of burglaries.

See all 16 Fed Chairs ranked by stock market performance

Sixteen people have held the office of Fed Chair since 1913, with varying results. From the Fed’s first leader, Charles Hamlin, to Jerome Powell, see in a ranked list how stocks fared for each chair within distinct macroeconomic conditions.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Commodity traders are the most powerful people you've never heard of

Just beneath the surface of the global economy is a hidden layer of dealmakers for whom war, chaos, and sanctions can be a great business opportunity—they're called commodity traders. Their power partly stems from the fact that commodities are essentially the building blocks of the economy at large.

PetSmart and Hilton are among 10 of the most famous leveraged buyouts in history

Some of the most famous leveraged buyout deals include Blackstone's 2007 acquisition of Hilton Hotels, in which Blackstone took the then-public company private and then returned it to the public markets in 2013. A British PE firm bought PetSmart for $9B in 2014—one of the most expensive leveraged buyouts since 2007.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks