{"id":17136,"date":"2023-01-11T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T03:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/?p=17136"},"modified":"2025-12-02T17:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:35:12","slug":"irr-of-investment-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/","title":{"rendered":"The career annualized return on investment of top investment masters: Buffett, Simons, Lynch, Dalio, Keynes, Munger, Soros, Miller, Karaman, Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#My_creteria\" >My creteria<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#Stock_Fund_Manager_Peter_Lynch\" >Stock Fund Manager: Peter Lynch<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#Quantitative_investor_James_Simons\" >Quantitative investor: James Simons<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#Value_Investor_Buffett\" >Value Investor: Buffett<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#Hedge_fund_manager_Dalio\" >Hedge fund manager: Dalio<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#A_rare_academic_investment_guru_Keynes\" >A rare academic investment guru: Keynes<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#Bill_Miller_outperformed_S_P_500_for_15_consecutive_years\" >Bill Miller outperformed S&amp;P 500 for 15 consecutive years<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/11\/irr-of-investment-masters\/#Related_articles\" >Related articles<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"My_creteria\"><\/span>My creteria<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The criteria for the investment masters selected in this article mainly include the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Several mainstream ways of stock market investment, including stock funds, quantitative investment, value investment, and hedge funds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Among the several mainstream ways of investing in each stock market, it is recognized as the one with the highest salary (main standard) and the one with the largest capital scale in the world (secondary standard)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The investment career must be long enough, because we only care about the annualized return on investment for the entire career<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stock_Fund_Manager_Peter_Lynch\"><\/span>Stock Fund Manager: Peter Lynch<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Peter. During the 13 years when Lin Chu served as the fund manager of Magellan Fund, the annualized rate of return of the fund reached 29.2%, which is an astonishing and rare investment performance. He was named the world&#8217;s best fund manager by Time magazine and the most legendary fund manager in history by the American Fund Rating Company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Quantitative_investor_James_Simons\"><\/span>Quantitative investor: James Simons <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>James Simons is the greatest quantitative investor of all time. His Medallion Fund has a total of 31 years from 1988 to 2018, with an average annualized rate of return of 66.1% and a deduction of fees as high as 39.1%. This is the greatest lifetime investment cumulative effect of any published investor that I know of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I checked all the information on the Chinese and English Internet and his related books. Simmons is the only investor who is closest to perfection\u2500\u2500His Medallion Fund only had a negative return on investment in 1989. That&#8217;s an amazing achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please see my post of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/08\/11\/book-by-jim-simons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The quant&#8217;s must-read book for Jim Simons &#8220;The Man Who Solved the Market&#8221;<\/a>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Value_Investor_Buffett\"><\/span>Value Investor: Buffett<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Buffett has had a total of 57 years from 1965 to 2021, and only 11 years have had a negative annual return on investment, with an annualized return of 20.1%. With the size of the funds under Buffett&#8217;s control, this is a &#8220;very, very&#8221; difficult achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.books.com.tw\/products\/0010889106?sloc=main\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Rules of Super Growth Stocks Investing<\/a>&#8220;: Section 1-1, page 21, in the discussion on the theme of &#8220;Long-term investment will be successful&#8221;, I have analyzed Simmons and Buffett for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Hedge_fund_manager_Dalio\"><\/span>Hedge fund manager: Dalio<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the world&#8217;s largest hedge funds, Raymond Dalio&#8217;s Bridgewater Fund&#8217;s Bridgewater Fund has an annualized rate of return of 11.4% since its inception in 1991 to the first half of 2022 (the S&amp;P 500 index includes dividends The annualized rate of return for the same period is 11.24%). In the hedge fund industry, considering the size of his capital and the duration of the fund, it is considered a top performer, but it is almost the same as the S&amp;P 500 index representing the US stock market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_rare_academic_investment_guru_Keynes\"><\/span>A rare academic investment guru: Keynes<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Keynes is the &#8220;only&#8221; famous figure who has the status of a legendary master of &#8220;<strong><em>both&#8221; <\/em><\/strong>economics and investment. There is a big difference between academia and the actual situation of real society. Usually, the return on investment of so-called academics or finance professors is not very good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has long been managing investment portfolios for King&#8217;s College in the UK, achieving the extraordinary achievement of achieving an annual investment return of 12.4% during a 21-year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The active components of his portfolio outperformed the UK stock index by an average of 6% to 8% per year for 25 years, earning him high praise from recognized stock investment gurus such as future generations Buffett and George Soros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regarding Keynes, please see my post of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/01\/john-maynard-keynes\/\">John Maynard Keynes, Investment master<\/a>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Bill_Miller_outperformed_S_P_500_for_15_consecutive_years\"><\/span>Bill Miller outperformed S&amp;P 500 for 15 consecutive years<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>From 1991 to 2005, the Legg Mason Value Trust managed by Miller achieved a total return of 980.45%, with an annual compound return rate of approximately 16.44%; and he retired in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miller has outperformed the S&amp;P index for 15 consecutive years, and his investment returns have been higher than the S&amp;P 500 index during the same period. During this period, the S&amp;P 500 rose 513.59%, with an annual compound return of approximately 11.53%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has outperformed the S&amp;P index for 15 consecutive years, even better than another legendary fund manager Peter. He also achieved eight consecutive years of beating the S&amp;P 500 index. Miller&#8217;s outstanding performance has resulted in the size of the funds he manages reportedly growing from $750 million in 1990 to $20 billion in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>\u3000<\/td><td>Fund size (US$ billion)<\/td><td>Period<\/td><td>Number of total investing years<\/td><td>Annualized return<\/td><td>Number of negative return years<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Buffett<\/td><td>350<\/td><td>1965-2024<\/td><td>60<\/td><td>19.9%<\/td><td>11<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>James Simons<\/td><td>34.8<\/td><td>1988-2018<\/td><td>36<\/td><td>40%<\/td><td>1<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Peter Lynch<\/td><td>14<\/td><td>1977-1990<\/td><td>13<\/td><td>29.2%<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Bill Miller<\/td><td>20<\/td><td>1991-2005<\/td><td>15<\/td><td>16.44<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Dalio<\/td><td>100<\/td><td>1991-2022<\/td><td>32<\/td><td>11.4%<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>John Keynes<\/td><td>0.052<\/td><td>1928-1945<\/td><td>18<\/td><td>13.2%<\/td><td>5<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Charlie Munger (Wheeler, Munger &amp; Company)<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><td>1962-1975<\/td><td>14<\/td><td>19.8%<\/td><td>3<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>George Soros<\/td><td>5.9<\/td><td>1969-2002<\/td><td>34<\/td><td>28.6%<\/td><td>4<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Seth Karaman<\/td><td>25<\/td><td>1987-2013<\/td><td>26<\/td><td>20%<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Benjamin Graham<\/td><td>0.005<\/td><td>1936-1956<\/td><td>21<\/td><td>20%<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"108\" height=\"152\" src=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/m-1600x1200-3.jpg\" alt=\"investment masters\" class=\"wp-image-17151\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_articles\"><\/span>Related articles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/03\/22\/investment-return-numbers\/\">Investment Return, be careful of the numbers pitfall<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/09\/27\/imitating-fastest-effective\/\">Imitating great investors is the fastest and most effective way<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/11\/jim-simons-pass-away\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jim Simons, the lord of quantitative investing<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/08\/11\/book-by-jim-simons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The quant&#8217;s must-read book for Jim Simons &#8220;The Man Who Solved the Market&#8221;<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/07\/04\/quantitative-investment-com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Commonalities in Quantitative Investment<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/24\/investment-masters\/\">How to research successful investment masters?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/07\/10\/fund-size-and-roi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The correlation between fund size and return on investment<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/07\/return-on-investment\/\">The larger the portfolio, the lower the return on investment will possibly be over decads<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/01\/14\/irr-of-investment-masters\/\">The career annualized return on investment of top investment masters: Buffett, Simons, Lynch, Dalio, Keynes, Munger, Soros, Miller, Karaman, Graham<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/04\/07\/buffett-deserves-study\/\">Why Buffett deserves further study<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/01\/john-maynard-keynes\/\">John Maynard Keynes, Investment master<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/04\/19\/keyness-investment\/\">Keynes&#8217; investment principles and achievements<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/06\/05\/one-up-on-wall-street\/\">&#8220;One Up on Wall Street&#8221;, Peter Lynch&#8217;s great book for investing newbie<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/12\/07\/buffett-investment-idea\/\">What helps Buffett to get his investment idea?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/04\/27\/buffett-portfolio\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The commonalities of Buffett portfolio \u2013 cheap, fixed income, repurchase<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/07\/25\/stock-worth-holding-forever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Investors should care annualized rate of return (IRR), How to calculate?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/25\/checklist-investment-return\/\">Checklist to see if your return on investment is good or not?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/07\/10\/fund-size-and-roi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The correlation between fund size and return on investment<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/07\/return-on-investment\/\">The larger the portfolio, the lower the return on investment will possibly be over decads<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The content of this site is the author\u2019s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers&#8217; direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The career annualized return on investment of top investment masters: Buffett, Simons, Lynch, Dalio, Keynes, Munger, Soros, Miller, Karaman The criteria for the investment masters selected in this article mainly include the following.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,538,246,10,72,43,73,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buffett","category-charlie-munger","category-george-soros","category-hedge-fund","category-investing-guru","category-jim-simons","category-peter-lynch","category-quantitative-investing","category-value-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17136"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40469,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17136\/revisions\/40469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}