Nicolas Darvas fled Hungary at the age of 23 with nothing but a few pounds to his name. He would go on to turn an investment of $10,000 into $2,000,000. It only took him 18 months. Not the story you’d expect from a professional ballroom dancer.
Years later, aged 39, Darvas wrote this book. It outlines the steps in his journey, and explains the investment strategy that made him successful. The strategy is referred to as The Box.
The book begins by explaining Darvas’ first exposure to the market. Darvas came to own his first stock after being paid in scrip for his services as a dancer. The stock went up. He was hooked.
After that, Darvas begins experimenting more with the stock market. He goes through several ‘stages’ as an investor and each stage is a section in the book: The Gambler, The Fundamentalist, The Technician and finally The Techno-Fundamentalist.
It’s tempting to criticise The Box method – perhaps it would not work so well in a bear market. However, when you boil down Darvas’ idea to its essential attributes you find a strategy based on discipline, simplicity, real-life practicality and common sense.
Times may have changed, but every investor can benefit from reading about Darvas’ achievements. This book is as inspiring as it is entertaining and we highly recommend it.
“Just to add a line to this review…… this book was my first insight into the use of Fundamental and Technical Research when investing. Nicolas Darvas discovered that Fundamentals alone did not work, I would argue he also discovered Technical Research alone did not work but the two combined did. – Karl”