Passport to Profits: Why Next Invstmnt Windfalls Will Be Found Abroad...Grab Yr Share

by Mark Mobius

Book Overview

Emerging market investment advice from a seasoned pro Mark Mobius, the man the Wall Street Journal has proclaimed "the King of the Emerging Market Funds," spends eight months of the year traveling the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446522511
• ISBN13: 9780446522519
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant first person ride through emerging market investing

Mobius has quite a reputation as a hard nosed emerging markets investor, and this book gives you a brilliant and highly readable first person account of what he does to deserve it. There are too many investment gurus out there who haven't even set foot in many of the markets and companies they rave/ rant about. Mobius, in contrast, is about as hands on as you can get - he shows you what due diligence really means in emerging markets, where reliable information on local companies and policies is usually very hard to get. The book is chockfull of 'Mobius Rules' - 84 of them - crisply summarizing a key lesson learned from the company or market he just described. These are invaluable as quick recaps of each chapter as well as easy to remember investing tips. Back then, he described Africa as the 'Final Frontier'. It still is, and his closing remarks on the brutally exploited continent ring even truer today: "We see Africa as one of the greatest untapped pockets of potential on earth"!

entertaining and educational

If you are someone who has not traveled much then this book can not only teach you about the outside world but can also give you insights in investig anywhere. I liked this book. He did not take himself seriously and his top-down thinking was certainly unique. If you want to learn about investing and about other countries then buy this book. I would like to see this become a TV series, much like Rick Steves' "Travels in Europe" on PBS.

A window into the mind of a unique personality...

I don't know how many people there are on earth with Mark Mobius's lifestyle, but there can't be many who both have his background and are also willing to share his insights like he does in this book. With no traditional family life to speak of, Mobius presents a picture of himself continually jetting from continent to continent, with no place to lay his head but the cot on his private jet or whatever business hotel he happens to be staying in. Let me mention a couple of things that this book is not. It is not a guide to every emerging market in existence describing the pros and cons of each. Mobius selects several countries as examples (Brazil, Thailand, Russia, Estonia, South Africa, Nigeria) and then drills down to specific companies for flavor. This book is also not an economic theory-type text, where the author might present empirical reasons why emerging markets can make good investments by marshalling statistics. Obviously, if Mobius did not believe that emerging markets can make good investments, he would not have spent his career in this area, but a lot of the theoretical aspects of emerging markets remain unspoken.The format of the book feels something like an all-day seminar by Mobius on the promises and pitfalls of his kind of investing, sprinkled with quirky humor here and there, along the lines of "denial is not just a river in Egypt..." (har, har har). It is as if you have been given the role of a junior analyst to tag along with him to company meetings all over the world, with him giving you his "lessons learned" in the rides back to the airport.In terms of specific investment ideas, Mobius appears to love low (normalized) PEs, especially in the 4x to 7x range, particularly when competitors sell at multiples from 11x to over 20x. He also likes companies selling at a discount to book value. Then there is all of the "softer" stuff, such as quality of management, which is of paramount importance. In particular, his comments in this area spur me to greater due diligence in straining to learn more about the backgrounds of company managements in faraway places. If I can't learn anything positive about them, it might be better to stay away.Particularly due to his long tenure in Hong Kong, I was surprised that Mobius did not spill more ink in his book focusing on China. One takeaway I have from his review of the world is how under whelmed he is by the idea of investing in China. His outlook is completely global, and any potential investment in China must be weighted and sifted against anywhere else. China might have a great future, but at what multiple to earnings?If you want some musings and anecdotes from a person with a real track record in international investing (as opposed to an ivory-tower viewpoint on how things ought to be) this book is for you.

Insightful!

Mark Mobius wrote this emerging markets investment bible for major players in the financial industry. Fortunately, he used language that a novice investor can understand. While some of his more than 80 "Mobius rules" for investing may seem simplistic and clichéd, Mobius backs up his snappy, one-sentence rules with coherent instructions. The book has a friendly, conversational tone. His adventures visiting less-developed countries where he wants to invest are richly detailed. They offer a real glimpse into how business is conducted in markets such as Russia, Brazil, and Hong Kong. While the book's focus is toward investors with the means to travel, it shows how even small investors can capitalize on emerging markets. We [...] recommend this book to anyone in the stock market - particularly those who want to invest in emerging markets, but have no idea where to begin.

Let Mark Mobius tell you himself.

Really some good stuff here. Investing has long periods of boredom punctuated by brief periods of shear terror. The purpose a book like this fills for investors is that it enables us to sit tight and hold on for the ride. Mark gives us incite into what the navigator is actually doing. Long term planning pays. You can hear an excerpt and an interview with Mark Mobius right now by searching on Author "Mobius" at his publishers web site If you are not familiar with books on tape, having your books read by the author is the preferred way to go. These are absolutely the greatest when you are driving and your eyes are in constant motion, the world around you is dynamically flowing. Your mind is free to feast & absorb. It is so easy to leave Mark in your machine on auto repeat.Hardcover is companion to Global Bargain Hunting by Burton Gordon Malkiel