Books for your Christmas wish list: Our fund manager recommendations

Many of you will be sick of reading analyst notes and thought-leadership pieces by this time of year and will relish the chance to learn about something different for a change.  

But broadening your scope beyond what is moving markets in the short term can help you make better investment decisions in the long run. Below, some of our fund managers and analysts name the books that have given them a greater understanding of the economy, people and the planet this year. We hope they can play a similar role in broadening your knowledge and understanding – or at the very least, provide a gift idea for a loved one.  

“Material World” by Ed Conway 

“I hadn’t travelled out into the high desert to set off a bomb; I had come because of a spreadsheet,” Ed Conway writes on the opening page of “Material World” as his decision to investigate how gold briefly became the UK’s biggest export – despite the lack of a gold-mining industry – ends with him detonating hundreds of pounds of high explosive; “enough, I was informed, to demolish a city block”.

As he realises that between four and 20 tonnes of rock had to be destroyed to make the wedding ring on his finger, he asks himself a question: if this is what it takes to extract a metal we can live without, then what does it take to extract those materials we really need? It also led to him writing this fascinating book on the six most crucial substances in human history – sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium – which took us all the way from the Dark Ages and up to the present day.

“Power Failure” by William D Cohan 

I would recommend “Power Failure”, which gets into the nitty gritty of one of the legends of corporate America in General Electric. Writer William D Cohan takes you from General Electric’s early days with Thomas Edison, inventor of the lightbulb, through to its glory days under Jack Welch and his Six Sigma manufacturing mantra. It finishes just before the company’s recent break-up, including a spin-out of its healthcare business, which we currently own in Artemis Global Select.

The intricate portraits of the characters involved, including both powerful and powerless chief executives, the relentless dealmaking and ultimately the tale of how the company fell, would make this an excellent Christmas read.

“When the Body Says No” by Gabor Maté 

The books I have enjoyed reading this year have related to human psychology. “When the Body Says No” by Gabor Maté was one I found particularly interesting. An unfortunate consequence of investing in financial markets is that it can be stressful when things go against you, even though a fund manager only needs to get just over half their decisions right to be successful. The implication is that you must be OK with taking losses to succeed, which can be tough psychologically. In our case, we have built a process that helps manage some of the emotions that can lead to poor decisions.  

Nevertheless, to stay the course and deliver over the long term, good mental and physical health is also crucial. Maté’s text highlights some of the hidden effects of stress. While avoiding this sensation is difficult, recognising when you may be suffering is a helpful starting point for tackling it.

“Mother of Invention” by Katrine Marçal 

After reading “Invisible Women”, a Freakonomics-like book on gender bias by Caroline Criado-Perez, I became deeply interested in the ways prejudice and partiality can shape our world. Through further research, I discovered an interview featuring Criado-Perez and Katrine Marçal which led me to “Mother of Invention”. I wanted to understand why as a species we had managed to launch astronauts into space before we thought of attaching wheels to a suitcase.  

The book explores how societal norms, particularly around gender, have stifled innovation through history. Marçal argues that breaking free from bias unleashes enormous potential for innovation and problem-solving. As an impact investor, this resonated deeply with me. Inclusivity is more than skin (or gender) deep. It matters to growth, innovation and progress. Addressing systemic biases isn’t just the right thing to do – it is essential to long-term growth and resilience. For anyone curious about the intersections of gender, history and innovation – or how inclusion drives meaningful progress – this book is an insightful, thought-provoking read. 

“Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson 

In rather fortuitous timing, our team recently read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk. What we were most often struck by was the questioning of excessive regulations, the desire to bring down cost and the relentless drive to make improvements, often with seemingly impossible deadlines. This passage in particular stood out: “Decades of cost-plus contracts had made aerospace flabby. A valve in a rocket would cost 30 times more than a similar valve in a car, so Musk constantly pressed his team to source components from non-aerospace companies. The latches used by NASA in the Space Station cost $1,500 each. A SpaceX engineer was able to modify a latch used in a bathroom stall and create a locking mechanism that cost $30.”  

Musk is now set to lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, and with US government spending at $6 trillion a year, any change to this figure will have ramifications well beyond the budget deficit.