Up and to the Right, Second Edition: The Story of John W. Dobson and His Formula Growth Fund

Craig Toomey

McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, Apr 16, 2020 - Biography & Autobiography - 283 pages

In 1960, Montreal money manager John Dobson launched an informal investment club with a close group of friends and associates, including future prime minister John Turner. His Formula Growth Fund would go on to become one of North America's most successful investment funds, consistently outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and attracting the likes of legendary investor Sir John Templeton.

Up and to the Right tells the story behind John Dobson's investment success as well as his many contributions to entrepreneurial education. Craig Toomey provides valuable insight into Dobson's unconventional but disciplined investment approach, his uncanny ability to predict winning stocks, and his unwavering faith in the stock market despite its many ups and downs. Coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the Formula Growth Fund, this revised edition brings the company's fascinating story up to date. It presents additional investment case studies and explains how, through the launch of a successful hedge fund platform and expansion into Asia, Formula Growth has tripled its assets under management since the first edition was published in 2014. An initial investment of $10,000 made in 1960 has grown in value to an astonishing $12 million - a return on investment that speaks to Dobson's legacy.

Based on interviews with Dobson as well as with dozens of members of his extensive network of friends, colleagues, and investment professionals, Up and to the Right is a fascinating story about a great Canadian who believed deeply in self-reliance and free enterprise as well as the value of friendship, pursuing one's passions, and working for the greater good.

Contents

• 1 An Uncommon Man: 3
• 2 A Fathers Son: 20
• 3 The Real World: 34
• 4 Triumphs and Turmoil: 48
• 5 Rebirth and Renewal: 69
• 6 New Blood: 82
• 7 The Growth Formula: 94
• Its All About Growth and sometimes value: 112
• 9 Formula Growth Hedges Its Bets: 165
• 10 Formula Growth Hedge Fund and Alpha Fund: 174
• 11 A Move into Asia: 187
• 12 Creating Wealth through an Exceptional Team Effort: 196
• 13 A Foe of Excessive Government: 205
• 14 Supporting Entrepreneurship and the Free Enterprise System: 214
• 15 Looking to the Future: 248
• Epilogue: 253
• Formula Growth Fund Annual Performance: 256
• Longterm Formula Growth Fund Performance Chart: 258
• Vintage of Formula Growth Stocks chronologically over the decades price at least doubled: 259
• Formula Growth Current and Former Employees: 271
• Sample of John Dobson Foundation Support Recipients: 274
• Formula Growth 1974 Letter to Unitholders: 276
• Index: 279

About the author

Craig Toomey is a freelance writer and translator and former journalist. He lives in Ottawa.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Up and to the Right, Second Edition: The Story of John W. Dobson and His Formula Growth Fund
• Author: Craig Toomey
• Edition: 2, revised
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2020
• ISBN: 0228001994, 9780228001997
• Length: 283 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Business