Managing Investment Portfolios: A Dynamic Process

• John L. Maginn, CFA
  Omaha, Nebraska
  Charterholder since 1968
• Donald L. Tuttle, CFA
  Charlottesville, Virginia
  Charterholder since 1971

How do you wrestle a topic as broad and unfolding as investment management into the pages of a single book?

Not without a lot of long days and nights, it turns out. And also not without being able to corral more than 30 experts to flesh out a very comprehensive outline with clear, concise prose covering their specialties.

John Maginn, CFA, and Don Tuttle, CFA, know the challenges well. First published in 1983, their Managing Investment Portfolios: A Dynamic Process is now in its third edition, pushing 1,000 pages and hailed with accolades such as “the definitive volume in explaining investment management as a process.”

The third edition came about despite the risk of marital discord. According to John, after his and Don’s wives lived as virtual authors’ widows during preparation of the second edition, they said, “Never again, you two.” Fortunately, the two compatriots were able to get together and, in 2007, with the help of co-editors Dennis McLeavey, CFA, and Jerald Pinto, CFA, they completed the third edition and packed it off to the publisher.

Thousands of CFA candidates around the world have spent their own long days and nights studying the book. And many have experienced at least a little apprehension on exam day knowing that their answers might even be graded by the authors of the seminal text they’d spent months absorbing.

But those of us who’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with John and Don know them as consummate, fair-minded professionals, deeply committed to CFA Institute and the vast body of knowledge it provides to charterholders. In this video clip, John and Don talk about how their extraordinary book came about and then came together to endure for so many decades.