Robin Wigglesworth

Yep, because if there's one thing that finance has taught us, it's that people keep making the same silly mistakes.

And these days we might use Bloomberg terminals, spreadsheets and special purpose vehicles, but you can get into just as much hilarious trouble with a simple abacus.

And I'm Robin Wigglesworth.

I'm also an FT journalist.

I'm editor of our finance blog, Alphaville, and someone who has spent far too long staring lovingly at charts.

Yeah, I mean, this is going to be a finance podcast for history geeks and a history podcast for finance geeks.

Well, if you're sadly neither of those two, we're going to try to make you one.

Today on The Story of Money, do people who have off-the-charts IQ, an artistic flair to die for, or generational political skills make good investors?

In other words, does brilliance really mean higher returns?

Well, there's only one way to find out, right?

Well, actually, look, realistically, there's probably lots of ways to find out.

But this is a finance history podcast, so we're going to trawl through the portfolios of some of history's most talented people, from Winston Churchill to Sir Isaac Newton to even the painted J.M.W.

Turner.

Yes, I hope we'll have slightly better records in the future.

We also handily have with us today someone who actually has gone through the portfolios and the investment returns of some of these great men.

Toby Nangle, a reporter for FT Alphaville, a colleague of mine.

And Toby, fantastic to have you here today.

On Alphaville, I think boss and underling are very technical terms for various anarchic realities.

And me, Robin Wigglesworth.

Okay, so let's start with the ultimate brainiac, arguably, Sir Isaac Newton.