It’s difficult to picture Ron Baron—the billionaire behind Baron Capital—as someone who once knew nothing about the stock market. But even the greats start somewhere.
Today, Baron oversees more than $41 billion in assets. His flagship fund, the Baron Partners Fund (BPTRX), has skyrocketed 1,843% since its inception in 2003, easily eclipsing the S&P 500’s 536% gain and outperforming 99% of peer funds over the past 5, 10, and 15 years, according to Morningstar.
But long before his financial empire, Baron was a beginner with no experience, no job, and no clear path into investing.
He studied chemistry, briefly pursued law, and ultimately decided to try his luck in finance. With no offers, he bunked in a friend’s basement in New Jersey. His parents, both engineers, were less than thrilled. But a gift from his uncle—Joseph E. Granville’s A Strategy of Daily Stock Market Timing for Maximum Profit—would change everything.
That book taught Baron his first powerful investing principle: go against the crowd.
“What struck me,” Baron recalled in a recent talk at the Economic Club of New York, “was the idea that when the news is terrible, that’s actually the time to buy. And when it’s all good news, that’s when you should be thinking about selling.”
In other words, resist the urge to follow the herd during market rallies when optimism is at its peak—by then, the upside is usually priced in.
It’s a mindset echoed by many of history’s greatest investors.
Warren Buffett famously advised: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
Sir John Templeton also captured this cycle perfectly: “Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy.”
This kind of contrarian thinking feels especially relevant today. Markets have been swinging wildly—from fear to greed—especially in response to geopolitical and economic shifts like tariff announcements. Not long ago, CNN’s Fear & Greed Index pointed to “Extreme Fear.” Now, investor sentiment is leaning heavily toward “Greed.”
Baron, meanwhile, stays focused on the long game. He’s incredibly bullish on Tesla, which now makes up 35% of his Baron Partners Fund. He believes the stock could rise tenfold from current levels—not because of short-term trends, but because of long-term potential.
He doesn’t make moves based on daily headlines. Instead, he invests in companies he believes have massive future upside, often well before the broader market sees it.
“It’s about thinking differently than everyone else,” he said.
Even when markets are in turmoil, Baron remains calm and committed to his broader vision.
“I just think like John Lennon said—everything will be okay in the end. And if it’s not okay, it’s not the end,” Baron added with a smile. “Eventually, things work out. People create problems—and then solve them.”
That’s the kind of optimism and foresight that has guided Baron from a basement in New Jersey to the heights of the investment world.
