How Giants Are Chosen

In One Sentence

Investors with a public record of a value or quality approach, who file continuously, hold mainly stocks and show conviction, are counted in the site’s totals. The number changes over time, with a cap of 60 and no padding; Q2 2026 has 58.

The Candidate Pool

• Currently 84: public lists of value investors, plus investors often cited in value-investing literature. Lists on other compilation sites are used only as leads, and every candidate is checked against this site’s own rules.
• The pool itself was chosen by people. Anyone outside it is checked with the same rules when recommended.

Four Hard Rules (All Must Pass, Checked against SEC Filings)

Style (with a Source)

• In: the investor or firm says in public material (website, shareholder letters, books, interviews) that value or quality is central: buying below intrinsic value with a margin of safety, or buying high-quality businesses at sensible prices to hold for the long term.
• Out: self-described growth, quantitative, macro or index investing, and foundation assets (not one person’s stock picking).
• Candidates who pass the numbers but have no statement of a value approach by the investor or firm are marked “pending evidence” and added only once a source is found.
• The top of every giant’s page shows that giant’s source (website, shareholder letter, the firm’s own brochure filed with the SEC, or a book) and the quoted words, each checked against the original page by program or browser on October 11, 2026.

Size and Quarterly Recalculation

• Everyone who qualifies is included, up to 60; there is no minimum.
• If more than 60 qualify (decided in advance): ① longer continuous filing history first; ② for the same history, higher top-10 concentration first.
• The four rules are rechecked when each quarter’s filings arrive. Anyone who passes is counted that quarter; a giant already on the roster who fails once stays for one more quarter, and leaves the totals after failing two quarters in a row or after it stops filing. Its page stays.
• Back to 1999: each quarter applies the same rules to the data available up to that quarter. Electronic filings start in Q1 1999, so until the end of 2000, A1 checks only the quarters from Q1 1999 on.

Where New Candidates Come From

How Much the Thresholds Matter

A4 recalculated on the same data (Q2 2026):

The thresholds are not tuned to reach a number: looser rules add large firms with hundreds of holdings; tighter rules drop a few insurance-capital and quality investors with slightly lower concentration.

Verdict on All 84 Candidates (Q2 2026)

Some well-known firms are not included; that only means they do not meet this yardstick, not that they are good or bad investors. The numbers combine all of an investor’s filing entities; holdings, top 10 and equity count stocks only (no options or bonds).

Roster Changes (Last 8 Quarters)