Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary - 15

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Captain Oppenheimer
An Excerpt from The Mind of Wall Street, by Leon Levy

BOTTOM: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; TOP: GETTY IMAGES

No account of the talent at Oppenheimer would be complete
without mention of Captain Horatio Oppenheimer, whose
portrait still sits in my office. Early on, I decided that Oppenheimer
needed a dour and respectable senior partner, but we did not
want to spend much money on him. One day I came upon
the perfect candidate in the form of a portrait of a nineteenthcentury sea captain. In the portrait, the officer is seated and
holding an octant, looking very much like a man who knows
his way. The image is only slightly belied by his vaguely alarmed

convince the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) to approve the Fund. Levy, Delaney, and others
would travel to Washington in late 1958 to meet with
then-SEC chairman Emanuel Cohen and members of
his staff. After some negotiation, they reached an
agreement for approval of the Oppenheimer Fund.
Although they didn't call it a mutual hedge fund, it
was the first SEC-approved fund open to small
investors that was allowed to sell short.
A headline in the December 10, 1958, Wall Street
Journal read, "Oppenheimer & Co. Plan to Start Own
Open-End Investment Company." The story went on
to say that the Firm had filed a registration statement
with the SEC for 100,000 shares of its capital stock.
The plan was for the Fund to invest in both foreign
and domestic securities. In the article, Leon Levy said
he expected the shares to be priced at about $10.
Integrity in fiduciary responsibility meant
everything when Oppenheimer & Co. offered its first
mutual fund to a still somewhat skeptical public on
May 15, 1959. The partners wanted the Oppenheimer
Fund to do much more than match the performance
of other funds. The goal was for it to outpace the rest.
Ironically, after all the time spent crafting a mutual
fund that would be prudent for customers, a Fortune

1958
A Wall Street Journal article announces the
birth of the Oppenheimer Fund.

expression, but I thought this perfectly appropriate given
the goings on he would be surveying from his perch on my
office wall. I purchased the portrait and commissioned a
small copper plaque for the bottom of the frame that reads
Captain Horatio Oppenheimer: 1775-1842. On occasion,
I have invoked this distinguished presence when I wanted
to decline an offer to participate in a deal. Gazing up at our
wise founder, I would say, "I don't think the captain would
have wanted us to be in this deal." n

Inception of the
Oppenheimer Fund on April 30.

First public offering of the
Oppenheimer Fund
on May 15.

1959

1959

magazine article dismissed the Fund as speculative,
specifically because it could sell short. Moreover, the
practicalities of short selling caused other problems
because each state had its own registration regulations. In the end, the Fund did very little short selling.
Still, the partners remained confident about the
Fund's potential. They were convinced that the
Fund was a mass-market product and a much
better way to invest. However, marketing an
investment strategy as a consumer product was
revolutionary in the 1950s. But making that
distinction and sticking to it was one of the keys
to the Firm's eventual success. The early leaders
recognized that selling mutual funds as a massmarket product would require marketing, market
research, advertising, and a sales force. And with its
unique approach to mutual funds, Oppenheimer &
Co. helped transform the investment world from a
small, exclusive circle to the dynamic, inclusive
community it is today. n
Although the mutual fund industry was born in the 1920s, the
funds didn't become popular among mainstream investors until
the 1960s. First offered to the public in 1959, the Oppenheimer
Fund was an early innovator in the mutual fund industry.

First report of the Oppenheimer
Fund on September 30. Total assets
$4,248,348.

1959

EARLY YEARS

Vision and Foundation * 15
Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary
