Jamie Dimon: Childhood Game With Father Developed Investing Skills

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has shared how games played with his father during childhood helped develop his investing skills.

Dimon, who has led JPMorgan Chase for 20 years and grown it into the world's largest bank by market capitalization, recently explained on The Master Investor Podcast how his father, a stockbroker, would challenge him to analyze company annual reports.

"He would give me an industry you might know something about, like a restaurant," Dimon explained. "And say, 'Okay, look at this. Look at the history. Read the annual report. Study the industry if you want. What would you pay for the stock?'"

According to Dimon, the game also taught him "the why." His estimates would often diverge from a company's actual value due to hard-to-identify factors like poor accounting or management. "It's brutally hard," he added.

Beyond these simulations, Dimon bought his first stock at age 14 in 1972, experiencing his first stock market crash as a teenager. He recalled on the Acquired podcast how limousines disappeared from Wall Street and restaurants closed. Markets move violently, and the experience instilled his "don't blow up" philosophy, which has helped him navigate financial crises like the 2008 recession.