Prior to joining Templeton, Mobius worked as a director at Vickers, da Costa, a U.K. stock brokerage, in the early 1980s and became president of Mega International Investment Trust in Taiwan in 1983. At age 50, he received a phone call from John Templeton, a pioneer in emerging-markets investing.

“This is my chance,” he wrote in his biography. “My education, knowledge, research and experience have prepared me for this great opportunity.”

After losing a third of his fund’s value in the October 1987 stock-market crash during his first year at Templeton, Mobius decided to diversify his holdings from just five Asian countries to emerging markets such as Argentina, Mexico, Indonesia and Russia.

On the Ground

"When he started, there was no Internet and you could barely make a phone call," said Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investment Advisors in Santa Monica, California. "People on the ground had a distinctive advantage."

As technological advancements gave rise to new investment strategies, Mobius’s performance began to taper, according to  Russel Kinnel, director of manager research at Morningstar in Chicago. The Templeton Developing Markets Trust, which he co-managed from 1991 to 2017, trailed 80 percent of its peers over the past 15 years, Morningstar data show.

“He was a missionary for the whole concept of emerging markets, not just for his company,” said Dan Fuss, 84, a longtime bond manager at Loomis Sayles & Co. "When he started, it was seen as a high-risk, exciting and off-the-wall.”

Mobius published more than 10 books on investing and economics, including “The Investor’s Guide to Emerging Markets” (1994). In 1999, he was chosen to serve on the World Bank’s Global Corporate Governance Forum as a co-chairman of its investor-responsibility task force. Eight years later, a Japanese publisher glorified his globe-trotting exploits with a manga-style comic book, chronicling the "Bald Eagle." Bloomberg Markets Magazine recognized Mobius as one of its 50 most influential people in 2011.

“Though some people probably pity me for having no home, no family, no domestic life to speak of, my somewhat eccentric lifestyle offers untold opportunities for variety, stimulation and creativity,” he said in his 1999 book.

This article was provided by Bloomberg News.