author
John Moody
1868–1958
Best known for founding Moody’s and helping create modern bond ratings, this pioneering financial writer turned complicated markets into information ordinary investors could use. His books and manuals helped shape the way businesses and governments were judged for credit risk.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1868, John Moody became an American financial analyst, businessman, and author whose name remains closely tied to credit ratings. He is best known for founding Moody’s Investors Service and for pioneering the practice of rating bonds, a system that had a lasting effect on investing and financial publishing.
He began building that reputation through clear, practical reference works for investors, including Moody's Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities and later Moody's Analyses of Investments. He also wrote books such as The Truth About the Trusts and an autobiography, The Long Road Home, showing that he was not only a market observer but also a prolific writer.
For readers today, his story is interesting because it sits at the meeting point of publishing, finance, and public trust. He wrote in a way that aimed to organize a confusing financial world, and that effort helped create tools that investors still recognize more than a century later.