Kenneth L. Fisher

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Kenneth L. Fisher
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Kenneth L. Fisher


Kenneth L. Fisher born November 29, 1950 in San Francisco, California, is founder, Chairman, and CEO of Fisher Investments, an independent global money management firm headquartered in Woodside, California. He writes the monthly “Portfolio Strategy” column in Forbes magazine, where his 22-year tenure makes him the fifth-longest running Forbes columnist in its 89-year history (as of December, 2006). He has authored three books and numerous other articles and scholarly research papers, including research in the new field of Behavioral Finance. Ken is currently ranked #297 on the 2006 Forbes 400list of richest Americans. Ken's new book, The Only Three Questions That Count (John Wiley & Sons) is available now.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Family

Kenneth L. Fisher is the third and youngest son of Philip A. Fisher, legendary investor and author of classic investing book, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, which remains in print to this day. Philip Fisher had his own investment management practice in San Francisco and was one of only three people ever to teach the Investment course at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is credited with influencing a wide array of later successful and famed investors both through his teachings and writings. Ken is the only industry professional his father ever professionally trained, having worked for his father in the early 1970s. Ken was raised in San Mateo, California where the bulk of Fisher Investments’ employees are now located. He lives in Woodside, California on top of Kings Mountain with his wife Sherrilyn. They have three adult sons.

[edit] Professional career

Price-to-Sales Ratio
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Ken’s theoretical work led to the development of the Price/sales ratio (PSR). His book Super Stocks focused on how to both derive and use the PSR along with another analytical tool, the Price Research Ratio (PRR). The PSR is now part of core financial curriculum and is widely dispersed on websites and databases. The PSR was also the focus of a subsequent book by James O’Shaughnessy entitled What Works On Wall Street.
Small-cap Value
Development of the PSR as an analytical tool allowed Ken to pioneer the Small-cap Value equity category. In the 1980s Ken was one of the very first to offer a Small-cap Value investing strategy to the world of institutional investors.
Behavioral Finance
Ken has been active in advancing the study of Behavioral Finance, a field pioneered by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman. Behavioral Finance examines the impact of behavioral psychology on freely traded financial markets and their participants. Ken has published several scholarly papers on the topic in collaboration with Meir Statman, the Glenn Klimek professor of finance at the Leavy School of Business at Santa Clara University.
Forbes Market Calls
Ken’s “Portfolio Strategy” column has appeared monthly in Forbes for the last 22-years, making him the fifth-longest running Forbes columnist in its 89-year history. Ken generally makes a market call in each column and was ranked the number one most accurate market forecaster based on these calls by third-party CXO Advisory Group as of December, 2006. Some of the market calls Ken has made via his column include:
  • Greater Fools, October 18, 1999. Ken encouraged his readers to remain investing during Y2K as he felt it would be a non-event and yield good stock market returns.
  • 1980 Revisited, March 6, 2000. In a timely article, Ken warned his readers to divest of technology stocks as he foresaw a technology bubble similar to the oil bubble in 1980.
  • Bear Market!, March 19, 2001. Ken shares his reasoning for remaining bearish not only on the technology sector, but the market as a whole, and recommends his readers get defensive.
  • A Beautiful Market, September 16, 2002. Another timely article, Ken predicts a big post-bear market rally and encourages his readers to get fully invested.

[edit] Interests

Ken’s hobbies include the history of Kings Mountain, California (at the northern end of the Santa Cruz Mountains in the redwoods) and 19th century redwood lumbering history as well as lumbering history in general and everything about trees. He has located and excavated more than 35 pre-1920 steam-era lumber mill sites, documenting the sites and cataloging the artifacts. As a result of his excavation work, he is also an expert at dating and analyzing pre-Corning process bottles. He has both lectured and published articles regarding both lumbering history and Kings Mountain history many times, and been written about by others on these topics.

Ken endowed the Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology at Humboldt State University in order to support the study of coastal redwood ecology. As of December, 2006, it is the world’s only endowed chair devoted to a single tree species.

Ken and Sherrilyn have also endowed The Kenneth and Sherrilyn Fisher Journalism Center in the San Mateo Library.

[edit] Fisher Investments

Historic Skyline Boulevard
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Historic Skyline Boulevard

A direct predecessor to Fisher Investments was founded in 1979, and Fisher Investments was incorporated in 1986 by Ken, who is Chairman and CEO. Currently located on historic Skyline Boulevard in Woodside, California, the firm manages over $30 billion in multiple products for institutions and private clients in the US, UK and Canada and beyond.

[edit] Books

The Only Three Questions That Count, Investing By Knowing What Others Don't
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The Only Three Questions That Count, Investing By Knowing What Others Don't

Ken has published three investing books – Super Stocks (1984) which was the best-selling stock market book that year, The Wall Street Waltz (1987), and 100 Minds that Made the Market (1993). Super Stocks has been published in multiple languages including Japanese.

He wrote the introduction to the Wiley Classics Series re-publication of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and the introduction to the Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom.

He has authored or co-authored chapters that have appeared in various investment compendiums.

[edit] The Only Three Questions That Count

Ken’s fourth book, The Only Three Questions That Count, is out now from John Wiley & Sons. The book details the strategy Ken uses in managing money for clients of his firm, Fisher Investments.

While most investing and personal finance books address the craft of investing, The Only Three Questions That Count treats investing as a science. The book details a scientific method for confirming or debunking accepted market beliefs, as well as uncovering new patterns providing the basis for market bets. Using graphs and ample data, Ken debunks some common investing misconceptions, such as high P/Es being bad for stocks, or trade deficits being bad for the U.S. dollar.

Jim Cramer wrote the foreword, saying “I believe that reading his book may be the single best thing you could do this year to make yourself a better investor." Also providing endorsements are Charles Schwab, Greg Johnson, and Steve Forbes. Donald Luskin, CIO of Trend Macrolytics and contributing editor to Smart Money, also wrote an early review.

[edit] Other Authorship

Ken has also authored investment related articles appearing in Bloomberg Personal, Research, Rising Tide, Registered Rep., Millionaire, Journal of Portfolio Management, The Financial Analyst’s Journal, The Journal of Investing, and The Journal of Behavioral Finance, among other periodicals. Many articles authored by Ken can be found at Fisher Investments web site.

In addition to authoring articles himself, Ken is frequently written about in the financial press. He has been written about in the US and globally, in German, French, Italian, and Japanese.

[edit] Acknowledgments and Awards

[edit] Acknowledgments

  • Based on published forecasts, Ken was ranked the number one most accurate market forecaster by CXO Advisory Group as of December, 2006
  • Validea.com includes Ken in a list of history’s most successful stock pickers
  • Ken is among 10 investment professionals profiled in Market Gurus by John P. Reese and Todd O. Glassman
  • Ken is among 10 investment managers profiled in The Money Monarchs by Douglas J. Donnelly
  • Ken is profiled in Chapter 8 of Credibility Power by Richard Hansen and Allyn Kramer with Larry Upshaw

[edit] Awards

  • Ken won a Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy “Outstanding Article” award for Cognitive Biases in Market Forecasts, a research paper co-authored with Meir Statman on Behavioral Finance appearing in the Fall 2000 issue of Journal of Portfolio Management. His work is included in the book, Five Years of Award-Winning Articles from The Journal of Portfolio Management, Volume One.

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

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