Kenneth Fisher

For other people named Ken Fisher (disambiguation), see Ken Fisher (disambiguation) (disambiguation).

Kenneth L. Fisher (1950) is an American businessman and the founder, chairman, and CEO of Fisher Investments, a money management firm headquartered in Woodside, California. Fisher writes the monthly “Portfolio Strategy” column in Forbes magazine, contributes to other financial and news magazines, has authored six books including 2009 New York Times best seller How to Smell a Rat[7][8], and has written research papers in the field of behavioral finance. Fisher is on the 2010 Forbes 400 list of richest Americans and Forbes list of world billionaires, as of 2010 is worth $1.6 billion. In 2010, he was named to Investment Advisor magazine's "30 for 30" list of the 30 most influential people in and around the investment advisory business over the last 30 years. In 2009, Fisher passed his 25th anniversary writing for Forbes magazine and is the fourth longest-running columnist in Forbes history.

Biography

Kenneth L. Fisher was born in San Francisco, California, United States, North America, the third and youngest son of Philip A. Fisher, an investor and author of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits.

Fisher was raised in San Mateo, California. He went to Humboldt State University to study forestry, but graduated with a degree in economics in 1972. Stating contributions to the finance world and the ongoing study of redwood ecology, Humboldt State recognized Fisher with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007.

After graduating, Fisher worked for his father, Philip Fisher, who was a noted money manager and author. Fisher started his own company, Fisher Investments, in 1979.

In 2003, Fisher startet to collaborate with Thomas Grüner, a German moneymanager. In 2007, Fisher and Grüner founded "Grüner Fisher Investments".

In 2009, Fisher received the inaugural Tiburon CEO Summit award for Challenging Conventional Wisdom. Charles Schwab received the inaugural award for Maintaining a Focus on Consumer Needs. Fisher also has a Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for outstanding published research.

In 2010, Forbes published an accounting of Fisher’s stock pick performance, as made in his columns, over the last 14 years. His stock picks beat the S&P 500 overall on average, and have beat the S&P in 11 years out of 14 (as measured by Forbes).

Redwood Ecology

Fisher supports ongoing study of redwood ecology, particularly the emerging field of study of redwood canopies. Fisher wrote the introduction to the second edition of Sawmills in the Redwoods by Frank M. Stanger. In it, Fisher details his own experiences locating, excavating, and cataloging artifacts from 1890’s era steam-powered sawmills on Kings Mountain in San Mateo County, CA. In 2006, Fisher established the Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology for the Department of Biological Sciences at Humboldt State University, currently held by Stephen Sillett, the biologist who's featured, along with Sillett's brother and his wife, in Richard Preston's 2007 book The Wild Trees.

A grant from Mr. Fisher made it possible for the Save-the-Redwoods League to begin using LiDar to measure redwood heights and measure biodiversity of the California North Coast redwood forest. The League feels this can be useful in reforestation efforts, and also in finding trees that may surpass the Hyperion in height.

Fisher also contributes frequently to historical research for San Mateo County, writing most frequently on King’s Mountain redwood logging and settlement history and other historical San Mateo events. Based on his expertise in California Redwoods and Redwood logging history, Fisher provided a peer review of chapters five and six of Coast Redwood: A Natural and Cultural History.

Fisher has also helped launch and fund the Save-the-Redwoods League climate change initiative, which aims to study the impact of climate change on coastal Redwoods.

Published research

Fisher’s theoretical work identifying and testing the price-to-sales ratio (PSR) is detailed in his 1984 Dow Jones book, Super Stocks. James O'Shaughnessy credits Fisher with being the first to define and use the PSR as a forecasting tool. In Fisher’s 2006 book, The Only Three Questions That Count, he states the PSR is widely used and known, and no longer as useful as an indicator for undervalued stocks. However, the PSR is still frequently included as required curriculum for the Chartered Financial Analyst exam.

Small-cap value was not defined as an investing category until the late 1980s. Fisher Investments was among the institutional money managers offering small-cap value investing to clients in the late 1980s.

Fisher does research in the study of behavioral finance. He has co-authored several research papers on the topic in collaboration with Meir Statman, the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Specifically, some of Fisher's research has been on the supposed link between stock market P/E ratios and stock prices. In a paper published in 2000, Fisher jointly with Statman found there to be no meaningful link between a stock's P/E or its dividend yield and its future return.

Fisher also studied the relationship between consumer confidence and stock returns. Their research shows there to be no statistically significant link, meaning consumer confidence doesn't seem to predict future stock returns.

As of 2009, Fisher has authored over 18 research papers on topics ranging from stock markets to consumer confidence to behavioral finance.

Books and other authorship

Fisher has authored seven investing books including Super Stocks (Dow Jones, 1984), The Wall Street Waltz (McGraw Hill, 1987), 100 Minds that Made the Market (McGraw Hill, 1993), The Only Three Questions That Count (John Wiley & Sons, 2006), The Ten Roads to Riches (John Wiley & Sons, 2008), How To Smell A Rat (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), and Debunkery (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). The Only Three Questions That Count, was on New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller lists. The Ten Roads to Riches was on New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and USA Today bestseller lists. How to Smell a Rat was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.

Fisher wrote the introductions to the Wiley Classics Series re-publications of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks, both by Philip A. Fisher, and The Battle for Investment Survival by Gerald M. Loeb. Fisher also wrote the introduction to The Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom. Fisher's books have been translated to German, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Italian.

Fisher has also authored investment-related articles appearing in Research Magazine, Financial Planning, Journal of Portfolio Management, The Financial Analyst’s Journal, The Journal of Investing, The Journal of Psychology, and The Journal of Behavioral Finance, among others. Fisher's "Portfolio Strategy" column in Forbes has appeared monthly for over 25 years. In the UK, Fisher has written for Bloomberg Money, Investment Week, and The Financial Times. He currently writes monthly columns for UK investment blog Interactive Investor,[9] and a weekly column in a major German newspaper Focus Money.

Fisher has launched a publishing imprint in partnership with John Wiley & Sons, Fisher Investments Press.[10] Books published under the imprint so far include Own the World, 20/20 Money, and a series of sector investing guides.[11]

In 2010, John Wiley & Sons published The Making of a Market Guru: Forbes Presents 25 Years of Ken Fisher by Aaron Anderson, commemorating Fisher's over 25 years of writing a regular column for Forbes.

Further reading

• "Never Enough Fisher," by Anthony W. Haddad and Jonathan Bernard. Equities. September 2007.[12]
• "Uber-Fisher," by Anthony W. Haddad and Jonathan Bernard. Equities. May 2008.
• Market Gurus: Investing Strategies You Can Use from Wall Street's Best by John P. Reese and Todd O. Glassman. Validea Press. 2005.
• The Money Monarchs: The Secrets of 10 of America's Best Investment Managers by Douglas J. Donnelly. Irwin Professional Pub. 1992.
• Super Stocks by Kenneth L. Fisher. McGraw Hill. 1990.
• The Guru Investor: How to Beat the Market Using History's Best Investment Strategies (Wiley 2009)

Other research

1. “Market Timing in Regressions and Reality.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. The Journal of Financial Research, Fall 2006: 293-304. [13]
2. “Market Timing at Home and Abroad.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. The Journal of Investing, Summer 2006: 19-27. [14]
3. “Sentiment, Value, and Market-Timing.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. Financial Analysts Journal, Fall 2004: 10-21. [15]
4. “Consumer Confidence and Stock Returns.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. The Journal of Portfolio Management, Fall 2003. [16]
5. “Bubble Expectations.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. The Journal of Wealth Management, Fall 2002: 17-22. [17]
6. “Blowing Bubbles.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. The Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets, 3.1 (2002): 53-65. [18]
7. “Cognitive Biases in Market Forecasts.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. The Journal of Portfolio Management, Fall 2000: 72-81. [19]
8. “Investor Sentiment and Stock Returns.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. Financial Analysts Journal, Mar/Apr 2000: 16-23. [20]
9. “A Behavioral Framework for Time Diversification.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. Financial Analysts Journal, May/June 1999: 88-97. [21]
10. “Investment Advice from Mutual Fund Companies.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. The Journal of Portfolio Management, Fall 1997: 9-17. [22]
11. “The Mean-Variance-Optimization Puzzle: Security Portfolios and Food Portfolios.” Fisher, Kenneth L., and Meir Statman. Financial Analysts Journal, July/Aug 1997: 41-50. [23]

References

• Kurt Schemers of Traders Nation Interview of Ken L. Fisher