Wiley to Launch Fisher Investments Press

The big announcement out of the home office in Hoboken today is the Fisher Investments Press deal.  Wiley's business publishing program continues to grow by leaps and bound under the leadership of Joan O'Neil, the group's Vice President & Executive Publisher.  This particular announcement is exciting because it results in an entirely new line of books with Fisher Investments.  That name probably sounds familiar because it's an extremely well respected investment management organization led by Ken Fisher, author of Wiley's best-selling The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing By Knowing What Others Don't.

The first title,10 Roads to Riches, is due out in 2008.  Congrats to Joan and her team for forging this exciting new Press alliance!

Comments

[M. Stone]

Ken Fisher also wrote the Only Three Questions that Count. He's head of Fisher Investments and writes for Forbes. If you're interested, here's a good review of the book from when it came out. It's by Donald Luskin, who's writing his own book.

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I LOVE TO WRITE in this column about great investment books I've read. But I rarely get the chance to do so. There's pretty much no such thing as a great investment book.

But here's an exception. Here's one that you're going to want to read. And when you're done, you're going to want to read it again.

Unlike most investment books, this one doesn't pretend to give you all the answers. Instead, this one just gives you questions. And that turns out to be infinitely more valuable — because they are precisely the right questions. They cut right to the heart of what it takes to be a serious, thoughtful and successful investor.

The book is "The Only Three Questions That Count," by Ken Fisher. Perhaps you've seen Fisher's face on a seeming infinitude of online ads for his investment-management firm, Fisher Investments. He manages about $30 billion, mostly on behalf of individual investors. He has a great track record — and he's made himself one of America's 400 richest men along the way.

I should mention at the outset that Fisher's firm is one of my institutional clients. So maybe that makes me biased. (Fisher's firm is also an advertiser on SmartMoney.com.) More to the point, perhaps after sharing investment ideas with him and his team for several years, I find myself in harmony with the way he thinks.

...

Fisher points out that two emotions rule most investors' souls — pride and regret.

We seek to build up our self-image by successful investing, rather then treating success as an end in itself. When we do succeed, we swell up with the pride of it and start believing we can do no wrong. At the same time, we will do nearly anything to avoid the shame of regret — that horrible sinking feeling we get when an investment goes bad, and you have to accept the fact that we really blew it.

Fisher says to turn these emotions inside out. Seek regret — that is, embrace your mistakes and learn from them. Shun pride — invest to make money, not to pump yourself up, and never, ever imagine you are invincible.

I know, I know...you probably wanted an investment book that gives you all the answers.

But the truth is that there aren't really any answers in investing, at least none that last for very long. The world is just too dynamic for that.

There are only questions. And the only way you are going to make money in investing is by asking them.

Bravo to Ken Fisher for realizing that investing is like the TV game show "Jeopardy." Remember that famous line? "Please be sure to give your answer in the form of a question!"

Read the whole thing here - its an interesting review. Mr. Luskin himself is a pretty good writer.

http://www.smartmoney.com/aheadofthecurve/?story=20061027&pgnum=2

[J. Johnson]

Interesting that a money manager like Fisher Investments would get into the publishing business. Looks like they have some interesting titles coming up.

http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071127/FREE/71127008

". . . .Subsequent titles scheduled for release in 2008 include “Globalize Your Portfolio for the 21st Century” and “Bear Hunting: How to Spot and Slay the Next Bear Market,” which are written by other investment professionals at Fisher. Fisher Investments has over $45 billion assets under management."

[Hamed Elbarki]

I'm looking forward to the books. I'm sure they will be more than helpful....

[FINVEST]

As a Fisher Investments employee, I enjoy discussing investing books at http://groups.fisherinvestments.com/investment-books.