Kenneth Fisher: Born to Be an Exceptional Expert Trader

 LEARN FROM GENERALS OF THE MARKETS - PART 42 

“Learn from failures, try again differently, fail, and try again. Your odds keep improving the more you try.” - Kenneth L. Fisher:

Kenneth L. Fisher was born in November 29, 1950, in San Francisco, California, USA. He’s the 3^rd and youngest son of Philip A. Fisher, an astute investor who’s also featured as a general of the markets in one of the past articles in this series. He grew up in California and attended Humboldt State University where he got an economics degree. He then worked with his father before he started his own investment company (Fisher Investments) in 1979. In the year 2007, he went into partnership with Thomas Grüner. He’s been rewarded for maintaining independent thoughts in a world where people tend to harbor herd mentality. He’s also won other notable awards.

Being an astute markets predictor, Kenneth has beaten the popular US markets for many years. He’s authored several books. They are: ‘Super Stocks,’ ‘the Wall Street Waltz,’ ‘Minds that Made the Market,’ ‘the Only Three Questions That Count,’ ‘the Ten Roads to Riches,’ ‘How to Smell a Rat,’ ‘Debunkery,’ and ‘the Markets Never Forget.’ Some of the books are bestsellers. For many years, he’s written numerous articles for top local and international financial magazines. With other concerned individuals, he’s made extensive research in several areas of financial industry. In the year 2011, he was among the 400 richest Americans (he was worth 1.7 billion dollars then). He’s currently worth 1.9 billion dollars. His company manages more than 41 billion dollars for tens of thousands of customers (being the largest wealth manager in the States). He’s been noted as one of the most influential people in the world of trading.  

The story about Kenneth can’t be complete without mentioning his love and sacrifice for ecology and forestry. He’s spent great deals of time, energy, and resources towards the cause (his passion). He’s married with 3 kids. His official website is: Ken-fisher-investments.com/.

Lessons

There are good lessons that can be learned from Kenneth. The best thing is to read his books and some of his innumerable articles. Some lessons are below:

1. Like father, like son. Philip Fisher was a successful trade, and so is Kenneth Fisher, his son. The son is even far richer than his dad, who taught him the art of trading initially. Would you now teach your teens the art of trading? Certain successful traders today were taught the art of trading by their dads or uncles. Are you a successful trader? Then why can’t you show your kids the way? Or do you want them to start begging for jobs when they finish their university studies?

2. Trading would forever remain probabilistic in nature. It’s never a game of certainties. Those who look for certainties are searching for what doesn’t exist. Stop looking for certainties and start looking for how to control your risk.

3. Kenneth said speculation is two-thirds avoiding mistakes, one-third doing something right. Apply your trades flawlessly and stick to your rules. You’re right only by trading according to your plans, not by being accurate in your forecasts.

4. According to Kenneth, professionals are terrible at forecasting bear markets. The media’s worse. So why do you still think there are some who often predict the markets accurately?

5. Some would’ve to learn their lessons the hard way, not wanting to learn from others’ mistakes, except their own. Those who find it difficult to accept simple truths about trading would learn their lessons the hard way.

6. When the masses think a market is a great ‘buy,’ then it’s time to sell it. When the public has too much confidence in a particular trading instrument, it’s time to quit.

7. The best market to trade is the one the public has lost confidence in. When most people think a trading instrument is hopeless, then it’s high time you were invested in it.

8. Kenneth once said that the developments in the markets tend to go contrary to the masses’ expectation. Even if they’re correct, it may be owing to a different cause than they think. It might even be accidental.

9. No matter how smart you’re. No matter how intelligent or experienced you’re. No matter to kind of strategy or a combination of strategies you use, you can’t be right every time. However, you can enjoy overall success in the markets, just as Kenneth has done.

10. The market is a good indicator of what’s happening in an economy – whether the economy is good or bad.

Conclusion: Winston Churchill has been quoted as saying that it’s easier to forecast what happened yesterday. Whatever happened in the past is historical in nature, and not an indicator of tomorrow’s results. Prices aren’t invariably error free and are discounted, and so far they’re being determined by people. It doesn’t matter the type of program and/or software used by them; the reality remains the same. Bear this in mind.

This piece is ended with a quote by Kenneth:

“Investors get overwhelmed by greed or fear but also forget that being greedy or fearful didn’t work out for them in the past. But they also forget they were wrongly greedy or fearful because feelings now seem so much stronger (even though they’re probably not).”

 

Azeez Mustapha

Market Analyst, Trading Signals Provider and Coach

Eye-opening trading lessons: Lessons from Expert Traders

Source: http://uk.advfn.com/newspaper/authors/azeez-mustapha