Memo to Ken Fisher: Please quit it with the obnoxious ads

You bring up a very interesting point, relentless hawking erodes credibility and makes you think why?? MAYBE this is the smoke before the fire actually starts. Certainly more credible people have gone down in flames or worse in their own hubris... There is a story there keep digging...

Ken Fisher is a boar-looking weird psycho-insane.
I am not making this up, his returns are equally impressive. And people are still buying his stuff because of his Dad?
Read this blog below and you will understand the markets
http://www.WallastonInvestments.com

I have followed Ken Fisher’s columns in Forbes and also on his firm’s commentary site (marketminder.com). On the surface they appear informative and insightful, but astockwiz’s comment of “hubris” might be something to be mindful of and might be causing his streak of good calls to come to an end. Notably, his “be happy, don’t worry” dogmatic bullishness and righteousness of late smacks more of “what me worry?” prelude to a “Bonfire of Vanities” and perhaps he himself will be a victim of the “The Great Humiliator”, a term he himself has coined to drive home his theme of humility and objectivity in our attitude while making investment decisions.
His “Housing Boom!” column in the February 2007 issue and no mea-culpa in any later commentary is a good illustration of the hubris which seems to have afflicted this rare and forthright guru. And I have also noticed him (or his editorial staff) use “confirmational” facts and figures which on closer examination don’t quite add up. For instance, a recent Marketminder column “Wag the Dog” http://www.marketminder.com/commentary/commentarypage.aspx?title=Wag+the+Dog&articleID={19FDAA64-B946-43C6-93D6-229C01898F7E}§ionID=%5ccommentary%5cdaily he mentions some astonishing figures to buttress his rebuttal of the “conventional opinion” that the U.S. economy might de-couple from the rest of the world. He stated that of 44% of sales by S&P 500 companies being generated from outside U.S. (& 23% of all revenue). But this doesn’t quite reconciled with this data from U.S.Export Fact Sheet (13feb07) www.commerce.gov/02-13-07%20Export%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf
which states "Exports comprised 11.1 percent of U.S. GDP in 2006".
I asked about this discrepancy but received no response. It is odd that his columns don’t have a facility for readers to post comments and exchange views with the author and other readers (like the Herb Greenberg columns on Marketwatch and most other popular columns I follow).
By the way aren’t “Sales” and “Revenues” synonymous?
Anyway, you get the drift. I still monitor his opinion, but lately with healthy skepticism.
“An unexamined investment advice is not worth following”

Why do you say that Ken Fisher is a great investment guru?

His father Philip was a true legend. Kenneth is perhaps a great businessman. But performance of his PURIX mutual fund and Fisher Investments Private Client Group Global Total Return (GTR) accounts has been anything but great.

In Appendix K of his book, “The Only Three Questions that Count” to make his GTR returns look better, he shifted his years by 6 months! In 2001 he timed the market and won, also missing the sharp declines immediately following 9/11. (Unless you believe that Ken knew that the terrorists would strike in 2001, it was more of a "lucky" coincidence than anything else.) And in 2002 he couldn't avoid similar losses.

I am a publisher of a small national newspaper and actually did quite a bit of work in preparing an article that is slated to appear in the March 2008 edition of the Odesskiy Listok newspaper. Fisher Investments threatened legal action based on my original blog about Ken Fisher and Fisher Investments: http://www.odessapage.com/new/ru/fisher-investments

I temporarily removed the blog, just as they have requested. Despite this, Fisher Investments outside council just filed legal paperwork claiming “Breach of Contract” among other amazing claims against me. All in an apparent effort to shut me up...

P.S. Don't think that it is only his ads that are sleazy and slick!

Several years ago I got tired of managing my portfolio and joined Fisher Investments. At the beginning they moved in and out of a few stocks, but later very little "managing" took place. However they send a lot of fancy reports praising their success. Last Fall when the stock market was at its highest I talked at length with my Investment Counselor and urged to take some profit, but the reply was that we would only experience a dip in the curve going up. When the market went further down I transferred out of Fisher Investments and realized that my portfolio held many very similar stocks, plus some mutual funds, foreign investments with little available information and stock listed on the Pink Sheets. It was not very encouraging and I felt I had a real mess on my hands, but I left with them my Purisima Total Return Fund. It has gone down quite a bit, and has a pretty bad score when compared to other funds. Of the top 10 investments in it 9 are down heavily and one (Komatsu) has N/A information (on 3-28-08). This certainly is not a sign of a well managed fund, comparing the performance (on Yahoo) shows the QQQQs better by about 10%, both on a one year and a two year chart. Considering that Qs have no management fees and can be traded within seconds they are certainly a much better investment, and free of charges and without complications (hassle) I experienced when considering a partial withdraw. This fund was supposed to be a reflection of Ken Fishers performance with similar investments. To me it is way below expectations. No matter how much Ken Fisher is advertising, now using Hal Holbrook as a pitch man, I can not recommend dealing with Fisher Investments. Put your money in Qs or no cost funds, your much better of. Off course, you won't get invited to the gala dinners either (for which you are paying one way or another).
My rating: THUMBS DOWN.
3-28-08 extrader

Several years ago I got tired of managing my portfolio and joined Fisher Investments. At the beginning they moved in and out of a few stocks, but later very little "managing" took place. However they send a lot of fancy reports praising their success. Last Fall when the stock market was at its highest I talked at length with my Investment Counselor and urged to take some profit, but the reply was that we would only experience a dip in the curve going up. When the market went further down I transferred out of Fisher Investments and realized that my portfolio held many very similar stocks, plus some mutual funds, foreign investments with little available information and stock listed on the Pink Sheets. I had a real mess on my hands, but I left with them my Purisima Total Return Fund. It is down quite a bit, and has a pretty bad score when compared to other funds. Of the top 10 investments in it 9 are down heavily and one (Komatsu) has N/A information on 3-28-08. This certainly is not a sign of a well managed fund, comparing the performance (on Yahoo) shows the QQQQs better by about 10%, both on a one year and a two year chart. Considering that Qs have no management fees and can be traded within seconds they are certainly a much better investment, and free of charges and without complications (hassle) I experienced at a partial withdraw. This fund was supposed to be a reflection of Ken Fishers performance with similar investments. To me it is way below expectations. No matter how much Ken Fisher is advertising, now using Hal Holbrook as a pitch man, I can not recommend dealing with Fisher Investments. Put your money in Qs or no cost funds, your much better of. Off course, you won't get invited to the gala dinners either (for which you are paying one way or another).

Buying QQQQs instead? Yeah, that makes sense. ...real smart. Their 1-3-5 year annualized numbers lag, and if you put all your money in there, you're way to heavy on tech (did you forget the last bear market?). Technology one of the worst performers this year, so you'll be down -13.6%, 2x more than the SPY. Great idea....get into it because the fees are cheap. But I suppose since you like moving in and out and taking profits at the so called "market peaks", QQQQ is the best choice for you. Good luck. If you want cheap, efficient, AND diversified, look at holding SPY, IOO, EFA, etc. I fear for your nest egg....hire another professional.