Win a copy of Ken Fisher’s ‘The Only Three Questions that Count’
Posted on March 13, 2007 by Richard Beddard
Filed Under Investing, Ramblings |
If you’ve been reading our blog, you’ll know I’m a fan of Ken Fisher, and his book The Only Three Questions that Count. Publisher, Wiley, have five to give away. All you have to do to win a copy is send me a link to a website you like, run by an investor or group of investors . It could be a blog, an investment club, a company fansite like the Unofficial Bioprogress Site, or it could be something else. I’m looking for a site I haven’t seen before. So, flattering though it might be, nominating Interactive Investor, or this blog, or other big media or finance sites is unlikely to get you the book. The senders of my five fave links will each receive a copy. Email richard[dot]beddard@iii.co.uk - replacing the [dot] with a full-stop, or use the comment form at the end of this post.
A search on Google’s Blog Search returns 160 hits. To give you a flavour for the book I’ve avoided the most sycophantic comments and chosen some revealing ones:
He predicts I won’t like the book. Having read my work he knows I focus on companies and, although his three questions are universal, most of his insights are top-down; about the economy and its relationship to stock markets. Although he’s a professional forecaster, the best market forecaster according to some measures, he’s wrong this time. ‘Three Questions’ is the most stimulating investment book I’ve read - Me
I find that Mr. Fisher is very condescending or even downright insulting to some specific people, or classes of people - based on their chosen profession*. I find the first to be juvenile and needlessly insulting, while in the second instance he engages in negatively stereotyping a “class” of people, an attribute I frankly have some trouble understanding in a person of his obvious intelligence - Confused Capitalist
*I suspect Confused Capitalist must be referring to Politicians and the French.
Get the book if you want a mind expanding read about managing your money (And your life! Much of what he says has applicability to all facets of life). There are 42 pages of appendixes, including showing his audited records as a prognosticator in his Forbes column and the performance of his money management Firm - Tom Faranda’s Folly
The book at times can seem long, as any book that actually teaches you something can seem. For those firmly devoted to a singular investing paradigm this book will seem heretical. If you do not like leaving your comfort zone and engaging in honest discourse this book may not be for you. Gannon on Investing
The point of the Three Questions is constant innovation - Better at Business
After writing the above, however, I read the final thirty pages of Fisher’s amazing book and collided with a wall of incomprehension, an opacity of averages. He is right about almost everything. But I believe he is absolutely wrong on one thing. At the end of his book, he relegates stock picking to a secondary or tertiary facet of investment strategy, worth perhaps 10 percent of your performance, with 70 percent assigned to the decision among stocks, bonds and cash, and 20 percent to the choice of subsectors of stocks - The Gilder Technology Report Blog
“Three questions” is however an excellent book and does capture what it takes to produce alpha. Hard work, scientific analysis, throw out conventional financial “wisdom” if it does not withstand statistical scrutiny, and thinking outside the box - Hedge Fund
If you’d like a copy, drop me a link 
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10 Responses to “Win a copy of Ken Fisher’s ‘The Only Three Questions that Count’”
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yeh, ken has sort of brought it back to basics. at the end of the day there is only so much maths - the monkeys did just as well as the gurus!
Here’s a link to a ‘common sense’ investor. If you can get past the design of the website, the content is good stuff. I’ve read his book which i can also highly recommend.
http://www.nakedtrader.co.uk
I’ve just found your blog. I love the Brit’s perspective on stock trading… it’s so civilized…
I’m swing trading from California. I haven’t read Ken’s book but from the reports I’ve read I do agree with his 3 questions.
If you’re looking for a hot investor site check out
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/default.asp
It’s American so there may be some combat involved… MMs are generally considered to be WMDs
http://www.footnoted.org
http://13dtracker.blogspot.com/
http://stocksbelowncav.blogspot.com/index.html
http://justadrone.blogspot.com/index.html
Thanks for the suggestions
I’ve come across footnoted before. It’s brilliant. I wish we had something like that in the UK (there’s a thought).
And nonomatrix, I wouln’t make the mistake of thinking all UK investors are as serene as I am!
Also Nick, thanks for those. Justadrone’s blog is a courageous experiment - putting his portfolio online. Something I’m thinking of doing
I’ve added them to my RSS.
Here are several more:
http://www.yaseranwar.com/index.html
http://disciplinedinvesting.blogspot.com/index.html
http://magic-formula-investing.blogspot.com/index.html
http://harperasset.blogspot.com/
When does the contest end?
[...] to everyone who sent in links in return for a chance to win one of five copies of Ken Fisher’s, ‘The Only Three Questions That Count’. I’ve closed the [...]
Hi everyone, thanks again for the links. Lots were sent by email too. Here’s a selection