Sir John Templeton, legendary investor, was famous for saying, "The four most dangerous words in investing are, 'This time it's different.'" He knew that though history doesn't repeat, not exactly, history is an excellent guide for investors. In Markets Never Forget But People Do: How Your Memory Is Costing You Money and Why This Time Isn't Different, long-time Forbes columnist, CEO of Fisher Investments, and 4-time New York Times bestselling author Ken Fisher shows how and why investors' memories fail them-and how costly that can be. More important, he shows steps investors can take to begin reducing errors they repeatedly make. The past is never indicative of the future, but history can be one powerful guide in shaping forward looking expectations. Readers can learn how to see the world more clearly-and learn to make fewer errors-by understanding just a bit of investing past.
Preface ix Acknowledgments xvii Chapter 1 The Plain-Old Normal 1 Yes Sir, Sir John 1 The Normal Normal 5 The Jobless Recovery 14 The Always Feared, Rarely Seen Double Dip 23 Chapter 2 Fooled by Averages 31 Bull Markets Are Inherently Above Average 32 Viva the V 36 Normal Returns Are Extreme, Not Average 47 The Pause That Refreshes (and Confuses) 49 Getting Average Returns Is Hard-Really Hard 53 Chapter 3 Volatility Is Normal-and Volatile 57 What the Heck Is Volatility? 58 Volatility Is Volatile 61 The Daily Grind 65 Stocks Are Less Volatile Than Bonds? 67 Economic Volatility-Also Normal 69 Volatility Isn't Inherently Bad 71 Never a Dull Moment 74 Chapter 4 Secular Bear? (Secular) Bull! 81 Seeing the World Through Bear- Colored Glasses 82 Two Secular Bear Markets? 84 Stocks-Up Vastly More Than Down 90 Chapter 5 Debt and Deficient Thinking 101 Deficits Aren't Bad, but Surpluses Will Kill You 105 The History of Big Government Debt 110 Just Who Is at Default Here? 116 Chapter 6 Long- Term Love and Other Investing Errors 123 No One Category Is Best for All Time 124 Long- Term Love Is Like Long- Term Forecasting-Both Wrong 129 It's Still Heat Chasing Even When It Seems Safe 134 Use History to Your Advantage 146 Chapter 7 Poli-Ticking 151 Enter the Ideology- Free Zone 152 Your Party Isn't Better 153 Presidents and Risk Aversion 155 Perverse Inverse-It's Four and One 160 Poli- Tics Go Global 170 Poli- Tics Versus Entrepreneurs 172 Chapter 8 It's (Always Been) a Global World, After All 177 It's Always Been a Small World 179 Seeing the World Right 186 Conclusion 194 Appendix 197 Notes 201 Index 211