Fisher Investments on Financials

Foreword

I’m pleased to introduce the eleventh in a series of investing guides from Fisher Investments Press. This imprint—the first ever from a money manager—was launched in partnership with John Wiley & Sons to bring whatever my firm can in the way of educational materials to you, whether you’re an investing enthusiast, student or aspiring professional.

With this book on Financials, we’ve completed the 10 standard investing sectors (Energy, Materials, Consumer Staples, Health Care, Utilities, etc.) and 1 book on a region (Emerging Markets). Each book is intended to stand alone—read one or just a few on topics that interest you. However, if you like this one, you now have access to a full complement of sector investing guides—a comprehensive, do-it-yourself training program for capital markets analysis—from the comfort of your couch.

Financials may conjure bad feelings in some readers. After all, the big 2008 bear market was Financials-led and the accompanying recession particularly deep. But this book isn’t merely a retread of the primary causes and outcome of that episode—such a focus would be too narrow and wouldn’t help you shape forward-looking expectations for the sector.

Nor are Financials inherently bad. In fact, Financials firms are critical to the very functioning of healthy capital markets. All sectors, including Financials, have periods they lead and others they lag—sometimes badly. Individual sectors do occasionally fall big—but not forever. Over long periods, finance ...