The Making of a Market Guru: Forbes Presents 25 Years of Ken Fisher

Chapter 5. 1988: Ear to the Ground

"Why did stocks do better [than Treasuries or inflation] over the last 60 years? Probably for the reason I expect them to do better over the next 60 years. Stock represents business ownership. And businesses are run by adaptable people who can change with a changing world."

—"Anything That Can Happen ... Probably Will," October 24, 1988

"Fear is highest around market bottoms, when it's the best time to buy.... The essence of money management is weighing possibilities against probabilities and going against your gut."

—"Anything That Can Happen ... Probably Will," October 24, 1988

Nineteen-eighty-eight offered a few distractions from the Black Monday hangover. One major part of the world was rapidly changing. In the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev was implementing dramatic social and economic reforms known as "perestroika" — a first step in the dismantling of the Soviet Union. In the US, George H. W. Bush defeated Republican contenders, including Bob Dole and televangelist Pat Robertson, to win the presidential nomination and eventually the presidency over Democrat Michael Dukakis. Sports offered some memorable moments as well. Hobbled Dodger Kirk Gibson hit his dramatic bottom-of-the-ninth-inning homerun to win Game One of the World Series. Still, all the distractions in the world weren't enough to make folks forget the stock market crash.

Ken was still short-term bullish. "There are so many short-term bullish signs now that it's a miracle everyone seems so ...