The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't

Appendix L. Ten-Year History of the Forbes Report Card

Year	Ken Fisher's Forbes Stock Picks	S&P 500 Price Index
1996	13.9%	12.1%
1997	23.0%	33.0%
1998	14.9%	14.9%
1999	20.5%	11.5%
2000	0.0%	−10.0%
2001	−2.5%	−11.4%
2002	−6.0%	−3.0%
2003	31.6%	17.6%
2004	12.6%	7.6%
2005	14.3%	3.4%
10 Year Annualized Return:
	11.7%	6.8%

Disclosure

This is Forbes magazine's third party accounting of the results of Ken Fisher's Forbes picks.

Each year since 1996 Forbes verifies and publishes returns for each of its columnists' securities recommendations for the year before (among those who make specific recommendations in their columns). It is called the columnist's "Report Card". This is not an actual portfolio of managed money. The numbers above come directly from Forbes magazine annually. They are calculated solely based on calendar years. The methodology Forbes uses assumes readers buy $10,000 of each stock recommended and immediately subtracts a 1% hypothetical brokerage commission.

That is compared to putting $10,000 into an S&P500 index fund at the same date with no hypothetical commission and no other fees. For example, in 2004 Ken Fisher recommended 51 stocks in Forbes throughout the year. If $10,000 had been put into each stock the total invested would have been $510,000 which would have appreciated by yearend 2004 to $574,000, a 12.6% appreciation. The same amount of money invested in the S&P 500 at those various times without a hypothetical commission would have totaled $548,000 for a return of 7.6% at the end of 2004. Using ...