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

PREFACE

Who Am I to Tell You Something That Counts?

Who am I to tell you anything, much less anything that counts? Or that there are only three questions that count and I know what they are? Why should you bother reading any of this? Why listen to me at all?

Well, for starters, I've been in the investment industry for more than a third of a century and seen lots of water spill over the dam—and I'm not exactly a fan of my industry. I was raised in this industry. My father was in it before me—starting in 1932. He made a pretty big name for himself. I learned lots from him and went on. I founded and am CEO of a money management firm running more than $30 billion with an audited long-term history beating the market in a multiplicity of investing styles. It serves more than 16,000 high net worth individuals and an impressive roster of institutions—major corporate and public pension plans and endowments and foundations—spanning America, Britain, and Canada. I've written Forbes' "Portfolio Strategy" column for 22 years making me the fifth longest running columnist in Forbes' 89-year history. I've done another column in Bloomberg Money in Britain for seven years—and have written three prior books and have been published in numerous scholarly and professional journals. I am, from decades back, the father of the Price-to-Sales Ratio, now a standard part of today's financial curriculum. Without meaning to sound too darned pompous I'm on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, a self-made richie. ...