The Only Three Questions That Still Count: Investing By Knowing What Others Don't, 2nd Edition

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Initially, when approached about doing a second edition of this book, I thought, “Why?” I like old investment books. You can learn tons from them—they tell you lots about what impacted people at a point in time, how they thought and why that’s evolved. Then, too, I felt this book sufficiently evergreen that readers could still get something material out of the original 2007 version.

I still believe that, but there’s a ton of data and graphs in this book. And what was interesting in updating them was how well they held up overall. After all, the past five years were far from dull. (Then again, I defy anyone to find any five-year span in capital markets that was dull. People tend to see the now and recent past as radically new and different—a common error I address in my 2011 book Markets Never Forget.) As I write in late 2011, we are now nearly three years from the bottom of a historically big bear market. And yet, the Three Questions are as valid as ever, as the updated graphs, data and commentary will show.

Once again, I pulled Lara Hoffmans from her other duties to assist me in doing first-round edits and overseeing the big task of updating data and graphs. Lara is managing editor of my firm’s webzine MarketMinder and oversees a team responsible for creating client-facing content. Filling in for her while she was otherwise occupied on this task was her team of terrific writers: Todd Bliman, Amanda Williams, Elisabeth Dellinger and Naj Srinivas. Backing up Lara ...