How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud

by Kenneth L. Fisher, Lara W. Hoffmans

Overview

A timely guide to uncovering financial fraud

2008 and 2009 will be remembered for bear markets, a global credit crunch, and some of the largest investment scams ever. But these scams are nothing new, they've been repeated throughout history, and there will certainly be more to come. But the good news is fraudsters often follow the same basic playbook. Learn the playbook, and know how to ask the right questions, and financial fraud can be easy to detect and simple to avoid.

In How to Smell a Rat, trusted financial expert Ken Fisher provides you with an inside's view on how to spot financial disasters before you become a part of them. Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this reliable resource takes an engaging look at recent and historic examples of fraudsters, how they operated, and how they can be easily avoided. Fisher also shows you the quick, identifiable features of financial frauds and arms you with the questions to ask when assessing a money manager.

• Prepares you to identify and avoid financials cams that could instantly destroy your wealth
• Contains examples that highlight how financial frauds are committed
• Provides questions everyone should ask before entering any investment endeavor

With How to Smell a Rat as your guide, you'll learn how to protect your interests and assets from unnecessary losses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470526538
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	07/27/2009
Series:	Fisher Investments Press Series
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

KEN FISHER is best known for his prestigious “Portfolio Strategy” column in Forbes magazine, where his twenty-five-year tenure of high-profile calls makes him the fourth longest-running columnist in Forbes’ 90-plus-year history. Ken is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Fisher Investments, an independent global money management firm. He is on Investment Advisor magazine’s prestigious IA-25 list of the industry’s most influential people; is the award-winning author of numerous scholarly articles; and has published five previous books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Only Three Questions That Count and The Ten Roads to Riches—both of which are published by Wiley. Ken has been published, interviewed, and/or appeared in most major American, British, and German finance or business periodicals. He has a weekly column in Focus Money, Germany’s leading weekly finance magazine.

LARA HOFFMANS graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BA in theatre. She is a content manager at Fisher Investments and contributing editor of MarketMinder.com. She also coauthored with Ken Fisher the bestsellers The Only Three Questions That Count and The Ten Roads to Riches.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 11

Chapter 2: Too Good to Be True Usually Is 39

Chapter 3: Don’t Be Blinded by Flashy Tactics 63

Chapter 4: Exclusivity, Marble, and Other Things That Don’t Matter 87

Chapter 5: Due Diligence Is Your Job, No One Else’s 111

Chapter 6: A Financial Fraud–Free Future 137

Appendix A: Asset Allocation—Risk & Reward 153

Appendix B: Same but Different—Accounting Fraud 157

Appendix C: Minds That Made the Market 161

Notes 195

Index 203

About the Authors 209

Editorial Reviews

In the wake of Bernie Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme comes this book that helps listeners invest safely and identify financial scams big and small. As straightforward as it sounds, the book is surprisingly entertaining, featuring an allegory of a cautious investor, stories about fraudsters throughout history and the five rules to evade scams. Scott Thomsen delivers a vivid reading and bypasses the pitfalls of dryness and one-dimensionality that plague so many narrators of financial and business audio books. The material allows Thomsen to loosen his collar and convey the information (and help the medicine go down) with personality and panache. A Wiley hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 7) (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

With five straightforward rules that would have saved any investor from Bernie Madoff, investment firm CEO and Forbes columnist Fisher (100 Minds That Made the Market) gives readers a secure plan for fraud-proof investing, worthwhile for novices and sophisticated financiers alike. Using the example of everyman “Jim,” a precarious investor navigating shark-filled waters, Fisher presents a clear, fast-paced, tightly organized guide to principles like “Too good to be true usually is,” and “Due diligence is your job, no one else's.” Fully-referenced data, insider details, laser-focused statistical digressions, and the finer points of practical investing keep pages turning. Readers will value the practical, easy-to-follow models of solid, transparent investment strategies and examples from Fisher's experiences as CEO of his own investment firm. Fisher also includes suggestions for further reading and appendices that reproduce previously-published comparisons of different asset allocations, information for small business owners and short biographies of market-movers. Much more than what to avoid, Fisher’s concise guide should be highly illuminating and confidence-building for anyone with a bank account. (Aug.) Starred review (Publishers Weekly, September 2009)

Using well-known examples from recent headlines like Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford along with a bevy of historical scam artists, Fisher details the red flags that should alert investors. They are: advisers who have access to your money; promises of returns that are too good to be true; mumbo-jumbo that takes the place of explaining investing strategy; fake benefits like exclusivity, and relying on someone else for due diligence. (Associated Press)

From the Publisher

While too late for the victims of Bernie Madoff, this volume is ideal for anyone wary of encountering fraudulence in the investment community. Scott Thomsen’s casual delivery makes him sound like a friend who can demystify the complexity of selecting a portfolio manager. His tone is slightly sarcastic when giving voice to the swindlers and their various strategies to hook those without business acumen. His emphatic intonation helps the listener unravel the circuitous logic of how to spot red flags that signal a possible financial crook. Direct and to the point, Thomsen’s narration enhances a text written in everyday terms. M.R. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2009 - AudioFile