100 Minds That Made the Market
Summary
Fisher, a money manager, wrote short biographical sketches of one hundred people who shaped American financial markets, grouped by category: the journalists and analysts, the investment bankers, the brokers, the innovators, the technicians, the scandal figures and the regulators.
The subjects run from Alexander Hamilton and the early bankers through the robber barons, the pool operators of the 1920s, the founders of the brokerage and mutual fund industries, the first analysts including Benjamin Graham, the technicians, the academics, and the frauds including Charles Ponzi and Ivar Kreuger.
Each sketch runs a few pages and combines biography with Fisher's judgement about what the person contributed or destroyed. His recurring theme is that markets are made by individuals with specific ideas, that most innovations were resisted at the time, and that the frauds are worth studying because their techniques recur.
The book is written for entertainment and instruction rather than as scholarship, and Fisher's judgements are stated confidently. The reference has not verified the individual biographical details, which are drawn from secondary sources and compressed heavily. It is best used as a reference for identifying figures encountered elsewhere and as a source of leads for further reading, rather than as an authority on any individual. Fisher's own investment writing elsewhere is the better source for his analytical views.
Key takeaways 7
- American financial markets were shaped by identifiable individuals with specific ideas rather than by impersonal forces.
- Most financial innovations were resisted or ridiculed when introduced, including index funds, mutual funds and securities analysis.
- Fraud techniques recur across generations with different instruments, which makes the historical cases directly useful for recognising current ones.
- The distinction between an innovator and a manipulator was frequently determined by whether the scheme survived long enough to become legitimate.
- Financial regulation developed in response to specific individuals' conduct rather than from any general design.
- Securities analysis as a profession did not exist before the 1930s, and its creation changed what information was available to investors.
- The reference has not verified the individual biographical details in this compressed collection.
Who should read it
Readers wanting a quick reference to the individuals who shaped American markets, as a source of leads rather than as an authority.
About Ken Fisher
Founder and Executive Chairman, Fisher Investments; Forbes "Portfolio Strategy" columnist 1984-2016
A long, public money-management record plus Super Stocks, which introduced the price-to-sales ratio and outlived its news cycle.
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