The Fisher Doctrine

Trees don’t grow to the sky,” goes an old Wall Street saying. It’s a phrase you hear when stocks seem to be getting pricey and investors a little too euphoric about the future. But Ken Fisher has a different perspective. “In a forest, it appears that trees grow to the sky, particularly if they’re tall trees, because of the parallel effect,” he says. “Stand at the bottom of a 300-foot tree and look up, and you can’t see the top of it. They do appear to grow to the sky.”

Alone among America’s investment gurus, Fisher knows his trees as well as he does his equities. Not only is he an outspoken investor, whose eponymous firm, Fisher Investments, runs more than $100 billion in assets, he’s had a lifelong dedication to and affection for our redwood forests and their place in the American economy. “Part of my life has been very heavily oriented toward lumber. “Logging and milling, and the history of logging and milling, particularly in the west, particularly in redwood. And I’m pretty much of an expert in that.”