The Wall Street Waltz: 90 Visual Perspectives, Illustrated Lessons From Financial Cycles and Trends

On the surface, Wall Street always seems to be changing. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll quickly see that while events and curious phenomena enter and exit the scene almost daily, nothing really important has changed over the years. In fact, much of what happens in the financial world today has been played out in history many times before and has been captured in the cycles and trends of financial charts created over time. Understanding the movements within these charts provides a clearer perspective of today’s market and can help you make the best possible investment decisions tomorrow.

As a successful money manager and respected financial columnist, Ken Fisher understands the importance of this information and now, with a revised and updated edition of The Wall Street Waltz, he brings it to life through 90 of the most revealing and provocative financial charts ever assembled. Many of the charts in this reliable resource are snapshots of modern financial markets—which reveal how stocks relate to sales, earnings, dividends, cash flows, and assets—while others include early twentieth-century originals, and new charts of even older events. In each case, Fisher provides what he calls a visualization, in which he analyzes each chart according to its origin, historical significance, and most importantly, its relevance to today’s market.

The key to making money on Wall Street doesn’t involve fancy moves, it requires focusing on the simple steps. The illustrative charts and informative explanations—which address what you should see in each chart and why they’re important—found throughout these pages will provide you with a new perspective on the highly orchestrated “dance” known as the Wall Street waltz and detail timeless investment insights that will enhance your everyday investment endeavors.

The Wall Street waltz has been around for over 200 years, surviving wars, revolutions, depressions, and inflation. It’s gone on all around the world in boom-bust cycles with a rhythm all its own. If you want to waltz, the 90 visualizations found in this indispensable volume will provide you with the practical guidance to do so. And tomorrow or ten years from now—when some seemingly new mania or hysteria is causing those around you to panic—you can turn here for help in gaining and maintaining your financial footing.

Ken Fisher is best known for his prestigious “Portfolio Strategy” column in Forbes magazine, where his twenty-three-year tenure of high-profile calls makes him the fourth longest-running columnist in Forbes’ ninety-year history. Ken is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Fisher Investments, a multi-product money management firm with over $40 billion under management. His success has ranked him #271 on the 2007 Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. He is a regular in the media and has appeared in most major American finance or business periodicals. Fisher also recently authored the New York Times bestseller The Only Three Questions That Count, which is also published by Wiley.