Fisher: Don't Just Buy What You Know

In his latest Forbes column, Kenneth Fisher says that investors should not, as Peter Lynch once advised, “buy what you know”.

Lynch said that investors could get a leg up on Wall Street by paying attention to what products they liked; if a company made a product they thought was a good one, they could use it as a jumping-off point to learn more about the firm and its investment prospects. But Fisher disagrees. “Buying only what you know can end in disaster,” he writes. “Just think about Enron’s employees and business partners, the ‘locals’ who bought lots of its stock because they thought they were in the know. I say expand your horizons, diversify and buy beyond what you know.”

Lynch didn’t advise investors to blindly invest in companies they knew or liked, and said they should always look deeper into a company before buying its shares, even if they liked its products. But Fisher’s point is clear: Don’t limit your investment possibilities. He offers several picks from all around the world, including Canadian banks, a Swiss drugmaker, and a French oil and gas firm. To read the full column, click here.