The market has been ‘slowly moving up’: Ken Fisher

Founder and Chairman Ken, so much to talk to you about here, the follow up from our weekend discussion. But on what is driving all of this? So basically, after all we went through with COVID in the aftermath of Russian Ukraine war, all of the Fed scares, on and on and on, people just became too pessimistic. And in the bull market that began in October 2022, we've just been slowly moving up what John Templeton famously referred to as the progression of bull markets, which are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. And we're past the most skeptical part, but we haven't really gotten into the euphoric part at all. It's a natural progression and particularly strong in normal election years. Now, there's been a lot driving this there. You know, a lot of people are interested in the markets and there are a lot of firms that come to play that they're getting interested in, in firms that deal in the markets like yours. I was noticing this private equity firm, Admit International just took a minority stake in your firm to the tune of about $3 billion. What is that about? People typically have underestimated what I'm supposed to be worth. Then I need to be prudent and set aside provision for death tax. And so this really provides that in a way where we just take the money and manage it in equity. It's held for something that could happen to me that's untoward for subgenarian like me. I'm in exceptionally good health. I don't take any prescriptive drugs or any of that kind of stuff. Oh, you don't know what you're missing. You don't know what you're missing, but you're fine. You're fine. In other words, So people read into this that wait a minute, is he setting up something? And your statement, you said, well, my health is excellent. This transaction with an atypically long holding period for a private equity transaction will ensure Fisher investments long term private independence. What if it doesn't? Yep, Yep. That what that means is we need to keep doing what we're doing. I remain firmly in control because I own over 70% of everything. It's an exceptionally high valuation. It's for an exceptionally long time period. They are delighted to be with us. We're delighted to have them because they love us for what we are. But it, you know, if you think about like the the billionaire rating entities like Forbes and Bloomberg, they probably have to if they just do the math up by their sense of my worth by a few billion here and there. But as older viewers who remember Senator Everett Turkson from the 1960s, a billionaire, a billionaire, pretty soon you got real money. All right. Well, you're closing in on a worth of what, close to $10 billion? I mean, what, what, what do you do? It'll be more than that when they figure it out. Really. Do do do you have a lot of friends and family members who get all the closer to you now? I mean, what, how does that work out? I got good defenses. I know I've got a duck and cover and I used to block when I was young. It's OK. There you go. There you go. I, I do want to know some could look at this in a twisted way and say, all right, outside entity comes in bunks down $3 billion into arguably one of the world's best investment houses. That would be you. Is that a market top? I'm not meaning to, to, to, to badger it, but there's been a lot of events going on and, and a lot of firms that are just feeding on other firms and other developments and this investment wave. Do you worry about that? Not not what it meant here in this particular case. Do I worry about what people think? Not terribly much. I'm very mission oriented and the mission's the thing I started down the path of looking to try to solve this estate problem over two years ago. We talked to dozens and dozens of entities, including sovereign funds, major corporations, private equity firms, family, major family offices. We got offers from all kinds of folks for all kinds of stuff that we didn't want. But Advent. And and of course then there's Adiya, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which is a client of Advents and likes to invest alongside rather than inside. But these are great partners that will have no say in what we do, allow us to keep being us and doing what we do, and me keep being the crazy person that I am. And you don't get any better than that. But I wonder what's in it for them. I mean, obviously they're joining with a prestigious firm and a prestigious name, a guy who's a pretty, pretty good investor. But beyond that, do they want to take over? Something happens to you, you slip on a banana peel and then then what? I slip up all the time and you know that. The fact of the matter is none of that gives them any say that gives them any kind of control, and that will not happen. That's not the way my estate is set up. The Fisher family is firmly in control. And I mean, I should live a long darn time. I'm going to be pestering people hopefully for a couple decades more. I mean, my parents lived into their 90s. But do you have a succession plan on that? I only say that in case you know, Warren Buffett, he's always asked these questions. Recently a close friend in confident Charlie Munger passed away. Do these issues come up at at your firm? And I I only say that because we see even some of the premier investment banks that go through this are wanting who's the successor to Jamie Dimon going to be at JP Morgan Chase. How are they going to handle things at Goldman Sachs? I mean, this comes up a lot, the you become the firm. So in reality, though, since 2016, Damian Arnotti's been the CEO of the firm. You know, I lead the investment side and I do a lot of communication and I Babble at people. But the reality is Damian's much younger than I am. He's still been with the firm 25 years. And the firm keeps going and the management stays intact. And if I should die, which I don't expect I will, but this is like an insurance policy. Everything will continue the same, and the family will still have control, and it'll all be good. All right, real quickly, your take on the market. Oh, got it. Real quickly Your take on the markets in this presidential election year phenomena that's playing out exactly as you said it would. But how long? I mean in 2025, does that kind of thing end? Mike it? Yes, I'm hoping you'll invite me back as we get to the end of the year to look into 2025. I don't have a particular expectation that it will. I'm going to go back to what I've said before and it may. The fact is this. As I have said over and over and over, since 2022 is more like 19666768 than any other time period in history, and people just can't get that correctly in their head. The market has acted just like 1966 and 2022, like 1967 and 2023 and now like 1968. If it acts like that in 1969, we're rolling over then. The reality is, and I cannot tell you what will happen yet, I'll look for it later, but the reality is often, as I've said before, in years where we elect a Republican, the market gets exuberant about it in the election year, somewhat negative on it, the inaugural year. The flip side is true, when we elect Democrats, I believe that we probably elect Donald Trump president this time. And there's a lot of reasons we can talk about that amount of time, but it's a bull market right now. Got it. Ken, congratulations again. Stay healthy, stay well. Quite a success story there. Ken Fisher. All of these developments here in the markets that again are racing to new highs.