Rarely is a book the product of one or two people, and this one is no exception. This project would have been impossible without the support and help of many colleagues and business relationships.

It is often said the job makes the man. Fortunately, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the brightest minds in finance. Both this project and my career are better for it. To begin, special thanks go to Ken Fisher, Andrew Teufel, Jeff Silk—the members of Fisher Investments' Investment Policy Committee. Without their dedication to building Fisher Investments into the world-class firm it is today, this opportunity would never have arisen. I am particularly grateful for their many years of tutelage as a member of their research staff.

I am also particularly grateful to Michael Hanson and Lara Hoffmans, not only for their patient mentoring and editing of this book—they were integral in turning this from a jumbled set of ideas into focused, well-polished prose—but for their substantial contribution to my lifelong pursuit of knowledge and intellectual betterment.

Several members of the Fisher Investments research staff also deserve thanks: Aaron Azelton, Theodore Gilliland, Dan Sinton, Brad Pyles, Erik Renaud, Brendan Erne, and Brian Kepp each provided key feedback and input throughout the process. And special thanks go to Matthew Schrader for breaking the bank and racking up pennies in library fines in the name of sound research.

Dina Ezzat deserves praise for adroitly managing logistics, from proper citations to its on-time delivery. Evelyn Chea helped put the finishing touches on the book by offering her copyediting expertise, and Leila Amiri offered valuable graphic design contributions, including the cover design.

Of course this book would also not be possible without our data vendors, and we owe a large debt of gratitude to Thomson Datastream, Thomson Reuters, MSCI, Inc., and Global Financial Data in particular for their permissions. I'd also like to extend appreciation to Fisher Investments' team at Wiley, for their support and guidance throughout this project, especially David Pugh and Kelly O'Connor.

Last, I would like to thank Carolyn Feng for her patience, understanding, and invaluable feedback during this challenging process—the book is substantially better because of her. And to my mother, Nancy: We will continue to live the lighter side.