Thomas Forester

Thomas H. Forester (born December 15, 1958) is an American mutual fund manager. He was the only long-focused United States stock mutual fund manager to make a profit in 2008. He turned a profit in the third quarter of 2002, during the stock market downturn of 2002 His fund focuses on large-value stocks. One of the most important financial ratios for Forest was the ratio of home prices to incomes, which helped him foresee the United States housing market correction. His fund has typically underperformed during market rallies.

Due to Forester's investing style of buying stocks with low price–earnings ratios and good earnings prospects, he has been compared to Warren Buffett. The fund posted losses in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2017, and never exceeded a 10% return after 2010. It currently has $3 million in assets.

Early life and career Forester grew up in Illinois. Through the 1970s and while he was still at college, Forester helped his father manage an investment portfolio. He started his career as a money manager in 1992 assisting in the management of a US$50 million fund for Sir John Templeton. He later worked for Wells Fargo in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Scudder Investments in New York City. In 1998, he lost money in subprime lending.

Between 2001 and 2008, the fund had been in the top 20% of its peer group three times and in the bottom 10% four times. Between 2005 and 2008, the fund had nearly broken even.

In 2004, the fund was subject of controversy when Morningstar, Inc. attempted to reclassify it into the conservative-allocation fund category. Mutual fund managers, including Forester, believed that the fund belonged in another classification such as a large-cap value fund, which is how Lipper had it classified. Value Line classified it as an income fund at the time. The move resulted in the fund performing first in its category in 2004. The controversy led to complaints to Morningstar, Inc. and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

His wife, Kaye, had been encouraging him to close his business. In October 2007, they agreed that he would close the business if he was not beating the S&P 500 by 10% by March. Although he only outperformed the S&P 500 by 9.5%, his wife agreed to allow him to keep the business going. After his fund took first place for year-to-date returns in the summer, he put 30% in cash.

In its first 10 years of existence, the fund only had one down year - in 2007.

In 2008, there were 8,200 diversified United States stock mutual funds, and they averaged a negative 39% rate of return. Forester's Forester Value Fund (FVALX), which is Morningstar five-star-rated, Much of Forester's success was attributable to large cash positions.

Forester conceded that because his fund is smaller than many of his peers, he is able to get in and out of portfolio positions faster than others and that his returns would have been much lower if he had been managing a larger portfolio. became a celebrity. He made his first television appearance in December and newspapers from as far away as Chile's El Mercurio have requested interviews with him. He remained cautious in 2009, investing in Microsoft.

He had approximately 16%-17% in cash in March 2010 and was very cautious.

In June 2010, he was increasing his cash position. At that time, his fund had $104 million in assets under management. By the end of 2010, he had 45% in cash.

In August 2011, he was again shifting assets to cash.

In April 2012, he falsely believed that the stock market rally was closer to the end than the beginning.

In 2015, he falsely predicted that China would be in a recession, increased his cash position to 30% and hedged his portfolio.

Personal life Forester moved to Libertyville, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, in 1998 when he purchased a home in the town. He was a trustee of the Cook Memorial Library District. In 2004, he attempted to run on a Republican slate of delegates for United States President George W. Bush. However, due to an insufficient number of signatures on the slate's petition, they were removed from the ballot. He was unsuccessful in his election to the Cook Memorial Library District Board in during the 2005 municipal elections.

He is married to Kaye Forrester, with whom he is raising two children.