Stephen R. Foerster

Trailblazers, Heroes, and Crooks

Stories to Make You a Smarter Investor
Trailblazers, Heroes, and Crooks: Stories to Make You a Smarter Investor is a highly entertaining and insightful look into key stories from history,  teaching lessons about sound principles of investing, and controlling emotions and bias when managing your investment portfolio to help you become a stronger, more intelligent investor. Written by award-winning author and finance professor Stephen R. Foerster, this book spans from before the Middle Ages to the 2020s.

Some of the stories in this book include:

  • Cristiano Ronaldo taking two bottles of Coke off a table at a press conference, and ostensibly causing Coca-Cola’s stock value to plunge $4 billion
  • Harry Markopolos trying to develop a strategy similar to Bernie Madoff’s, realizing his strategy was bogus, and spending a decade proving his case
  • A hostage crisis in twelfth century Venice involving trumped-up charges, conflict, deceit, a plague, and an angry mob, leading to the birth of government bonds
  • A salad oil swindle almost destroying American Express, prompting Warren Buffett to make one of the best stock investments ever

For both experienced and novice investors, Trailblazers, Heroes, and Crooks: Stories to Make You a Smarter is a fun, accessible, and informative guide that through history shows, not tells, you how to develop an investment philosophy of guiding principles, and become a better investor.

If you’re looking to use this book for a course, click here for “Educators Resources”

Andrew W. Lo and Stephen R. Foerster

In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio

The Stories, Voices, and Key Insights of the Pioneers Who Shaped the Way We Invest

How the greatest thinkers in finance changed the field and how their wisdom can help investors today.  Silver medal winner, Axiom Business Awards, Personal Finance.

Is there an ideal portfolio of investment assets, one that perfectly balances risk and reward? In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio examines this question by profiling and interviewing ten of the most prominent figures in the finance world―Jack Bogle, Charley Ellis, Gene Fama, Marty Leibowitz, Harry Markowitz, Bob Merton, Myron Scholes, Bill Sharpe, Bob Shiller, and Jeremy Siegel. We learn about the personal and intellectual journeys of these luminaries―which include six Nobel Laureates and a trailblazer in mutual funds―and their most innovative contributions. In the process, we come to understand how the science of modern investing came to be. Each of these finance greats discusses their idea of a perfect portfolio, offering invaluable insights to today’s investors.

Inspiring such monikers as the Bond Guru, Wall Street’s Wisest Man, and the Wizard of Wharton, these pioneers of investment management provide candid perspectives, both expected and surprising, on a vast array of investment topics―effective diversification, passive versus active investment, security selection and market timing, foreign versus domestic investments, derivative securities, nontraditional assets, irrational investing, and so much more. While the perfect portfolio is ultimately a moving target based on individual age and stage in life, market conditions, and short- and long-term goals, the fundamental principles for success remain constant.

Aimed at novice and professional investors alike, In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio is a compendium of financial wisdom that no market enthusiast will want to be without.

Click here for more on the dedicated Perfect Portfolio book site.

Stephen R. Foerster

Financial Management

Concepts and Applications

A balanced overview of financial management theory and practice

Finance is one of the key drivers of a firm’s activities, and a critical component to understanding business in general. Financial Management: Concepts and Applications is designed to help students with no prior knowledge grasp the applications and relevance of finance. The book reveals the practical side of finance, rather than just its theoretical concepts, and shows how finance intersects with many other areas of business.

This popular introductory corporate finance textbook is being updated for publication in 2025, with a new coauthor, Felipe Restrepo — stay tuned for more details.

Media and Press: Contact Smith Publicity

Madison Scheuer | Chris Baker madison.scheuer@smithpublicity.com  chris.baker@smithpublicity.com

856.489.8654 x1028 or x1034 

 

Rights & Agent Requests: Contact Robert Mackwood

Event Inquiries: Contact Stephen Foerster

sfoerster@ivey.ca

519.661.3726