V.16:12 (576-582): The Global Trend: Mark Boucher by Thom Hartle

When S&C first spoke to hedge fund manager Mark Boucher in 1996, he shared some of his techniques for analyzing the economy, picking stocks, and money management. See what he says this time.

Refresh our memories with a bit of your history.

Sure. I started trading stocks and commodities when I was in high school. My father died when I was nine, and he left me a trust fund. The manager of my trust was looking after my college fund. Unfortunately, the stock market fell apart starting in 1973 and the bank managing my trust stayed 100% invested during the bear market. My account lost about 90% of its value.

You told me that last time, and it still hurts to hear it.

Me, too! I realized that I was going to have to find a way to make the money that was left go a long way. So I started trading the commodity markets in the late 1970s.

You were hoping to, in a sense, leverage yourself?

I wanted to make as much money as I could. Fortunately or not, I plunged into trading commodities. If you recall, during 1978 and 1979, the commodity markets shot up. I made quite a bit of money.

Sounds good.

In the next few years, though, I gave about half of it back before I realized that I had just been lucky in that period. I realized that I had a lot to learn if I wanted to create consistent performance. It became clear to me that the bull market was the genius, not me.