Working

Ellen McCarty

HE IS

The Money Maverick

MUTUAL RESPECT

The 42-year-old Huntington Beach native doesn’t use the classic balsa

surfboard hanging above his desk at Fabian Investment Resources -- he’s

moved on to fiberglass and foam -- but he uses his deep knowledge of

history as he navigates the sometimes rough waves of the stock market.

His radio show, “Fabian on Funds,” hit the airwaves last March. It has

since doubled its audience to about 26,000 listeners.

Unlike most financial shows, Fabian isn’t dry.

“This guy called in about Y2K and said, ‘It’s no big deal. I’m going to

take all of my cash, buy a gallon of tequila and have a big party,’ ”

Fabian said. “I just said, ‘Have a great time, man.’ ”

STOCK JOCK

“We don’t make many friends in the industry,” said Fabian’s producer,

Michael Tomlinson. “He’s (Fabian) a Wall Street insider, but he

approaches it from the outside. He tells it like it is.”

Most controversial is Fabian’s “Lemon List.”

“On my show, I call it ‘Broker Horror Stories,’ ” Fabian said. “And then

I scream, ahhh!”

Nationally recognized by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal,

the Lemon List, also posted online at https://www.fabianlive.com, targets

bad mutual funds brokers and “beats them to a pulp for 90 days,” Fabian

said.

His investigations have exposed sloppy brokers who, over the last three

years, have again and again poorly invested their clients’ money.

“They’re driving around in Porsches, and they don’t know what they’re

doing,” Fabian said.

RISKY BUSINESS

Investing independently is scary because it involves risk, Fabian said,

but only if you’ve never done it before. About 80% of his talk show,

which airs on KLSX-FM (97.1) Saturdays from 8 to 10 a.m., involves

advising callers how to sort through their baggage of stocks.

“I tell them what to get rid of, what to keep and what to buy,” he said.

Many people keep weak stocks much longer than necessary. “The universal

truth that you should buy a stock and hope it makes money is universal

B.S.,” Tomlinson said. “We take conventional financial wisdom and turn it

on its head.”

The Internet has changed everything, he added. “The public has more

access to company information than they ever did before,” he said. “They

no longer need a broker to do the legwork.”

DINERO TIME

Fabian learned the financial ropes from his father, Dick, who pioneered

the concept of being an “independent investor” in Huntington Beach in

1977 when he launched a mutual funds newsletter.

Before that, Fabian attended Marina High School and Goldenwest College,

where he was on the water polo team and worked for a few years as a

woodcarver in Huntington Beach.

Although he never earned a degree in finance, Fabian said his learning

began the day his dad gave him his first assignment: to chart the history

of the stock market as it was affected by world events.

“I just fell in love,” he said. “It was fascinating.”

His love grew when he stepped onto the floor of the New York Stock

Exchange in 1982, a landmark event that sealed his confidence in his work

and the market.

“From afar, it looks so chaotic,” he said. “But down on the floor with

the brokers, I watched the actual transaction of stocks and it was the

coolest of cool. The market was so weak that day they said it fell out of

bed, but nobody panicked.”

THE MONEY GAME

On the radio, Fabian talks about stock market trends the way he talks

about surfing, he said.

Mirroring lifeguard signals, he uses a green flag to mark a good day to

invest in any stock on the market, yellow to be alert and cautious and

red to “stay out of the water.”

Everyday, before sharing investment news, he gives a report about the

local surf.

“If the water’s cold and there are no waves, I tell the listeners to get

a cup of coffee and listen to me instead,” he said.

Investing is more important than ever for younger generations, Fabian

said, because Social Security and job pensions are no longer guarantees.

“It’s up to us to secure our retirement,” he said. “I can’t believe we

don’t teach kids in school how to invest.”

His own kids, ages 17, 15, 7 and 5, will all have a good understanding of

the market, said his wife, Karen, who is a financial analyst, but they

make sure money is just as fun as playtime.

“Moran is 7 and she already has a savings account,” she said. “But Jordan

is only 5 and he’s a little hopeless at this point. He just wants us to

buy him Lego.”