Semper Fidelity

Unless the newsletter is run as a marketing tool for an investment venture, he explained, "it's not going to work."

Despite the changing landscape, Bowers remains a traditionalist, refusing to accept advertising and relying only on subscriptions to pay the bills for his six-person operation, which is managed by his wife, Karen Bowers. "I actually make money on the newsletter."

Bowers also benefits from his role as chief investment strategist for Weber Asset Management. He plots an investment course for about $350 million in assets.

Bowers never envisioned dispensing investment advice.

Born Feb. 15, 1958, in Spokane, Wash., the son of John and Betty Bowers grew up imagining a future around electronic gizmos and inventions.

In high school, he spent his free hours tooling around the campus electronics lab. While his friends built television sets and citizens band radios, Bowers assembled audio amplifiers.

While majoring in electrical engineering at Washington State University, he helped launch a campus radio station run out of his college dormitory.

In 1980, Bowers showcased some of his college projects to land a job with Hewlett-Packard Co.'s instruments division in Santa Clara. A year later, Bowers transferred to the HP plant in Corvallis, Ore., where the company was developing laptop computers and inkjet printers.

He soon became fascinated by a company computer lab set up for employees to tout the future of desktop publishing.

"I saw what the technology could do. You could produce (a newsletter) at home. You didn't need to hire anyone," he said.

At the same time, Bowers was growing frustrated as a Fidelity investor. He found little information about the dozens of funds beyond the company's quarterly and annual reports.

"Mutual funds were gaining in popularity. I figured if I was going to do the research (about Fidelity) I might as well make money doing it."

Bowers invested $10,000 for a Macintosh computer, software and other supplies, and worked weekends and nights crafting a business plan and creating spreadsheets for a Fidelity database and investment models. He later ran up another $7,000 in credit card charges to keep his business going.

"My wife was frustrated because I wasn't doing much of anything else," he said

His original plan was to publish interviews with Fidelity investment managers and lots of charts and graphs. He quickly learned subscribers wanted investment advice and tips.

Bowers toiled 120 hours to produce his first issue and mail copies to friends and family. A few months later, he earned his big break when the Hulbert Financial Digest began tracking Fidelity Monitor and comparing the results with other newsletters.

Then the stock market melted down in October 1987 and put a chill on investor confidence. About half of his 150 subscribers bailed out. "Nobody wanted to put anything into the market until 1991," he said.

A year later, Bowers was transferred to Hewlett-Packard's Roseville plant.

It was three years after the crash before business started to pick up. Bowers then decided to take a buyout and concentrate full time on the newsletter.

Today, Fidelity Monitor competes with three other newsletters dedicated to examining the mutual fund company's performance -- Fidelity Independent Adviser, Fidelity Insight and Fidelity Investors.

Of the four newsletters, Fidelity Monitor has compiled the best five-year performance. None of its rivals has been in existence as long.

Subscriber Paul Barth of Sacramento has stuck with Fidelity Monitor over rival publications for more than a decade.

"He tends to pick up trends fairly quickly. He provides good timely information on what the funds are doing," Barth said.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Gilbert Chan can be reached at (916) 321-1045 or gchan@sacbee.com.