Meet the Experts

In 1983, Kiril founded 13D Research & Strategy, which began analyzing stocks selling well below break-up value and evolved into a theme-driven investment research firm. Throughout the 1980s, Kiril wrote and lectured widely to investment groups, arguing for a long, secular period of disinflation. His mantra: “The highest interest rates in capitalism will eventually be followed by the lowest interest rates”. Beginning in May 1984, Kiril recommended purchasing 30-year U.S. Treasuries, which at the time were yielding 14% and which Kiril called “The investment opportunity of a lifetime”. In 2002, with oil at $20 after a 20-year bear market in commodities, Kiril launched his “commodity boom” and “peak-oil” themes, exiting oil in June 2008 at $143.50.

13D Research’s major client base includes large-scale money managers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, large private and public corporations, family offices, private equity and distressed funds, high-net-worth individuals, hedge funds and business leaders all over the world. Kiril has been an advisor to many of the largest pools of global capital for over 40 years.

A life-long learner, Kiril is devoted to the pursuit of truth—in investments, in health, life and the living of it, wisdom of the ages, lessons of history as applied to the present, eternal truths and the way forward for humanity and the planet. He considers peace of mind and humility among his most important personal goals.

Kiril has studied history and the lessons of history for most of his life. Kiril also believes that trust is a vital component of relationships and the best way to establish it is a passionate, totally-committed desire to serve the needs of others. This can only come from the heart.

Kiril began to lose his hearing as a teenager, ultimately going entirely deaf by the early 1990s, but he resolved to never avoid a business or social event due to deafness. He committed to turning his weakness into strength and developed a highly-attuned intuition. In 1996, Kiril received a cochlear implant, which restored much of his ability to hear conversation. These experiences reinforced his dedication, resilience, and commitment to looking beyond the surface for deeper understanding of herd mentality, hidden assumptions, and how things could change.

Kiril co-founded the first pure Asian hedge fund in early 1992 just as the huge bull market in Hong Kong stocks got underway and retired two years before the emerging Asian financial crisis. In 1994, he co-founded one of the earliest pure technology funds, just before the internet-stock boom began, then retired a few years before the IT bust.

Starting in 2001, Kiril and his team began to write What I Learned This Week. This was later followed by adding What Are The Markets Telling Us?, “the agnostic interpreter of what the markets are telling us.” These publications are dedicated to detecting change and disruption before others. Kiril and his team are cutting-edge contrarians, original thinkers and always on the lookout for the “next big thing.” Kiril is also the author of five investment books.

In 1977, he was one of the first to join Jack Kemp’s “supply-side” revolution, which advocated cutting tax rates to restore economic growth. This became a core principle of Reaganomics, which launched the subsequent 40-year bull market in financial assets. Kiril also co-authored Is Inflation Ending? Are you Ready? (McGraw-Hill, 1982), which correctly predicted disinflation and the long boom in financial assets.

Kiril spends much of the year traveling in key global markets, and typically devotes 12-14 hours a day to reading, thinking, learning, researching, and meditating.

Kiril is a big fan of Oriental Wisdom. One of his favorite quotes is from Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu): The best of men is like water; water benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in the lowly places that all disdain, wherein it comes near to the Tao.