William Harnisch founded Peconic Partners in 2000. He manages all aspects of the firm's investments. William Harnisch worked for a while (1968-1970) as an analyst at Chase Manhattan Bank, before earning his MBA from New York University, after which he went on to receive his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification in 1977. He joined Forstmann-Leff Associates in 1978 as a Portfolio Manager and Research Analyst, eventually working his way up to the role of President and Chief Executive Officer, before leaving to start his Peconic Partners. Fun fact: William Harnisch named his fund after a wealthy Native American tribe in east Long Island. While the naming of his fund may be eccentric, William Harnisch is much more pragmatic, even going so far to buck the popular concept of diversification.

"Diversification is the plain vanilla of investing," says Peconic Partners' William Harnisch. "If you want mediocre results, go for diversification. To catch the high waves and snare sizable gains, concentrate your capital in winners." Instead, he advocates a different rule of thought - "concentration." William Harnisch explains it like this. "The easy way of investing in the market is to spread the money in as many sectors as possible. The thinking is that by doing so, you minimize or even eliminate all risks of losing your investment capital." William Harnisch calls that way of thinking "Balderdash!" He says, "You could as easily lose all or most of your money by covering or investing in 100 stocks in every industry. The idea should be to pick the best stock -- no matter where or which industry it belongs."