Debunkery

Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit From It—Seeing Through Wall Street’s Money-Killing Myths

By Ken Fisher

Investors often rely on intuition and conventional wisdom, but Ken Fisher explains that “markets are inherently counterintuitive” and things “everyone knows” are often unreliable.  Flawed assumptions lead to overconfidence or fear.

Debunkery is well-organized into 50 concise chapters, making it easier to absorb each discrete concept, and convenient to read during short intervals of free time. Many chapters include a chart or graph to substantiate the point with historical data.

To give an idea of the topics covered, here are some sample chapter titles:

• Bunk 1. Bonds are safer than stocks.
• Bunk 12. Stop-losses stop losses.
• Bunk 14. Dollar cost averaging—lower risk, better returns.
• Bunk 19. Beta measures risk.
• Bunk 21. When the VIX is high, it’s time to buy.
• Bunk 27. A strong dollar is super.
• Bunk 31. Baby boomers retire, world ends, etc.
• Bunk 34. High unemployment is a killer.
• Bunk 36. Stocks love lower taxes.
• Bunk 38. Swine flu, SARS… make markets sick.
• Bunk 39. Consumers are king.
• Bunk 45. Big debt is national death.
• Bunk 47. Indebted to China.
• Bunk 50. Terrorism terrorizes stocks.

Media hype is driven by fear and greed. The information in this book can help to put the headlines in context.  Additionally, while news organizations constantly report the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Fisher explains why you should ignore The Dow and any other price-weighted index, such as the Nikkei.

Fisher, Kenneth L., and Lara Hoffmans. Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit from It– Seeing through Wall Street’s Money-killing Myths. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Buy from Amazon.com