Debunkery Learn It, Do It, and Profit from It -- Seeing Through Wall Street's Money-Killing Myths

Want to become a better investor? Send your spouse on a shopping spree! It's no joke-this book shows you why.Far too many investors fail to get the results they want because they make some pretty common mistakes. The problem is, the errors don't seem like mistakes-they seem like smart, intuitive, and/or widely recognized investing "wisdom." But much of what's accepted as investing "wisdom" is, instead, bunk. How can investors tell bunk from reality?Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit From It-Seeing Through Wall Street's Money-Killing Myths from legendary money manager, longtime Forbes columnist, and best-selling author Ken Fisher shows you how to avoid the costly errors many investors make when they rely upon "common sense" thinking, intuition, gut instinct, or clich_s-by using debunkery! Debunkery isn't difficult-it just requires the willingness to flip common investing "wisdom" on its head. Once readers learn to do that, they can begin seeing the investing world more clearly and stop falling prey to costly bunk.Fisher demonstrates debunkery on 50 of Wall Street's widely accepted "truths," and details in an easily accessible (and always entertaining) way why: Stop-losses could be renamed stop-gains. High unemployment isn't bad for stocks. Massive trade deficits can be great for stocks. Stocks don't care if the US dollar is strong or weak. Most retirees have a long, long time to invest. You should never listen to your "gut" when it comes to investing. You are almost certainly too terrified of government debt. Consumer confidence doesn't matter. Sending your spouse on a shopping spree could get you better long-term investing results.In investing, there are no simple rules that say, "always sell on this one condition, and buy on that one," that work consistently and repeatedly. If only investing were that easy!Debunkery shows you why many Wall Street "truths" are, in reality, money-killing myths and walks you through ways you can begin improving your error rate right away. Debunkery debunks 50 common myths, but also gives you the tools to continue engaging in debunkery for the rest of your investing career.

KEN FISHER is best known for his prestigious "Portfolio Strategy" column in Forbes magazine, where his over 25-year tenure of high-profile calls makes him the fourth longest-running columnist in Forbes's 90-plus year history. He is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Fisher Investments, an independent global money management firm with over $32 billion under management (as of 6/30/10). Fisher is ranked #289 on the 2009 Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, and #721 on the 2010 Forbes Global Billionaire list. In 2010, Investment Advisor magazine named him as one of the 30 most influential individuals of the last three decades. Fisher has authored numerous professional and scholarly articles, including the award-winning article, "Cognitive Biases in Market Forecasting," and has published six previous books, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal bestsellers, The Only Three Questions That Count, The Ten Roads to Riches, and How to Smell a Rat, all of which are published by Wiley. Fisher has been published, interviewed, and/or written about in many major American, British, and German finance or business periodicals. He has a weekly column in Focus Money, Germany's leading weekly finance and business magazine.

LARA HOFFMANS is a content manager at Fisher Investments, a contributing editor of MarketMinder.com, and coauthor of the bestsellers, The Only Three Questions That Count, The Ten Roads to Riches, and How to Smell a Rat.