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

by Kenneth L. Fisher

Legendary money manager Ken Fisher outlines the most common—and costly—mistakes investors make. Small cap stocks are best for all time. Bunk! A trade deficit is bad for markets. Bunk! Stocks can't rise on high unemployment. Bunk!

Many investors think they are safest following widely accepted Wall Street wisdom—but much of Wall Street wisdom isn't so wise. In fact, it can be costly bunk.

In Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit From It—Seeing Through Wall Street's Money-Killing Myths, Ken Fisher—named one of the 30 most influential individuals of the last three decades by Investment Advisor magazine—details why so many investors fail to get the long-term results they desire. The short answer is many investors fail to question if what they believe is true—and are therefore blinded by tradition, biases, ideology, or any number of cognitive errors.

Your goal as an investor shouldn't be to be error-free—that's impossible. Rather, to be more successful, you should aim to lower your error rate. Debunkery gets you started by debunking 50 common myths—but that's just the beginning. It also gives you the tools you need to continue to do your own debunkery for the rest of your investing career.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Business, Audiobook, Money

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 2010

Reviews

[John Roskelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rather surprised by the low rating on this book by the other reviewer. Ken Fisher is one of the most successful and well regarded investment managers in the world. He is constantly on the prowl of proof of trends that matter, combinations of indicators that mean something, at least for a relatively short period of time. His description of 50 widely accepted Wall Street "truths" and his factual support for their fallability is excellent, even if the theme is repeated so often. Perhaps the other reader wanted to learn what does work in selecting investments. Clearly this was not the book written for that purpose. Anyone who has read Fisher's 2006 book "The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't" would realize that he is critical of any one factor or trend having predictive value in terms of stock market direction.

[Robert Sutherland · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried this book based on a recommendation of a recent YouTube finance video. This decade and a half old book has not aged well. Some things were correctly debunked in 2011 but the debunking is debunked now because the world has changed. Written in the world of near zero interest rates and under a very different tax scheme, you can believe some of the text. Just some...but which parts? That is the problem. Unless you already know, you could easily follow the bunk instead of the debunk. And this review may even be debunked as additional changes occur. Avoid.

[Brad Garton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been investing off and on for most of my life as a private investor. I have been successful using blind luck, and horribly unsuccessful when I let fear get to me. I have read many investing books over time, and have come to believe most of them are bunk. Some work for a short time, others not at all. What I find that I like about Ken Fisher's books, are that it does a much better job of explaining the why behind successful investors in a believable, and verifiable way. It's a fundamental truth that what most of us "know" is either wrong or priced in to the market. already and hence not an edge. It's very difficult to know something others don't in regards to investing. Being able to find technologies that you can test and verify, while still getting broad coverage in the market is a powerful concept that get's easily lost in the "get rich quick" investing books. I highly recommend this book. even if you don't plan to do the investing yourself, it pays to be armed with facts when talking to your investment adviser so you know if nothing else, when to walk away.

[Jack Mansfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very solid look at some of the great myths around investing, and presented in an accessible way for someone who still doesn’t greatly understand the market despite working in the industry nearly five years. I did enjoy reading the “bunk” about pandemics having no effect on the stock market, in a book written long before the COVID-19 pandemic!

[Eugene Kernes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overview:
Investing is difficult, otherwise many would be investing and earning a lot. Even long time profession investors and advisors, make a lot of mistakes. Financial markets are really complicated, making investing based on probabilities rather than on certainty. Although the book’s focus is on debunking myths, which claim to be more certain than reality shows. The book’s lesson, is error reduction. By not following myths, the error rate can be reduced. Not completely, but less errors means more successes. The way the myths are debunked is by challenging the myths, by checking the history and data of the myths. Questioning the myths, then testing and verifying claims made. For the myths presented, and many myths not in the book, the reader and investors are asked to challenge them. To challenge not only the myths, but also the author’s own claims.

Caveats?
Although the arguments express complexity of the ideas, the claims from the myths are sometimes dismissed too eagerly. Dismissing potentially valuable lessons. Reducing the errors of the myths, can turn them into a better source of information.

This is not an introductory book. To get a lot of value out of reading the book, the reader needs to know a lot of the language, the jargon of finance and investing. As the book tries to be a guide on what to avoid in investing, the idea is to consider how the debunked myths influence the reader’s participation in financial markets.

[Man Ha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to Ken Fisher's interview podcast on Master In Business podcast of Barry Ritzholt while taking an MBA online program. I admired his knowledge and his point of view on banking investment and capital investment. Even though I wrote down the book's name, I did not have a chance to listen to the entire audiobook.

This book describes every single angle of information talking about the stock market. We heard from multiple news, such as SAR-COV-1, terrorism, 1987 events, 2003 events, IRA, political scandals, and healthcare innovation (new drugs and new vaccines). We heard abundant of information and public business meeting from the CEOs about their companies. However, we never question how the information or news impacts our portfolio, how relevant the news is to the stock market, and how fast the information gets impacted. There are numbers and charts represented in your daily view, and we wonder if we know how to utilize the charts or data to diversify our portfolio.

In addition, we know the US economy has debt and the world's financial capital, and money flows in and out of the US market. We are all consumers or investors in the US economy. If the funds flow around, the stock market can go up and down depending on the volatility rate. Ken did emphasize how we understood all the principles and factors of the financial world or investment based on the variety of information. He split up into 50 bunks to make a clear point about all the information the investors commonly hear, see, read, and analyze for the portfolio.

It's very informative and great discussion to analyze and understand the investment world.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was sent a free copy of Mr Fisher's book by his eponymous investment firm seeking my business. It isn't a book I'd have otherwise sought out; rather it is Bevelin's book on my wish list. But, here I am, a free book in my hands, but still not all that excited about it. Then at a July 4th party a friend told me he has been an enthused client of Fisher Investments for years. That energy overcame my inertia so I read the book.

Bottom line: not bad. Mr Fisher takes 50 "money killing myths" of investing and debunks them. Most are common sense obvious or reasonable, some are filled with the optimism of capitalism (Mr Fisher is, after all, a billionaire), and his comments (negative) on annuities no doubt annoy many life insurance sales people.

Oh, by the way, I mentioned the firm is seeking my business. Not going to happen. No offense to anyone there, it is just that an investment advisory firm that spends such a huge amount on marketing immediately turns me off. I confess it as an emotional reaction, but I figure the energy put into marketing and hype is as likely a cover for a mediocre model as it is a fair and appropriate means to grow the business. So color me cynical. I did appreciate the free book though.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

If one accepts Fisher's analyses in the many brief chapters of this book (and not everyone does -- see some of the one star and two star reviews), one is still left with the "do it" and "profit from it" parts of the book title. It was clear that many popular profit making schemes are based on myths, but is was not clear from me what alternatives one should follow, that is how to "profit from it". Ken's other books focus more on that, so perhaps this book was intended to drive the reader to purchase other books by Fisher?

[Yves Mancera · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is easy to read because each chapter or bunk is about 3~4 pages long, but most chapters felt like fillers and some statistics seemed cherry-picked. The book's cover reads "Learn It, Do It, and Profit from It" but do what exactly? The book only tells what one shouldn't do. I did appreciate a few of the chapter's insights, like Bunk 14 and Dollar Cost Averaging and it was really interesting to learn how the Dow can be misleading compared to other indexes. Overall I enjoyed reading the book but it honestly didn't make me change any of my investing habits.

[Joseph Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

honestly, I cannot believe how low this book is rated. it is a well above average investing book, written by a well above average investor. it gives really insightful myths about the market, and I learned some new things. five stars for me means I will definitely read this book again, and that’s something I rarely say.

[Jonny Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to stock investing, although at times a bit too esoteric a subject for my current knowledge. Nonetheless, there was lots of good information that helped me frame a solid mind around how investments work.

[Dmitri Pavlov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me some interesting perspecives that I did know before.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful read as I attempt to add a zero or three to the bottom line.

[Roland Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read and a fresh take on markets and investing.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, quick, stands the test of time.

[taninounet · Rating 4 out of 5]

What to make of a book with a typo on the very first page ? Nothing is reliable.

[Paul Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I knew a lot about investing, but I learned a lot from this book.

[Silvia Sihotang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short review of your mistake. Cool

[David Stansel]

I am grateful I did not learn too much from this book. So many silly ideas out there about investing that he appropriately debunks.

[Zamfir McGillicutty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened again - 11/1/23 - 11/4/23

[Daan van Winkoop · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: long stocks

[thewestchestarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The everything-you-know-is-wrong book of investing. Kenneth Fisher, veteran of countless investing books and Forbes magazine columns, presents the counter-intuitive world of investing as he sees it. He takes on nonsensical beliefs such as the year’s performance is determinable from January’s performance, that political outcomes or the Superbowl foretell stock market futures or selling in May is a good idea. Fisher easily dismisses these beliefs with statistics not that it takes much to overturn them. He also present research examining more substantial beliefs such as the negative effects of public debt, trade deficits, inflation and other commonly held enemies of stock growth. His arguments here are persuasive although he limits himself to just the effects of the stock market rather than society or the economy as a whole. Fisher’s smartly references his academic bona fides repeatedly for those not fully impressed by the billions in other people’s money his firm runs.

Fisher aims the book squarely at the serious, knowledgeable investor. Readers unacquainted with concepts such as naked putts (it’s not what you think), covered calls and the yield curve are advised to look elsewhere for investing literature. However, this sophistication will be seen as a positive from the reader full versed in investing terminology looking for an advanced discussion.

Fisher rejects what he says are his critic’s view of him as a ”perma-bull” yet the book evidences little but a fundamentalist view of the power of capitalism to solve all the world’s ills and his unalloyed belief in the future of stocks. He adores capitalism and, maybe therefore, abhors regulation pronouncing all politicians to be no better than blood-sucking ticks. His views here read as stereotypical and to some degree downright disrespectful. You may disagree with this view but you would have to admit it is at least somewhat off-topic.

In short, likely an important read for wealthy, well-educated investors but probably overkill for the average guy with a discount online trading account.

[Geoff Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of arguments against conventional stock market sayings, like sell in may, so goes January, Beta equals risk, P/E tells if a stock is cheap. Biggest takeaway is that stocks AVERAGE over time 10%. Volatility is to be expected, and volatility is both ways, (up and down). Additionally, behavioral finance theory states the losses hurt much more than gains for most investors called ‘Myopic loss aversion’. I tend to think the other way, lost profits hurt more than losing positions. Or at least that what sticks out in my mind more, for example, selling apple at $200 when bought at $120 and selling LLY, not buying F, VLO, etc. My tremendous losses like Nokia, Jaguar, Acme Packet, GOL, XRX really don’t bother me that much. I need to further study on how to invest to take advantage of this temperament. I believe selling PUT options may be a good strategy (as describe in Forbes article). Anyway, also interesting is Ken Fisher believe that most of the press in bias toward bear outlooks. This seems to fit, b/c financial news is just that news, and human nature is to be interested in negative stories, e.g. crime, corruption, scandals all being heavily covered. Another point is the consequences of chasing hot stocks, which is something I must watch out for. (SBUX, THI being the latest examples). But anyway, this book re-affirms me believe in stocks being the best investment vehicle, which is ironic b/c that in itself is a confirmation bias that the author also describes as a major bunk. The confirmation bias is the selective memory of forgetting data that conflicts with your assertion and only focusing on data that re-affirms what you thought.

[Jay French · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book can be summarized, and in fact is summarized by the author midway through, with the thought that there is no one perfect measure or indicator -- if there was then everyone would use it to invest. The book consists of chapters of 50 common misconceptions about the stock market or economic statistics, things like better unemployment numbers yields better stock returns, or stock should be sold in May. Most of these are disproved by looking at historic data, at least disproving that the rules "always" work. The title seems off, as I didn't catch any way to profit from going against these old saws of investment, as in many cases they had expected results at least some of the time. So there's a lot of "what not to do", with little to no "what to do". Another nit with the audio version of the book is the inclusion of dozens of tables in a PDF, refered to throughout the narration. If I wanted to read tables, I would have bought the book. The tables weren't useful for common audiobook listeners -the drivers and those with closed eyes.

[Remo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Ken Fisher book. I thought it was a decent investment book. Premise is to debunk myths about investing. He is very gung ho on the stock market, and relies on straight forward analysis to make his point.

One of his points is to look at what makes up averages. One example is where he shows S&P 500 annual return ranges since 1926. Only 28.6% were there negative returns, 33.3% (28 occurrences) had average returns of 10-20%, and 38% of the time had returns greater than 20%. He also showed how the market did in each year of a presidency (since Coolidge).

Fisher is pretty impressed with himself and repeats himself a lot. But that's typical for this type of book.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

When stopped at the bank or on the streets by financial advisors/planners trying to promote insurance policies or funds, I enjoy asking and listening to their basis for recommending any funds. The usual suspects are:

- Bonds are safer.
- This fund has low volatility.
- The size of this fund is hUuuge!
- You need to rebalance your portfolio to hold more bonds as you get older.
- This fund/market is not doing well, it fell by x% over the last 1 year, best to avoid.
- This fund/market is doing great, it increase by 100% over the year, a good investment!

I wished they knew what they were talking. This is a pretty good book to recommend.

[Christopher Obert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Fisher has an excellent book here! I found the 50 “bunks” to be quite helpful. He makes you look at the stock market with new eyes not clouded by public opinion. The book is easy to follow and understand but I feel that it is not meant for a beginner. I think that it would be better if you knew a little something about investing in stocks and some basic facts about the economy before you read this book. However, I may be wrong. Maybe this is one of the first books that you should read so that you can start off on the right path while you enter the wonderful world of investing.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little advanced-beginner material on investing and the markets. Broken into 50 small chapters that shows why some common sentiment is either taken out of context or grossly misrepresented. I read it in its entirety and in order, but it certainly does not need to be done that way.

I really liked the idea of this book, and feel the author did a great job with presenting information. Definitely something that should be read by a headline newsreader or a CNBC viewer.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically cliff notes from his last book. I'm a fan but not of this book.

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. Easy to read in small pieces, but some great information, charts, etc. Couldn't find anything to dislike.