What exactly is debunkery?

de•bun•ker•y
[dih-buhngk-ker-ee]
–noun
1. "Debunkery means unearthing truths, or at the very least, overturning common but widespread and frequently harmful market untruths, myths, and misperceptions most investors fall prey to."

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

In Ken Fisher’s latest New York Times bestselling book, Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit From It–Seeing Through Wall Street’s Money-Killing Myths, Ken Fisher demonstrates debunkery on 50 of Wall Street’s widely accepted "truths," and details in an easily accessible (and 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.

These are just a few debunkeries Ken Fisher shares in the book to help readers reduce their error rates when it comes to investing.

Additionally, Ken Fisher’s advice will provide you debunkery tactics to help you engage in your own debunkery in your investing career. Some examples:

  • Think globally. It’s amazing how perverted investors' worldview can be, simply because they don’t think outside their home borders. If you think globally, a lot of misconceptions melt away. Substitute thinking "outside the box" with outside your country.
  • Scale. Big numbers are always scary! That’s the stone age part of our still evolving brains. But if you consider big numbers in proper context, they often not only seem not-so-scary, but become downright cuddly.
  • Ignore common sense as a guidepost and instead think counter-intuitively.
  • Check history. Endlessly, you hear in the media, "XYZ happened, and that’s bad." Or, "ABC would be good!" But, is there any evidence that XYZ historically led to bad or ABC to good? It’s usually easy to check yet few think to. If something hasn’t reliably led to the expected outcome in the past, then folks need to explain why this time will be extraordinarily different. They usually can’t.