Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit From It-Seeing Through Wall Street's Money-Killing Myths -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION: DEBUNKERY MADE EASY -- Reduce Your Error Rate...If You Can -- Debunkery 101 -- Standing Convention on Its Head -- Misperceptions on Parade -- PART 1: BASIC BUNK TO MAKE YOU BROKE -- BUNK 1: BONDS ARE SAFER THAN STOCKS -- Given Just a Bit of Time -- Inflation's Bite -- BUNK 2: WELL-RESTED INVESTORS ARE BETTER INVESTORS -- Are You So Sure Stocks Are the Problem? -- Investing Is a Probabilities Game -- BUNK 3: RETIREES MUST BE CONSERVATIVE -- Longer Lives, Longer Time Horizons -- Aged Poverty Is Cruel! -- BUNK 4: AGE EQUALS ASSET ALLOCATION -- Is Age All That Matters? -- Determining Your Benchmark-Three Things -- BUNK 5: YOU SHOULD EXPECT AVERAGE RETURNS -- Normal Returns Are Extreme -- BUNK 6: "CAPITAL PRESERVATION AND GROWTH" IS POSSIBLE! -- True Capital Preservation as a Goal Is Very Rare -- BUNK 7: TRUST YOUR GUT -- Selective Memory and Other Messy Biases -- Losses Feel Worse Than Gains Feel Good -- BUNK 8: ONE BIG BEAR AND YOU'RE DONE -- Big Bear Markets Mean a Big Bull Bounce -- Fooled by Averages -- BUNK 9: MAKE SURE IT'S A BULL BEFORE DIVING IN -- A Classic V -- BUNK 10: GROWTH IS BEST FOR ALL TIME. NO, VALUE. NO, SMALL CAPS -- Chasing Heat -- Supply and Demand (and Investment Bankers) -- BUNK 11: A GOOD CON ARTIST IS HARD TO SPOT -- Heed These Five Signs -- Custody Is the Number One Sign -- PART 2: WALL STREET "WISDOM" -- BUNK 12: STOP-LOSSES STOP LOSSES! -- How Do They "Work" ? -- Pick a Level, Any Level -- BUNK 13: COVERED CALLS...GOTCHA COVERED -- Covered Calls Are Just Like Naked Puts? -- BUNK 14: DOLLAR COST AVERAGING-LOWER RISK, BETTER RETURNS -- DCA-A Fee Bonanza -- BUNK 15: VARIABLE ANNUITIES ARE ALL UPSIDE, NO DOWNSIDE -- Two Basic Types -- Big Fees and Tax Trauma.

BUNK 16: EQUITY-INDEXED ANNUITIES-BETTER THAN NORMAL ANNUITIES -- The First Pitch -- The Second Pitch -- BUNK 17: PASSIVE INVESTING IS EASY -- Passive Is (NOT) Easy -- If Passive Were Easy, People Would Do It -- Other People Are Like That! Not Me... -- BUNK 18: DO BETTER WITH MUTUAL FUNDS BY SENDING YOUR SPOUSE ON A SHOPPING SPREE -- "Cheap" Can Be Relative -- BUNK 19: BETA MEASURES RISK -- Past Performance Is Never Indicative of Future Results -- Categories That Fall Most Bounce Most -- BUNK 20: EQUITY RISK PREMIUMS-FORECASTING FUTURE RETURNS WITH EASE -- Long-Distant Future Supply -- Meager Assumptions -- BUNK 21: WHEN THE VIX IS HIGH, IT 'S TIME TO BUY -- Coincident Plus Relative Equal Useless -- Useless...But Also Inconsistent! -- BUNK 22: BE CONFIDENT ON CONSUMER CONFIDENCE -- Confidence Is Coincident -- Not Contrarian Either. Just Useless. -- BUNK 23: ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY DOW! -- What's So Wrong With the Dow? -- Price-Weighted Insanity -- Stock Splits and Splitting Headaches -- PART 3: "EVERYONE KNOWS" -- BUNK 24: SO GOES JANUARY -- Cognitive Errors Galore -- Check the Box -- BUNK 25: SELL IN MAY -- Sell in May...When? And Then What? -- BUNK 26: LOW P/ES MEAN LOW RISK -- Fear of Heights -- Two Moving Parts to a P/E -- BUNK 27: A STRONG DOLLAR IS SUPER -- Dollar Dilemma -- Put the Dollar in a Box -- Where's the Zigzag? -- BUNK 28: DON'T FIGHT THE FED -- A Monetary Phenomenon -- Exit Jitters -- BUNK 29: INTEREST PAYS DIVIDENDS -- Homegrown Dividends -- BUNK 30: BUY A 5% CD FOR 5% CASH FLOW-EASY! -- The Silent Killer -- BUNK 31: BABY BOOMERS RETIRE, WORLD ENDS, ETC. -- Boomers Have a Long Time Horizon -- Bankrupting Social Security -- Can't Stop Capital Markets -- BUNK 32: CONCENTRATE TO BUILD WEALTH -- Taking Stock in Your Employer -- The Road More Traveled -- Nuts and Bolts and Insider Trading -- Not Gone, Just Down Big -- PART 4: HISTORY LESSONS.

BUNK 33: PRAY FOR BUDGET SURPLUSES -- If Everyone Believes It, Ask If It's True -- Stupid Government Debt and Velocity -- BUNK 34: HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT IS A KILLER -- Unemployment Up, Stocks Up Too? -- Dropping Unemployment Lags the Economy -- BUNK 35: WITH GOLD, YOU'RE GOLDEN -- Booms and Busts-But Mostly Busts -- Timing Pros Only, Please -- BUNK 36: STOCKS LOVE LOWER TAXES -- Cap Gains-A Tax on Selling? -- Cap Gains Changes and Impacts -- It's Only Half the Issue -- BUNK 37: OIL AND STOCKS SEESAW -- A Dollar Spent Is a Dollar Spent -- Long Term-No Correlation -- Short-Lived Correlation -- Supply and Demand -- BUNK 38: SWINE FLU, SARS, EBOLA, AND OTHER VIRAL DISASTERS MAKE MARKETS SICK -- No Fear of Swine (or Any Other) Flu -- BUNK 39: CONSUMERS ARE KING -- The Big Decline Wasn't Consumers -- Consumer Spending Is Stable -- BUNK 40: PRESIDENTIAL TERM CYCLES ARE STOCK MARKET VOODOO -- Predictable Patterns and Fundamental Drivers -- Lazy Legislators Mean Happy Markets -- BUNK 41: MY POLITICAL PARTY IS BEST FOR STOCKS -- Party Can Matter-At Certain Times -- A Perverse Inverse -- BUNK 42: STOCK RETURNS ARE TOO HIGH AND MUST FALL -- Scary Scaling -- PART 5: IT'S A GREAT BIG WORLD! -- BUNK 43: FOREIGN STOCKS JUST FEEL SO...FOREIGN -- US and Non-US Stocks-More Correlated Than You Think -- BUNK 44: WHO NEEDS FOREIGN? -- US and Non-US Trade Leadership-Irregularly -- Opportunities to Manage Risk -- BUNK 45: BIG DEBT IS NATIONAL DEATH -- A Long History of Big Debt -- Bigger Debt Abroad! -- BUNK 46: AMERICA CAN'T HANDLE ITS DEBT -- Low Interest Rates Lower Costs -- BUNK 47: INDEBTED TO CHINA -- Investors Don't Invest Out of Charity -- BUNK 48: TRADE DEFICITS MAKE DEFICIENT MARKETS -- You Are Your Own Trade Deficit -- Scale It to See It -- Which Country Would You Rather Be? -- BUNK 49: GDP MAKES STOCKS GROW -- Stocks Move First-Up or Down.

Huge Growth-Wildly Variable Returns -- BUNK 50: TERRORISM TERRORIZES STOCKS -- Markets Globally Are Resilient -- History Shows Stocks Don't Scare -- NOTES -- ABOUT THE AUTHORS -- INDEX.