20/20 Money: See the Markets Clearly and Invest Better Than the Pros

Introduction

We need a new investing lens. Most investor mistakes come from blindness about the basic ways markets work and the best strategies to invest. This book is designed to be a set of glasses to help you see the markets more clearly. Having 20/20 investing vision means making more money, and that's my ultimate goal for you.

Sight is by far the most important human sense—life as we know it is more or less impossible without it. But the notion of sight is also one of life's most important metaphors. We often talk about sight when we really mean understanding. We have "visions" about the future, we "see things clearly," we have "points of view," and so on. To see, in other words, is to understand.

Too many investors are blinded by conventional investing ideas that don't work. This book is about seeing the stock investing landscape clearly—investigating new ideas and challenging widely held conventions. I wrote this book to tell investors the things I wish they knew about investing, to give them a clearer view and thus make better decisions.

I'm no investing guru, but I work for one. For years, I've been an analyst working under Ken Fisher. In that time, I've learned his methods and have also studied the methods of many others. One day, just a few weeks into my career at Fisher Investments, Ken addressed a group of employees. He said, "If you want to be any good at investing, you have to go out and learn about the whole world and how it works." That will stick with me forever. ...