When it comes to investing, why would you question those things that "everyone knows" to be true, argue with "common sense" or good advice? Unless of course you think, like Ken Fisher, that much of it is wrong and investing success depends more on not doing the wrong thing than on doing the right thing.
Fisher thinks the investment world is littered with myths and poor advice and "two-thirds of investment success lies in not doing the wrong thing, only one-third in doing the right thing".
Points of view
If he’s right we need to put more effort in challenging the things "we all know" and asking if the reverse might not be true.
"Instead of just trying to be smart, it’s wise to think about not being stupid," says Ray Dalio. "People are so attached to being right, and yet could so easily find out how they’re wrong if they just said to themselves, ‘I’m not sure that I’m right, so let me go find people who have alternative point of views.’ Not to pay attention to their conclusions, but to the thought process.
"It creates a fabulous learning. It changes how you see things because it starts to make you think, ‘how do I know I’m not the wrong one?’ When you start to realise that people are actually seeing in those ways — and that it’s a valid way of seeing — it gives you the evidence base that it’s okay to be different.
The most important thing is to have humility, and to think about, ‘how do I get the best decision?’ To realise that it doesn’t have to come from you. After all, you just want it to be right, right? The greatest tragedy is people holding on to wrong opinions that could so easily be rectified and that are doing them harm because they’re making wrong decisions."
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