Investment Theories as Science – and Baloney

Investors who have been at it for more than a few years realize that separating the wheat from the chaff in investment thinking isn’t easy. A lot of what passes as investment sense is often nonsense.

There is investment wisdom, of course, and you can find a compendium of it in these 41 inspiring and intelligent investing quotes. But to help determine whether much of what passes today for investment wisdom is based on science or baloney, consider the recent paper with that title by noted financial researcher, Laurence B. Siegel, who heads research at the CFA Institute Research Foundation.

Siegel starts by asking which currently popular investment fads are flashes in the pan, which are actually worthy innovations and which are somewhere in between.