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True confession: I didn’t want to write a preface for this book. It’s too darned long already, and I wanted to spare you having to flip one more page. But alas, the powers that be require one – who knew!

Maybe that’s fitting, because this is a book I didn’t think I’d write. I was happy with 10 books. Ten is a round number, and plenty. I didn’t think the world needed another Ken Fisher book. But ideas happen! An idea struck during a conversation with my former Wiley editor, Laura Gachko (still with Wiley, no longer saddled with my silly nonsense) and my co-author, Elisabeth Dellinger – one thing led to another, and next I knew, I was at it again. Eleven is a fun number, too.

The concept of contrarianism has run through my books since Super Stocks, way back in 1984, but I’ve never overtly addressed it. To me, contrarianism has always been about independent thinking, and my books have always demonstrated this (at least, I like to think so). But that fateful December day in 2013, it occurred to us that I’d never come out and explained just what the heck contrarianism is, isn’t and how to practice it. I realized it was time, since contrarianism is misunderstood and misapplied by many – and unknowingly practiced by some, who might like to know it.

Most assume being contrarian means doing the opposite of what “everyone” does – if “everyone” is mostly wrong most of the time, betting the opposite must bring success! Sometimes, that’s true. But often not. Opposite-doers have a herd-like mentality, too, and the market loves fooling them as much as it loves fooling the crowd they’re trying to game. Real life isn’t “herd versus contrarians.” It’s the mainstream herd, the opposite-doing herd, and the independent thinkers – real contrarians. They see what both herds think, then weigh all extant factors – pluses and minuses – and reach their own conclusions.

This book is a how-to guide for anyone tired of rules of thumb, media hype and industry mythology and wants to think independently. It’s a brain-training guide. Not foolproof! But foolproof doesn’t exist. This book simply teaches the thought process that helped me be right more often than wrong for over four decades of money management. You can be right more often than wrong, too!

This book was a team effort. As said above, Laura helped generate the idea and provided early edits before passing the reins to Tula Batanchiev, who edited the lion’s share along with Judy Howarth and the rest of their team at John Wiley & Sons. Vincent Nordhaus led production at Wiley. Wiley’s team was diligent and patient as always, and I remain grateful to my excellent agent, Jeff Herman, for leading me to them. Jarred Kriz, Michael Olsen, Lauren Schekman, Eric Harger and Nathaniel Beeman – who have worked with me for years – also provided ideas. Thomas Perez designed another cool cover, capturing our theme perfectly. Jessica Wolfe, Chanddeep Madaan, Sam Olson, Michael Leong, Tim Schluter, Brad Pyles and Talia Hosenpud helped with research, while Jarred, Todd Bliman, Jill Hitchcock, Justin Arbuckle and Molly Lienesch weighed in on early drafts and helped steer us toward a sane path. Todd pulled triple duty, editing the entire book for content and shouldering most of Elisabeth’s workload (and providing her unquantifiable moral support) while she shelved much of her day job of writing for my firm to devote her time to this project. Christopher Wong and Emily Dunbar – up-and-coming writers at my firm – helped with copy-edits. Last but not least, Fab Ornani, David Eckerly, Christopher Boaz and Theodore Gilliland led our PR and web marketing. To all of them and anyone I failed to mention here – and to my wife, Sherrilyn, and broad family – I give my deepest thanks.

And thanks to you, for reading! May you enjoy this as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Ken Fisher

Camas, WA