Cherry-picking
Also called: cherry picking, selective reporting
Choosing the data, dates or examples that support a claim while leaving out the ones that do not.
Cherry-picking is common in performance advertising: choosing a start date just after a crash, showing only winning trades, or quoting the best of several funds. Each number may be true while the overall impression is false.
Example
A fund that rose 60% from a crash low and was flat over the same period from before the crash can advertise "up 60% in a year".
Learn more in these lessons
- Misleading numbers and chartsHow can true numbers and charts still mislead?
- Fake testimonials, screenshots and misleading advertisementsCan you trust testimonials and profit screenshots in investment ads?
- Misleading backtests and cherry-picked resultsDoes a good backtest prove that a trading strategy works?
- False breakouts and misleading signalsWhy do so many chart signals fail, and how can you tell?
- Reading market and economic news criticallyHow do you read financial news without being misled by it?
Related terms
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