Broad sideswipes and condescending dismissals, along with the closing "zinger" intended as a smarmy attempt to discredit me? I expected more from someone of your obvious intellect.
It wasn't a "zinger". It was a question, that's all. I don't need to try and discredit you, nor do I have any desire to do so. You'll succeed or fail based on the merits of your arguments. So far, your arguments, as far as I can gather, boil down to "Stay out of the markets cause they are rigged against the little guy". If you are able to put forward cogent, rational arguments to back up that claim, I am more than willing to listen. So far however, you have yet to impress me. You already have followers I am sure, but no one that is truly rational, thinks logically and has even a modicum of understanding how the securities markets operate is going to take your suggestion to "Stay out of the markets" seriously.
I actually was interested in seeing if you would be interested in reading the initial draft of the book and offering an informed critique.
Sure, I'd be interested in reading it but I don't know how "informed" my critique might be. I have said many times that I am by no means an Economist, nor am I an analyst. There are plenty of DU'rs that have financial and economic credentials that make my paltry knowledge look worse than elementary by comparison. ProfessorGAC is a perfect example. He is a bona fide Economics Professor. Perhaps he would be interested in commenting on your draft. From reading his posts over the years, I can assure you, he knows what the hell he is talking about. Lucky Luciano is another. Lucky has stated several times in posts that he works on the Options Trading desk in a major bank in New York City. Lucky knows more about Equities and Options trading than I could hope to know over my lifetime. Seek him out if you REALLY want an informed critique. Or Common Sense Party. He has stated publicly that he works as a consultant on several large 401(K) plans. He has substantial financial credentials that range from an intimate knowledge of Mutual Funds to managing multi million dollar corporate retirement plans. But don't be surprised if either or all of those gentlemen shoot you down like an F16 against a Zero.
You seem to have quite a bit of insight. You're not going to like it, because it would affect your livelihood if people understood the true nature of the markets. But at least we could have additional feedback.
1st, thanks for the compliment. I merely read a lot. 2nd, Why would I not like it? You think that something you write might affect my livelihood? Pardon me but please, get over yourself. You have absolutely no idea what I do for a living. None. I have never publicly stated exactly what it is I do so your insinuation that what you might write may have some deleterious effect on my salary is absurd. There are hundreds and hundreds of authors over the years who have written economics and stock market related screeds. Thousands, even. Guess what? The money keeps flowing into the markets. Oh well, huh? You are not going to stem that tide one iota. Even if you were able to, it won't have any effect on me.
But, you're no different than anyone else who can't argue the facts. You make snide remarks and passive dismissals to sidestep the arguments. It's not in your best interest for the book to be successful.
Kindly present some fact that you think I might disagree with that is logical and actually
factual and we'll see. But I am no longer going to respond to your posts that suggest people get out of the market. Primarily because such suggestions are not worth responding to. But quite the contrary on the success of your book. I sincerely hope it sells ten million copies! Truly. I hope for success for everyone, including you. It is my sincere hope that your book is so successful that you'll make so much money from it, you will seek out professional help in managing it. In fact, I'm willing to wager that the first year you have to file a 1040 that has 6 zeros on the AGI line, you'll be at a Certified Financial Planner's door so fast you will leave skid marks.
The book will either make guys like you squirm, or will pass in the night, and people like you can continue removing money from the "stupid" as you claim. Either way, I'll sleep soundly at night for exposing you. And you? Blaine Lourd claims most high-level money managers are alcoholics/drug addicts because they can't live with what they do.
"Guys like you"? Again, what exactly do you think I do? You think I am a "High Level Money Manager"? Pardon me while I :spray: One thing is for certain; I do NOT remove money from the stupid. The stupid are quite capable of doing that without my help. And you will sleep soundly for exposing me? Exposing me as what? Someone who strives to inject thorough, honest, researched, objective information on an economics forum? Show me one post - ONE SINGLE POST I have made that directly recommends a specific investment to another DU'r, suggests a specific asset allocation strategy or promotes a particular asset class over another. Go ahead, try out the "Search" feature. You will not find such a post, so go ahead and expose away. There are PLENTY of others that DO make such recommendations though, INCLUDING
YOU. What gets me is people like you and others who feel they have some unique investing insight because they just so happened to buy a Vanguard fund at the the right time or sold Microsoft at $60 and bought it back at $22 and because they had that extraordinary luck, they feel compelled to impart their knowledge to others. A thorough reading of their posts will reveal that they more often than not have no clue what they are talking about. But put forward the concept of a cyclical sector weighting or asset allocation strategy combined with strategic and tactical investing and it is completely beyond them. Or that diversification and time IN the market is MORE IMPORTANT (and historically more profitable) than timING the market. It does not affect me personally if you and the others give direct and specific investing advice. But I am going to continue to warn readers of this forum and elsewhere that taking such advice on a message board IS A BAD IDEA and I am going to continue to point out inaccuracies, falsehoods and misinformation when I see it. It doesn't take a market genius to make 5% using CD's. A person is not a font of irreproachable financial knowledge merely because they bought a 7% coupon, 30 year corporate bond below par. Fine, I get the point that you feel people in the Investment and Brokerage business are bad people or somehow out to screw their clients. Yes. Of course. That explains why thousands and thousands of new investment accounts are opened every single day and many tens of millions of Americans continue to trust the major brokerages to manage their investments.
And rest assured, I'm not interested in advising people where to put their money, just the dangers of trusting people like you with their retirement. And I may be Crazy, but I'm not stupid.
Good. I'm glad to hear you aren't interested in advising people and I am glad you aren't stupid. But there you go again, assuming you know how I make my living and that people trust me with their retirement. I have a very specific, rational, logical, well thought out and, I should add, REGULATORY reason for being intentionally vague about my current occupation on a public message board. You can surmise all you want as to what precisely it is I do every day, and I might allude to it, but I will not state specifically. There are several people who might read this that know exactly what I do because I have communicated directly with them. As far as the rest of the readers of this, they, like you, can feel free to guess.
You want to know some of my history?
Here 20 years driving over-the-road, most of it driving trucks like the one pictured, with well over 1.5 million accident free miles in all of the lower 48 states and 3 Canadian Provinces, coast to coast and top to bottom more times than I can count. I have slept in ice cold, rattle trap trucks with no heaters in shit-stained, urine soaked truck stops in West Bumfuck New Jersey and I have stayed in nice hotels on the company account. I proudly wear a 1994 Indianapolis 500 winning team ring on my right hand and have operated promotional displays at almost every single major (And dozens of minor) racing facilities in the US and Canada including 6 consecutive years at the Speedway. I have huffed boxes out of the back of a 53' dry van trailer that was 130 degrees inside in Brownsville Texas and I have loaded cars on a ten car stinger transporter during a blizzard in Detroit. I have fucking worked for a living and I have an intimate understanding of how difficult it is for many of my fellow Americans to scrape together a few extra bucks to put away for their future.
One reason I am intently interested in the subject of investing and the markets is because ineptness in investing has touched me PERSONALLY. I have watched for decades someone close to me throw good money after bad and squander what would have been close to a 3 million dollar fortune because of his own arrogance and stupidity. Constantly refusing to seek professional guidance and when it was sought, it was ignored, all of this to the ultimate detriment of someone else very close to me. The idea that the average person can beat a professional money manager on total return
over time has been repeatedly demonstrated to be wrong.
Do what you think you must, there Crazyman. Have at it. But when you make wild claims or absurd statements, don't think you deserve a pass, merely because you have plans to release a book.
And no, you didn't touch a nerve. I always get wordy when I am drinking heavily and doing drugs before bed.