I have been contacting numerous people to let them know about my article reporting on The Silencing of Academic Researcher Wade Pfau by The Buy-and-Hold Mafia.
Yesterday’s blog entry reported on my correspondence with Robert Savickas, Associate Finance Professor at George Washington University Business School. Set forth below is the text of the response I sent to the e-mail by Robert described in the earlier blog entry:
Robert:
>
The Deleted plop contributor says
“It’s a mess!”
When I read your posts, that is what I think about what you wrote.
Also, take your reference to the alcoholic and change to you as a mentally ill person.
Rob says
Yeah, yeah.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
Why keep repeating the same stuff over and over again. Repeating things doesn’t make them true.
Rob says
The idea that repeating things doesn’t make them true cuts both ways, Pink. The Buy-and-Holders say over and over again that there is no absolute requirement to engage in long-term timing. That doesn’t take away the 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research showing that this is an absolute requirement.
We repeat realities in all sorts of fields. Don’t doctors continue to tell us not to smoke even though it has been said many times? Why shouldn’t they?
I suppose that, when there is not one smoker left, they will stop saying it. I would think it would work the same way in investing. When there is not one Buy-and-Holder left, there will no longer be a need for those of us who give honest advice to report on its dangers.
We ain’t there yet, my man.
We ain’t even close.
Perhaps you’ve noticed.
Rob, the Fellow Who Has Noted That There Are Still People Pushing Buy-and-Hold in 2013, 11 Years After Our Discovery of the Errors in the Old School Safe withdrawal Rate Studies
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
You have been already given enough data over time to know that many have well constructed portfolios that have performed very well over time despite your denials. At the same time, we see that market timing has not worked and the Professor at GW even demonstrated that fact.
No one is buying your snake oil.
Rob says
You’re wrong, Pink.
I’ve exchanged a dozen e-mails over the past three days with a woman who holds a Ph.D. in Biology. She’s smart as smart can be but never knew how investing works because the Wall Street Con Men have worked so hard to block honest posting. She is thrilled to finally have found someone who reports honestly on what the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research says on the subject.
This is not someone I contacted through my e-mail campaign, by the way. This is someone who contacted me after coming across some of my internet postings. There are of course millions of people like her who would be thrilled to learned what works in stock investing from someone who is both honest and informed.
After your prison sentence is announced, there will not be one site owner on the internet who will permit anyone who has ever posted in “defense” of Mel Linduaer or John Greaey to post at his or her site. I mean, come on.
What’s going to hold us back then?
Nothing.
We are the luckiest generation of investors ever to walk Planet Earth and we soon will all be enjoying the benefits with which we have been blessed.
I wish you all good things, both in your pre-prison days and in your prison days.
Rob, Who Will Continue to Care About His Goon Friends After They Are Sent to Prison
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
I can tell you that the moon is made from green cheese and can say that I spoke to someone that backs my opinion. It doesn’t matter who you spoke with. The numbers don’t lie. Yip already gave you a list of portfolios with returns that show you are wrong. The problem is that you just can’t back up your comments with actual facts, supported by 3rd party data sources.
Rob says
I will continue to post honestly on safe withdrawal rates and scores of other critically important investment-related topics, Pink.
I naturally wish you the best of luck with whatever investing strategies you elect to follow, my good friend.
Rob, the Stubbornly Honest Poster
The Pink Unicorn says
I will continue to post honestly with the ability to back up my comments with FACTS.
Try it sometime.
Rob says
If you believe in Buy-and-Hold, you are doing the right thing to advocate it, Pink. I applaud you for helping us all out in that regard.
I do not believe that Buy-and-Hold can ever work for a single long-term investor. So, for me, advocating Buy-and-Hold is an act of financial fraud.
That’s a felony.
That translates into a prison term somewhere down the line.
Not this boy.
I’d be grateful if you would make an effort to find someone else.
My warmest wishes to you and yours.
Rob, the Fellow Who Sees Little Appeal in the Idea of Committing a Felony
bannwd plop contributor says
Bennett still lied: “I do not believe that Buy-and-Hold can ever work for a single long-term investor. ”
Retired.
Millionaire.
Via buy-n-hold.
Right here.
In the flesh.
Your scheme, Rob?
Um, notsomuchactually.
Rob says
Okay, Banned.
Rob
Trebor Martin says
I imagine that email was enough to scare Mr. Savickas off. Is it safe to assume this email marks the end of your correspondence with him?
Rob says
No.
There are a few more. There was one point where there was a break in our correspondence. It might have been after this one, I don’t recall. You’ll be able to tell by the wording of his next response. After the break, he said something like “Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you in awhile.”
You are right that frank statements scare lots of people off.
That tells me that we all need to hear more of them.
I always remember one guy who told me in response to one of my blog comments that: “I’ve never heard Buy-and-Hold described as a Get Rich Quick scheme before.”
I thought: “That’s the problem!”
If you want people to believe something, a good first step is to say it.
So we all need to make an effort to say what we really believe, straight and with no chaser.
I do more and more of this all the time. It does scare people off. But the longer the Buy-and-Hold Crisis goes on, the fewer people there are who get scared off. And, when we find someone who is not scared off even by very clear and direct language, then we’ve really got something.
So I try not to let the reality that people are scared off by direct language hold me back too much.
I believe in being kind. That hasn’t changed even a little bit. I believe that as much as ever, perhaps even more than before. But I also believe as much as ever that honesty in all things is very important too. The perfect combination is complete honesty combined with complete charity.
That’s my sincere take re these important matters, in any event.
Rob the Kind and Honest (or is it Rob the Honest and Kind?)
Rob says
The full truth here of course that it is the reality that is scary, not the fact that someone finally spoke out about the reality.
My words here are honest.
We all should be scared.
But not because I spoke honestly.
We should be scared because what I described is today’s reality and this reality is very much at odds at what we aim to be as a people.
Rob, the Fellow Who Loves Our Way of Life and Who Believes That Personal Integrity Has a Place Even in the Stock-Selling Industry