I’ve posted Entry #185 to my weekly Valuation-Informed Indexing column at the Value Walk site. It’s called There’s a Lot of Money to Be Made Promoting the Valuation-Informed Indexing Concept.
Juicy Excerpt: Once the dam breaks, people will see opportunities everywhere to do good while also doing well. Valuation-Informed Indexing totally rewrites the rulebook. We are going to need thousands of new books. We are going to need hundreds of new calculators. We are going to see new thought leaders replace old thought leaders, new web sites replace old web sites. Until now, the feeling has been that it is safer to align oneself with the conventional thinking. But there will be no saving the conventional thinking following another price crash. At that point, all those who have been holding back from sharing their insights will be scrambling for position in the new order and even those who have advocated for Buy-and-Hold strategies in earlier days will be aiming to reposition themselves and thereby to remain relevant in a world in which everyone has become aware of the long unmentionable dangers of Buy-and-Hold strategies.
Anonymous says
Yes there is usually money to be made promoting silly get rich quick schemes by taking money from suckers. You would need to pay a big fee to someone to properly implement the strategy for you. Rob, you can’t even seem to figure out how to actually implement this VII. Any idea who we can throw our money at to get in on this fast train known as VII guaranteed to work 10 years faster than Buy and Hold.
Rob says
Who do you pay a fee to to figure out how to buy bananas, Anonymous?
Who do you pay a fee to to figure out how to buy sweaters?
Who do you pay a fee to to figure out how to buy cars?
People don’t need any “experts” telling them how to invest in stocks once we permit honest posting on the last 33 years of peer-reviewed research in this field. All of the drama comes from the fact that most of the “experts” push the smelly Buy-and-Hold garbage and no one knows when the next crash is going to come.
With Valuation-Informed Indexing, there are no crashes. Which is another way of saying that there is virtually no risk. You invest to finance your retirement. Period. You earn 6.5 percent real each year because that’s what your money is worth when put to use in the U.S. economy.
It’s simple. It’s smart. It’s safe.
It’s the opposite of the smelly Buy-and-Hold garbage in every possible way.
I wonder why it is only Buy-and-Holders who feel a need to advance death threats and demands for unjustified board bannings and tens of thousands of acts of defamation and threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs. Some of this stuff is so darn hard to understand!
Rob
A says
F. Least entertaining posting for a long time.
Rob says
I bet.
My best wishes, A.
Rob
Anonymous says
“lots of money to be made”
Words of a con man.
Rob says
How so?
I expect to make millions telling investors the truth about what the last 33 years of peer-reviewed research says.
Have I not more than earned any amount I bring in, Anonymous?
It’s the guys who are saying that there is no need to lower your stock allocation when prices rise to dangerous levels who are the con men. I have stood up to those people. I should be rewarded handsomely for doing that. That’s how our system works.
One of the good things about you Goons going to prison is that it sends a message that there are consequences that must be paid for destroying millions of middle-class lives. When honest people stand up to the Buy-and-Holders, we all win. Why shouldn’t the heroes of this little saga be compensated for helping us all out?
When I get my $500 million settlement check, I intend to spread the word far and wide. The more people who know about it, the better. I am 100 percent proud of the work I have done standing up to you Goons, Anonymous. And I want to see lots of others standing up to you. So I want to see that there are lots of incentives, financial and otherwise, for doing so.
One of the many reasons why I have been so unwilling to post dishonestly re safe withdrawal rates for 12 years running now is that, once I do that I would feel dirty about any money that came to me as a result of my deceptions. I want to change things in this field so that people of integrity again feel comfortable seeking careers giving investing advice. I see that as a win/win/win/win/win.
We couldn’t possibly disagree more.
Rob
Anonymous says
Another day of surfing the web, Rob? There was a time when you took your “career” seriously, from the vanity book on down. You seem to have admitted defeat at this point.
Anonymous says
“Have I not more than earned any amount I bring in, Anonymous?”
No, I have not seen you earn a dime yet.
Rob says
There was a time when you took your “career” seriously, from the vanity book on down. You seem to have admitted defeat at this point.
I take the work I do very seriously and I have not admitted defeat, Anonymous.
I have come to realize that circumstances are not as I thought they were on the morning of May 13, 2002. That much would be fair to say.
I believe today that every person involved in this matter wants to come clean and move forward. Jack Bogle wants that. Wade Pfau wants that. Robert Shiller wants that. You know all the names. They all want that. You want that. Lindauer wants that. Greaney wants that.
There is no intellectual debate. There can be no debate when all the evidence is on one side and there is zero evidence on the other side.
What there is is a trap that we have as a society fallen into.
I believe that the Buy-and-Hold Pioneers had good intent. There are cynics who will say otherwise. I believe that the cynics are wrong. I believe that back in 1965 we didn’t know all there is to know about this subject and so some perfectly smart people made some perfectly understandable mistakes. In 1981 the research was published that identified the mistake and that permitted us to move on to something far better.
The trouble is that during those 16 years lots of people built careers based on Buy-and-Hold and so they were not too excited about the idea of acknowledging that that had gotten some things terribly wrong and would need to admit their mistake before they would be able to begin offering sound investing advice. Their pride was hurt. They were ashamed. They felt that people would think they were stupid to have made such a mistake (any people who thought that would have been wrong but I believe that the Buy-and-Holders felt this way all the same). They elected to cover up the mistake rather than acknowledge it. That put us on a bad track.
At the time the mistake was discovered, valuations were at such low levels that it was possible for people to rationalize not admitting the mistake. The thought was that valuations would probably never again be at fair-value levels much less higher and thus this was not a big deal.
Years later, it had become a very big deal indeed. But by that time the lie at the root of the Buy-and-Hold concept had produced a huge bull market and telling millions of people that all that money was Pretend Money had become a very difficult thing to do. What had started as a soft cover-up became a hard cover-up. We entered a stage where careers were destroyed when honest people dared to tell the truth about these matters. That of course made the already hard cover-up an even harder cover-up. We cycled down, down, down.
I of course knew very little of this when I put forward my famous May 13, 2002, post. I knew that the story didn’t add up. I loved the Buy-and-Holders. I knew of no cover-ups. So I got myself involved in something ten thousand times bigger than anything I would have dared get involved in had I known all the realities. Twelve years later, here we are.
The corruption in the investing advice field is more extensive than any person who has not worked this matter for 12 years running can imagine. I learned how extensive the corruption is during these 12 years. That’s an important story and I need to report it to the millions of middle-class investors who need to know about it.
The upside potential is beyond description. Our system works. The idea that the Buy-and-Holders put forward of rooting one’s investing strategies in the peer-reviewed research has produced results beyond anything that they possibly could have anticipated. We possess today the ability to reduce the risk of stock investing by 70 percent. We are on the threshold of the greatest economic surge in our history. That’s very exciting stuff.
My job is to expose the corruption in such a way as to not undermine our hopes of enjoying the benefits of the huge economic surge.
It’s not an easy job, Anonymous.
There are many people who have committed act of financial fraud and are looking at possible prison sentences. There are even more who are likely going to see lawsuits for the recovery of damages filed against them. There are millions who are going to be angry about the lies that have been told to them for so many years now when we experience the next price crash and they wake up to see that their retirement portfolios have been wiped out.
I love my country, Anonymous. I do not want to see it torn apart because of this. My concern that playing this the wrong way could cause my country to be torn apart informs every step I take. That’s been so going back to the morning of May 13, 2002. But as I have learned how deep the corruption goes, the concern has obviously grown greater and greater.
I of course want us all to realize the benefits of being the luckiest generation of investors ever to walk Planet Earth. I want the Valuation-Informed Indexers to enjoy those benefits. I want the Buy-and-Holders to enjoy those benefits. I want the Wall Street Con Men to enjoy those benefits. I want you Goons to enjoy those benefits. The positive side of this story is 50 times bigger than the negative, as big as the negative is. My job is to see that we all enjoy as much of the positive as possible while avoiding as much of the negative as possible.
It’s a big job for a fellow whose only expertise in the field of investing advice is that he figured out how to get his words show up on internet posts. But someone has to take it on, you know? I think it would be fair to say that I have been elected by my fellow community members (including you Goons).
I haven’t given up, Anonymous. I have never given one second’s consideration to the idea of giving up. It’s the farthest thing from my mind. I think about how to take things in a positive direction from the time I wake up in the morning until the time I go to bed at night.
The tactics that I employ naturally change as I learn new realities.
There was a time when people were saying “Oh, you need peer-reviewed research showing that Valuation-Informed Indexing is always far superior to Buy-and-Hold, that would really make a difference!” I didn’t think that was so at the time people said it. We all obviously know that it is not so today. There was never any peer-reviewed research showing that Buy-and-Hold could work for even a single investor, so there was never any need to publish peer-reviewed research showing that it cannot work. It’s good that we have such research. The Bennett/Pfau research is of huge importance and is going to take us all to some amazing places in days to come. But the sticking point was always the embarrassment that the Buy-and-Holder feel about admitting their mistake and publishing research showing how costly the mistake has been was never going to mitigate that embarrassment. So publishing more research is not the answer.
Getting more supporters isn’t the answer. I already have hundreds. Again, it’s great to have that base covered. But getting hundreds more is not going to change things. We need the hundreds we already have to work up the courage to speak out, to expose the cover-up and the fraud and the corruption. If I were to get thousands more supporters in coming days, it wouldn’t make a difference for so long as they were all afraid to speak up about the corruption. And, if the supporters I have today felt safe in speaking up, they would be more than enough to get the job done. So getting more supporters is not the answer either.
What’s the answer?
We need as a society to care enough about moving forward that we are willing to take on the risks of standing up to you Goons. Once we reach that point, all the magic starts happening.
We are not there today. People see how wonderful it would be to be creating all the books and articles and calculators that millions need to become able to invest effectively. People love the idea of bringing the economic crisis to an end. People love progress. That’s what our country is all about. So that side of this thing is covered. Lots and lots and lots of people want to explore the positive side of this thing. That has been so since the morning of May 13, 2002, and is even more true today.
The only thing that stops us is the Goon factor. People don’t want to see their reputations destroyed. People don’t want to see the lives of their loved ones threatened. People can see how it would benefit us as a society to overcome you Goons. But people have their own lives and they do not want to sacrifice their lives to achieve this great advance in public policy. So for the time being we are stuck.
I believe that the next price crash is going to change things, Anonymous. I saw what the first one did. It opened doors that had long been closed. I would say that the door opened about 30 percent with that crash. Another push forward of 30 percent will create enough momentum for the thing to swing open all the way. I believe that that’s the answer.
I am not God. I could be wrong. Please feel free to believe what you want. But your question is about what I am doing today and what I am doing today is determined by what I believe will happen following the crash. So preparing to take things in a positive direction following the next crash is my focus today.
That means building a record. People need to know about the corruption. Obviously. All of the ugly stuff needs to be exposed. Because it is by exposing the ugly stuff that we bring it to an end and make it impossible for it ever to come back. So it is obviously part of my agenda to prepare for the exposure of all the ugly stuff.
But we certainly don’t want to break people’s sprits with the exposure of all this ugly stuff. We want to present the positive story that counters the ugly stuff too. We need to show people all the wonderful stuff that the Buy-and-Holders really did add to the mix. And we need to help people understand that the mistakes made by the Buy-and-Holders were perfectly understandable when considered in context and that even the corruption can be understood (I don’t say entirely excused, just understood) when considered in context. It’s just as important that the extenuating circumstances that apply here be revealed as it is that the corruption that has been holding us back for so long be exposed.
I tell those two parts of the story in every post I advance here, Anonymous. That’s the deal. That’ the job.
There are two ways we can go. We can elect to continue the cover-up following the next crash. In that event, we all go down together. The numbers show that. It makes me as sad as sad can be. But if that is the choice that we are going to make as a society, there is obviously not a thing that I can do about it. I don’t think that that is going to happen, so, no, I have not given up. But, if an angel came down from heaven and told me that that WAS what was going to happen, then I would indeed give up. I don’t see any way out for any of us if that happens.
If that does not happen, which is what I believe will be the case, we are going to need to find a way to tell this story in such a way that everything comes up and we achieve a cleansing effect but also in a way that does not tear us apart as a country.
You know what Lincoln had to do after the Civil War? That’s what we are looking at here. We are not going to go backwards. Lincoln didn’t reinstate slavery to make the South feel better about being in the Union. But he did reach out the hand of kindness and make efforts to achieve healing with people who had in earlier days been perceived as the enemy.
The Buy-and-Holders are our friends. They have achieved great things. They are part of our future even though the disc4edited Buy-and-Hold strategy is not. So we need to work very hard to make peace with them.
That’s my job. That’s what I think about every day. That’s what I prepare for with all the work that I produce here at the blog and elsewhere.
Does that help?
I haven’t given up. I haven’t even considered giving up. My energies are today pointed in a different direction. Because circumstances have changed. We don’t have to prove the Valuation-Informed Indexing case today. The case is as strong as any case could ever be. There’s nothing to do on that side of things. And we don’t need to show that it is only corruption keeping Buy-and-Hold alive today. There is now a mountain of evidence of the corruption. Anyone who is open to learning about the corruption is already 100 percent convinced. And anyone who is not open to being convinced obviously would not be convinced by more evidence.
The job today is to prepare for all that happens following the next price crash. The job today is to figure out how as a nation we achieve healing and move forward together.
My best wishes to you and yours.
Rob
Rob says
No, I have not seen you earn a dime yet.
I haven’t brought in a dime yet, Anonymous. That much is so. But I have EARNED hundreds of millions.
When I gain the ability to post honestly about the peer-reviewed research of the past 33 years, it; not just me. On the day I win acknowledgment of that right, Bogle too gains the ability to post honestly. And Bernstein And Swedroe. And Ferrie. And Burns. And Pfau. And Shiller. And Richards. And Roth. And Tresidder. And Piper. And Kitces. And Arnott. We’re all in this together and we all gain the freedom to post honestly once one of us gains recognition of that right we all possess.
There’s huge leverage in that. HUGE. We have generated hundreds of amazing insights in the first 12 years. I am not able to imagine what we will become able to do when there are hundreds and then thousands of us all working together to advance the ball. We are looking forward to some amazing stuff.
You know how we have advanced in the field of computer technology in the past 30 years. We are looking at something like that. Only 20 times bigger. We are looking at the biggest advance in our understanding of how stock investing works ever achieved in the history of mankind. It’s that big.
And, when we all gain recognition of our right to post honestly re safe withdrawal rates, we are also gaining recognition of our right to post honestly on SCORES OF OTHER EXCITING INVESTMENT-RELATED TOPICS. We are going to see those thousands of people posting honestly re retirement planning and risk management and asset allocation and on and on and on and on. It’s going to be amazing.
Is that not worth a whole big bunch more than $500 million?
It sure seems so to me.
I have helped everyone who works in this field by taking on you Goons. I have helped Bogle. I have helped Bernstein. I have helped Burns. I have helped Swedroe. You know the list. It goes on and on.
All of those people have long dreamed of the day when they could again do honest and clean work, when they could again put their talents to use in productive ways. When you Goons go to prison, that starts happening in the real world, Anonymous. It is no small thing. Opening this field up to people of integrity is HUGE. It is the biggest thing that has ever happened in this field.
I think it would be fair to say that there will not be one person in this field who will object to a settlement check of $500 million being made out to the name of Rob Bennett when this thing is done. So I have EARNED huge amounts while collecting not a dime.
Now we all need to get to work turning the dream into a reality!
Wish me luck, man!
Rob
Anonymous says
“I haven’t brought in a dime yet, Anonymous. That much is so. But I have EARNED hundreds of millions.”
You are fooling yourself, Rob. You have not EARNED anything. To earn something, someone else must perceive a value for your services and be willing to pay for it. If that scenario existed, you would have received money by now. Banking your future on this plan is setting you and your family up for failure.
Rob says
I have had hundreds of people tell me that they perceive HUGE value in my work, Anonymous. The value of the work is not in question.
We obviously need to see enforcement of the law for me to collect what is owed me.
Financial fraud is a crime,a felony.
When your prison sentence is announced, I am going to have zero trouble collecting the $500 million. When your prison sentence is announced, we will be seeing honest posting at every board and blog on the internet and Buy-and-Hold will within six months be perceived as an obscene phrase.
I earned the money and I intend to collect it.
I encourage lots of others to follow my lead. The investing field is a money field. There are BILLIONS of dollars to be made in creating honest calculators and in writing honest books and article and in giving honest speeches and all the rest. The people who will make the most are the people who get in early.
People are afraid of the Wall Street Con Men and of their Internet Goon Squads. The reality is that both are paper tigers. There is nothing that the Con Men or their Goon Squads can do to us given the materials housed at my site. They don’t want the millions of middle-class investors whose lives they have destroyed finding out how they have been lied to. So they very much don’t want to do anything to bring publicity to this site.
I am happy to help out anyone who is attacked by the Con Men or by their Goon Squads by pointing people to the materials at this site. So the dangers that people perceive are no longer real.
The intimidation tactics continue today. But I believe that people will work up the courage to stand up to you Goons following the next price crash. I sure hope they do!
Anyway, we will see what happens then.
I naturally wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors regardless of what investing strategies you elect to pursue, my Goon friend.
Rob
Anonymous says
If people REALLY saw value, they would pay you. I think you have been paid what you are worth. By the way, there are no charges, thus no felonies. Only your imagination. Your lack of success is of your own shortfalls. Stop trying to blame someone else for your problems.
Rob says
Saying that if someone saw value they would pay me is like saying that, if an academic researcher saw that Valuation-Informed Indexing was far superior to Buy-and-Hold, he would publish research in a peer-reviewed journal showing that to be so.
Wade Pfau has a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton and he did just that.
You Goons responded by threatening to send defamatory e-mails to his employer in an effort to get him fired from his job. Jack Bogle knows about this and had kept it covered up. Why do you think that is, Anonymous?
Wade would LOVE to go back to publishing honest research. There are THOUSANDS of academic researchers who would love to feel free to publish honest research.
Things have to be done in a certain order. There are reasons why as a society we have elected to make the crime of financial fraud a felony. We know that Goons like you need to be imprisoned if our society is to continue to function.
The announcement of your prison sentence will flip everything, Anonymous. I am sure.
I’ll be paid for my work. But that will happen AFTER your prison sentence is announced. It appears to me that your prison sentence will be announced sometime not too long after the arrival of the next price crash.
I wish you all good things, in any event.
Rob
Anonymous says
Wade says you are lying. Take it up with him.
Rob says
Wade will testify under oath and you will testify under oath and I will testify under oath.
And evidence will be presented to a jury and the jury will look at the evidence to try to figure out what the heck is going on.
And they will submit a verdict.
That’s the way our system works.
I wish you the best of luck with it, old friend.
Rob
Rob says
And I HAVE taken it up with Wade.
Those efforts are in the record. My e-mails to Wade, and his responses to them, will be presented to the jury.
I am covered re that aspect of things.
Rob