Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:
Tip: If you can’t link to a NYT or WSJ article about it, it probably doesn’t exist in the wider world.
If you take a look at the “People Are Talking” section of the site, you will come across a quote in which Bret Arends says in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that the Wall Street Con Men pushing Buy-and-Hold strategies 33 years after the peer-reviwed research showed that there is zero chance that they could ever work for even a single long-term investor are “leaving out half the story.”
Arends is saying that those pushing Buy-and-Hold today are involved in a massive act of financial fraud. He doesn’t use the blunt language that I do because he knows what would happen to his career if he did so. But “leaving out half the story” is financial fraud. The millions of people who have never heard the other half of the story are suffering in very serious ways. It was leaving out half the story that caused our economic crisis. Millions of people are unemployed today because of the decision by the Wall Street Con Men to leave out half the story of what the peer-reviewed research in this field tells us about how stock investing works.
This site tells the other half of the story, the half that the Wall Street Con Men leave out of their articles and speeches and studies.
Good for me for telling the full truth about these matters. I expect to become one of the richest men in the United States following the next price crash, when the massive act of financial fraud is exposed for all to see. I will offer no apologies for my the massive wealth I will have attained at that time. I will have earned it. There are millions of middle-class people who very much need to hear the full story of how stock investing works and I intend to bring it to them. And under our system I should be compensated in a huge way for being the first person to have the guts to do what has long needed to be done.
Those who are leaving out half the story while pretending to be “experts” are committing crimes under the laws of the United States. I am telling.
My best wishes to you and yours, Anonymous.
Rob
You must be a mind reader as you continue to know what people are thinking.
Arends’ words are shocking, Anonymous.
He said that the investing experts that millions of middle-class people are listening to are “leaving out half the story.”
If you were thinking clearly, that would upset you.
There should have been 50 web sites focusing on the claims made in that column on the day after it was published. If the experts are leaving out half the story, we are in a terrible, terrible fix. If the experts are leaving out half the story, it’s no wonder that we are in an economic crisis. That’s a big big problem that affects every last one of us.
I’m not a mind reader. But I have had a front-row seat to the playing out of this matter for 12 years now. I have seen enough to be able to put a lot of the pieces of the puzzle together. It might be that not every observation that I make is solid gold. But I always put some effort into figuring out what is going when I see strange behavior play out in front of my eyes.
Any suggestion that the experts in this field are leaving out half the story should fill you with horror. You have money invested in the market. You should care. You should want the experts to tell the full story, not half the story. Any reports coming from the Wall Street Journal that the experts are leaving out half the story should prompt a constructive response from you. That article was published years ago. I have not seen any constructive response from you in that time.
So I don’t apologize for trying to make sense of the matter to the extent that it is possible for me to do that. We ALL should be doing that. Bogle should have spoken out about the content of that amazing column. And Shiller should have done so. And Arnott should have done so. And Burns should have done so. And Mike Piper should have done so. And the owners of the Motley Fool site should have done so. And the owners of the Morningstar site should have done so. And Wade Pfau should have done so. And on and on and on.
When everyone else is speaking out, my words will be better informed. And when everyone else is speaking out, my words won’t matter so much in any event.
That’s how it should be. We should all be engaged in a National Discussion of These Matters. That’s what is needed.
Until the National Discussion begins, I am going to continue doing my best to show everyone else how it is done. I can do no more and I can do no less.
My best wishes to you and yours.
Rob
I can do no more and I can do no less.
Would you say the same applies to providing for your family?
Yes.
I expect to see a settlement check of $500 million paid in compensation of the damage done to my business over the past 12 years. That will make me one of the richest men in the United States. My family obviously benefits from that.
The other side of the story is that, if no one speaks out and our economic system goes under, my family along with millions of others will be hurt in a very serious way.
We need to bring this massive act of financial fraud to a complete and total stop. It is killing us.
It is great that we live in a system in which I can receive huge financial rewards for taking on this difficult task. Lots of people could have taken on this job. No one else did it because they saw how ruthless the Wall Street Con Men and their Internet Goon Squads are. But someone had to do it. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I put forward that famous post of the morning of May 13, 2002. But I am very proud of the good and important work that I have done in the 12 years since.
I naturally wish you all the best things that this life has to offer a person regardless of what investing strategies you elect to pursue, Anonymous.
Rob
What if the economy doesn’t sink and you don’t get your $500 million check?
What if nuclear war breaks out and we blow up the Planet Earth?
What do you want me to do about it, Anonymous?
I am a research-based guy and I advocate the first true research-based strategy. I believe that we live in a great country and that the laws and social customs of that country will prevail over you Goons. I believe that we all will live far richer (in every sense of the word) lives in the future. I believe that Jack Bogle will be working with me to help spread the word re what really works in days to come. I believe that even you Goons will be participating in a great Learning Experience in days to come. I believe it will be a blast. I believe it will be a win/win/win/win/win, with no possible downside.
Do I have any alternative to playing it the way that I am playing it? What am I going to do, sign up with you Goons and go to prison with you? Huh?
I am a research-based guy, Anonymous. It was my good friend Jack Bogle who taught me to use the peer-reviewed research as a guide in forming my investing strategies. I think that Old Saint Jack got that one 100 percent right. So I am going to continue to walk the research-based path that I have been walking for 12 years now.
All of the nasty stuff comes from you Goons. I want no part of any of that. As you know.
I believe in research-based strategies and so those are the strategies that I am going to endorse. End of sentence, end of paragraph, end of chapter, end of story.
I believe that following the next price crash we will have MILLIONS of people exploring the ins and outs of the first true research-based strategy. I look forward to that day. I don’t control the rest of it. There’s nothing that I can do about the aspects of this that I don’t control. I control me and whether I post honestly or not. I feel better about myself when I post honestly. So that’s what I am going to continue to do.
I hope that pleases you.
But, whether it pleases you or not, that’s what I am going to continue to do.
I wish you all good things.
Rob