Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:
When you are commonly banned on the boards, it should be a wake up call that you are doing something wrong.
Well, I’ve been banned at many places, Sammy. That one is beyond dispute.
And this reality signifies something. We are in complete agreement re that one too.
We differ on what it means.
You say that it signifies that I am doing something wrong.
I say that it signifies that there’s something seriously wrong with Buy-and-Hold.
Time will tell the tale.
Rob
laugh says
Time has told the tale. It is 2016.
Rob says
If you had asked me on the morning of May 13, 2002, how long it would take the millions of middle-class investors whose lives are in the process of being destroyed by the Buy-and-Hold Lies of the Wall Street Con Men, I would have said “two days, perhaps three at the outside.”
It would be fair to say that the joke was on me re that one. 14 years have passed. That’s a lot of sand through the hourglass. If you want to declare that the story has been told and the book has been shut, I don’t feel that I can declare you crazy for looking at things that way, Laugh.
But I remain uncomfortable posting dishonestly re the numbers that my friends use to plan their retirements. It’s not me. It’s not a close call. If I emptied out all of my pockets, I could not make the change. So I am going to soldier on.
Perhaps when time has worked its magic, we will all look back at these 14 years and say that working through 14 years of abuse was a tiny price to pay for the huge gains we experienced as a society by moving from the purest and most dangerous Get Rich Quick strategy ever concocted by the human mind to the first true research-based strategy. Perhaps not. Perhaps we will have done so much destruction to ourselves that we will conclude that we cannot rebuild what we need to ever again live the way we have long lived and will regret having spent that 14 years trying to build something that we envisioned as beautiful but that in reality could never be in a world filled with flawed minds and poisoned hearts.
It would break my heart to declare that time has come to an end and that therefore hope too has come to an end. So I am going to “Post on, hocus!” as one friendly community member once advised me. That’s me, Laugh. That’s really all that I am capable of doing.
You’re not me. You should do what you think is right for you. I am confident that you will do that. And I wouldn’t ask that it be any other way.
I’ll do what I think is right for me. I’ll continue posting as honestly as I possibly can without ever crossing the line and posting uncharitably while also posting as charitably as I possibly can without ever crossing the line and posting dishonestly. That’s what works for me. Old Farmer Hocus can do no more and Old Farmer Hocus can do no less.
We’ll meet on the other side. I’ll naturally continue to wish you all the best that this life has to offer as you continue your journey.
For me, the night is young. For me, there’s plenty of time. For me we are at the starting gate, thirsty with anticipation for the challenges ahead. For me, we are a society of people still in the early stages of coming to understand the far-reaching implications of Shiller’s “revolutionary” (his word) findings of 1981.
Courage! Forward!
Or, if you prefer, remain standing in the same place because time has come to a close with the passage of 14 years!
The beautiful Rule of Life is that you get to decide that for you just as I get to decide it for me. I am marching forward. I look forward with excitement and longing to what tomorrow brings. For me, time finishes its story on the day they put me six feet in the ground and perhaps (I have hopes!) not even then.
But time (and life, and learning) ends for you when you you choose for it to end. Time’s tale is finished for you today if you want it to be. I am horrified by the choice. But it is not my place to choose differently for you. And I would not want it to be.
Perhaps your choice is the smart one and mine the foolish one. I don’t think so. But since I have not given up the spirit as of this moment, it does indeed seem to me that we are going to have to leave it to further time to paint the ending to the tale. At least so far as I am concerned.
The only alternative I see is for Greaney to push my car off the road while it is traveling at a high speed. Please don’t give him any funny ideas!
And please let him know about the safe deposit box with the disk containing the electronic bits on it that permit reconstruction of the entire site and about the key that has been placed in the hands of a good friend for use in just such sad (for me!) circumstances. He needs to know about the safe deposit box and about the key to it before taking any trips down any further unfortunate roads. He’s a friend. We need to do what we can to help the fellow out in his time of woe.
My best and warmest wishes to you. And to Greaney. And to Bogle. And to all my long-suffering (by their own hands!) Buy-and-Hold friends.
Hang in there, man. It gets better. A LOT better.
Rob
Anonymous says
“The only alternative I see is for Greaney to push my car off the road”
Greaney hasn’t written a word about you in years. He moved on.
“It gets better. A LOT better.”
After 14 years, a reasonable person would ask himself “WHEN does it start getting better?”
Rob says
Greaney hasn’t written a word about you in years. He moved on.
Um — good point, Anonymous. That makes sense.
Truly outstanding!!!!
Rob
Rob says
After 14 years, a reasonable person would ask himself “WHEN does it start getting better?”
I have an awful track record in making predictions re this question, Anonymous. I said on the morning of May 13, 2002, that you Goons would not be able to continue your insanely abusive behavior for more than a day or two before normal people would work up the courage to stand up to you. Um — Wrong!
My guess is that we will see change following the next price crash, which will scare a lot of good and smart people into taking action to enforce our laws against financial fraud.
But I certainly don’t claim access to any inside information. And, as noted above, my track record re this one is poor.
My best wishes.
Rob