Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:
Excellent cut and paste job.
A lot of stuff there.
Nothing about Greaney threatening anyone.
That’s what Section E is about, Evidence.
Wade described the Bogleheads Forum as a “hostile environment.” Huh? What the f?
We are all in this together. We all need to know as much as we can re the subject of how to invest for retirement. There’s no one who did more to cause stock prices to zoom in the 1990s than Jeremy Siegel. He’s a pure Buy-and-Holder right? But it was Siegel who suggested to Shiller that he should write a book about his ideas re how stock investing works. That’s the spirit! That’s what we should be seeing when Rob Bennett or John Walter Russell or Wade Pfau or Microlepsis or John D. Craig shows up at Bogleheads. We should be welcomed warmly as friends so that we all can enjoy a great learning experience together.
A hostile freakin’ environment? What the f is that all about?
It was the hostile freakin’ environment that I witnessed at Motley Fool that caused me to give up on Buy-and-Hold myself. I was a Buy-and-Holder until the night of August. 27, 2002, when Greaney put forward his first death threat and it was endorsed by 200 Buy-and-Holders. Buy-and-Hold is promoted as a research-based strategy. That’s research? Death threats? Buy-and-Hold is the most emotional strategy ever concocted by the human mind. As has been demonstrated by you Goons on a daily basis for 17 years running now.
Not this boy, you know? I have never seen a Valuation-Informed Indexer advance a death threat. We really have research on our side. It’s not just a story that we tell ourselves, it’s a reality. If you thought that you had research supporting your claims, you would behave very, very, very differently. There would be no “hostile environment” at the Bogleheads Forum if Buy-and-Hold were a true research-based strategy.
That’s my sincere take. I love my Buy-and-Hold friends for all of the great contributions that they have made. But I think they need to stop and take a step back when they see themselves tolerating the sort of behavior that we have seen from you Goons for 17 years running now. It’s not my particular cup of tea. That’s not a terribly close call.
And of course this is just the sort of thing that we should expect to see in the event that Shiller’s research is on the right track. Shiller showed that it is investor emotion that causes insanely high stock prices. And what do we see from thousands of Buy-and-Holders at the time when stock prices are at the highest levels ever seen in history? All of this garbage. Gee, I wonder what is going on here.
I do wish you all good things, in any event.
My best to you.
Disillusioned Rob
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