Valuation-Informed Indexing #463: There Is No Polite Way to Challenge Buy-and-Hold

I’ve posted Entry #463 to my weekly Valuation-Informed Indexing column at the Value Walk Site. It’s called There Is No Polite Way to Challenge Buy-and-Hold.

Juicy Except: When I see people getting angry on an investing discussion board, my usual response is to explain that humans are emotional creatures and that logic is thus not necessarily our strong point. When we want to believe that the numbers on our portfolio statement are a good indicator of the true value of our stock portfolio, we rationalize our way into believing that regardless of any peer-reviewed research published by any Nobel-prize-winning economist. I have never seen people calm down when I say that. Me saying that makes my Buy-and-Hold friends even more angry. At that point I am seen as not only saying that Buy-and-Holders are dumb in their choice of investment strategies but that they are too dumb to even want to be educated about these matters.