Comments on: Dumb: “Don’t invest; you can’t beat the pros”

By: jana

jana — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:12:55 +0000

being not very tolerant to risk does not have to be a bad idea. i have lost money (with a good mutual fund) recently because of the recession, and i am glad that i have invested more of my money safely, ie i have lost only a fraction of what i would have, had i put it all into stocks. i still keep the remaining money in the fund, hoping that in 10 years time it might grow back, but probably will not do any risky investmens in the future.

By: Jerry Dill

Jerry Dill — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:24:14 +0000

I think of wall street more as beating the odds than playing with the big boys from Lynch. You are right though that investor firms look to make quick profits and change investments rapidly. Personal investments are looking to play the market and build their financial portfolios as much as possible over the span of their portfolio.

By: A

Mon, 26 May 2008 15:13:46 +0000

So I’m a girl working on the Street (the original one in Philly) and can’t tell you how many haters I deal with who don’t work in this business who think we are a bunch of hacks. I love what I do (I’m writing this from my office on Memorial Day) and like any other industry, Finance has it’s annoying moments. But it provides a valuable service and not participating in the markets – in the long run – is not wise. I liken it to learning a foreign language. It’s daunting at first and nothing makes sense but the more you practice it and use it in your daily life, the easier and more familiar it gets.

By: Tejas Kokje

Tejas Kokje — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:36:31 +0000

Well, we cannot beat the market for the long run, but how about being “with” the market for the long run ? Investing in total market index funds (domestic, international) does not require a Ph.D degree to understand. One can start investing in no load, low cost index funds and do as good as 75% of the pros in the long run (more than 15 years).

Stocks (as in total market) have high short term risk (capital depreciating). But history has shown that stocks are agnostic to long term risk (inflation).

“Stocks for the long run” by Jeremy Siegel has good discussion on this. I am sure there are many more books, but I just like this one.

By: anonymous analyst

anonymous analyst — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:06:42 +0000

Don’t invest, ’cause you can’t beat the pros….that’s rich. Why not invest alongside the pros. That’s why you buy mutual funds and investment managers…to have them do your investing for you. But please don’t tell me you’re not going to invest because you can’t beat the pros. You would be more credible and sound less “damaged” if you just said “I’m not going to invest because I am too lazy to learn about it.”

By: g6abyss

g6abyss — Mon, 21 May 2007 04:44:03 +0000

I am a Canadian so just want to share with readers like me who don’t earn in U.S. dollars but have bought or are thinking of buying an S&P500 index fund…

“The Easy Chair S&P 500 index since 1997 and the overall return is a more palatable, though hardly stellar, 4.9 per cent, once the ups and downs of the loonie are taken into account.”

Full article: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/215799

I remembered seeing $1 U.S. dollar used to be $1.5 CAD at some point in the last 10 years… currently it’s $1 U.S. to $1.08 CAD (May 21, 2007) – that’s a 42% diff!

So, calculating your S&P index fund ROI is not as straight forward as it appears and may not be your best investment choice b/c of the exchange rate factor.

By: michael edelman

michael edelman — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:01:31 +0000

In the long run- and I mean the LONG run- if you’re careful, you can match the overall earnings of the economy- and that’s not bad at all. Put your IRA or 401K in ETFs that track the DJI, the S&P500, and the AMEX, and you’ll do okay. As you approach retirement age, you might start moving money into divident paying funds and treasury funds in order to reduce volitility.

A lot of people seem to think that “investing” is synonymous with striking it rich. If they’re not hitting the jackpot, they’re doing something wrong. These are the people who endlessly shuffle their money around, read books on investing strategies, and will justify bad investments with nonsensical “technical” talk as they watch their account go to zero.

You might think you can do better by gambling. You might try following a few industries obsessively and moving funds in and out of the market when you think it’s over or undervalued. But you will probably eat it all up in transaction fees and bad timing.

By: finance girl

finance girl — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:58:44 +0000

I have had the same experience; indeed it does tend to be folks who have no idea what they are talking about and are responding to the unknown from a place of ignorance and fear (was that too harsh?). A great way to dip your toe into the market is with a basic index fund/ETF. Get’s you a nice core fund at a low cost/turnover and you can see how it works (e.g. you can see how much more $ you are making instead of having it sit on the sidelines). But that’s just me.

By: clayleas

clayleas — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:37:21 +0000

Zero sum game??? Come on guys – stocks, options, futures, bonds – none of it is zero sum. Have you forgotten about commissions and even more importantly taxes? If you want to add your broker’s and Uncle Sam’s cut back in, then its zero sum. I haven’t heard of anyway to do that though.

By: js

js — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:00:20 +0000

You might die soon if you keep eating that Taco Bell…LOL

Stay away from E-COLIchiladas…