Petrocelli's anti-Boglehead Blog - All Comments

Re: Bogleheads.org: 3 Years of Discussing "Crap"

Mr. Ed — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:05:27 GMT

rpetrocelli: Apparently, some idiot thought that the Bogleheads could give him advice on how to buy a $5,000 watch, which is like going to the Al Queda website and asking how much you should give your nephew for his first communion.

I am in awe of your wit, dude Petrocelli...

Re: Bogleheads.org: 3 Years of Discussing "Crap"

Mr. Ed — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:12:04 GMT

I researched your next post about $5,000 watch. www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/.../5000-reward">Here is a link to one answer.

Re: Bogleheads.org: 3 Years of Discussing "Crap"

rpetrocelli — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:36:31 GMT

Mr. Ed:

I researched your next post about $5,000 watch. socialize.morningstar.com/.../%3Ca%20rel=" target=_blank nofollow? lid="www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/.../5000-reward" lpos>www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/.../5000-reward">Here is a link to one answer.

Your link doesn't work.

Re: Bogleheads.org: 3 Years of Discussing "Crap"

Contrary — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:54:49 GMT

rpetrocelli:

This week, Bogleheads.org celebrated its third anniversary. In that amount of time, as of noon Saturday, its 17,051 posters have authored an astounding 645,009 posts. To put this in perspective, if each post was a grain of sand, you’d have 645,009 grains of sand, which may or may not be a lot of sand. I don’t have a friggin’ clue.

However, if you did want to know if that’s a lot of sand, go over to the Boglehead forum and ask them. You’ll probably get upwards of 20 responses. If you put the words “Dan Wiener”, “Newsletter”, or “Permanent Portfolio” in the subject line, you could easily get 100 posts.

The bottom line is that this group of skinflints and shut-ins will discuss anything. Incredibly, you will probably ultimately get the correct answer because, apparently, when you ask 17,051 people a question, you’ll find one who knows the answer. Even if they don’t, a couple dozen will respond.

Thus, at the Bogleheads forum, of the 118 active topics on the forum as of this writing, at least 72 have nothing to do with investing. There are threads on www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>speeding tickets (28 posts), www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>beer (52 posts), www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>wine (5 posts), and www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>bachelor parties in Vegas (29 posts). Reading the forum, one would think that the average Boglehead is a total derelict. However, these are offset by posts on www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>steam cleaners, www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>vaccum cleaners, www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>water heaters, www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>garage door openers, and www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>watches. (Apparently, some idiot thought that the Bogleheads could give him advice on how to buy a $5,000 watch, which is like going to the Al Queda website and asking how much you should give your nephew for his first communion.)

However, the Bogleheads may have hit a new low. Recently, a guy had a problem because his dog was crapping all-over his house. Frankly, I have never had a problem with my dog crapping in my house, but if I did, I don't think I would turn to the Bogleheads. There have to be several billion sites where you can discuss either dog-crap or crapping dogs or both. But this guy decided to ask the Bogleheads. You can see the thread www.bogleheads.org/.../viewtopic.php" target=_blank>here. However, I warn you the OP is a very descriptive writer, and this guy can describe a dog-turd like Faulkner describes a sweating idiot manchild octaroon on a summer day in Missisippi. Thus, we are advised that “her stools vary from normal sized and shaped to small stools and in the past few months she will sometimes create dozens of tiny bb sized to near pin head sized droppings mixed with marble sized droppings.” (I am not making this up. Really. Truth is stranger than satire.)

Incredibly, it appears that the guy got the right advice in the end which is kill the dog with an ax or hammer, and take the money he saves on dog food and invest it in a Target fund after donating 10% to the Boglehead.org forum operators.

In any event, happy third Birthday to the Bogleheads. Now does anyone know where I can trade my dog for a watch?

Petrocelli

ROFLMAO.

Re: Bogleheads.org: 3 Years of Discussing "Crap"

haltheavenger — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:08:58 GMT

rpetrocelli:

this guy can describe a dog-turd like Faulkner describes a sweating idiot manchild octaroon on a summer day in Missisippi.

Re: Bogleheads.org: 3 Years of Discussing "Crap"

AviOren — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:41:28 GMT

Petro, you forgot to add above the "Insurance Guy" who was booted from the forum. This "guy" holds these designations: CLU, ChFC, AEP, and he is currently a FINRA chairman in a large U. S. city.

Re: Bogleheads: Corrupting Today's Youth!

cowuab — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:59:45 GMT

I find this post awesome hahaa. I'm a mid 20s guy that has just recently started reading and investing heavily in my 401.k and IRA. My advice to these type guys is to party hard and enjoy as many women as you can in your undergrad/graduate school days on your parents dime. Thats what I did and now I can concentrate on my career and money knowing I have had some great times. These guys need to learn how to balance their life better I guess like all of us try to do. Don't be too cheap but also realize what you need to do if you want to be wealthy down the road.

Re:Re:Re:Diehards: A Documented History of Performance Chasing

Alex... — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:43:51 GMT

It would seem that market weighted indices are definitive performance chasers. I have always said that buying an index is a way to buy yesterday's winners, and eventually tomorrow's losers.

The only virtue of these, is they keep you from doing it in a frenzied manner, getting hammered most every time. And that is ok. Being consistent, and buying companies in overall above average health (S&P 500 index) is not a bad approach.

I would submit the fact that the Vanguard Diehards forum is by far the busiest of all the forums on Morningstar, as proof that most Boggleheads do not really...truely believe in indexing. How on earth can there be that many posts on indexing?! The answer is that surprisingly few are on indexing, with many more discussing one attempt or another to justify some "back-door" active portfolio management.

I guess the biggest problem I have with some Boggleheads is their fundamentalist approach to an ever changing area; investing. Folks, The Face of God is not reflected in the S&P 500, or any other investment vehicle. All of them are just gimmicks put together by a bunch of bankers, to enable the sale of more products. Our goal is to find when some of these are very reasonably priced, and ride that wave. Be open to new possibilities, that is how you get the best deals.

If you are a true Bogglehead, pick your darn indexe(s), BUY them, ignore them, and go play catch with your kids for God's sake!. Just check back once a year to make sure the broker has not stolen you money, or when you need to make a withdrawl.

What's more, a true indexer should agree with (and doing ) every thing I have said, as to what indexing is all about. If you don't, congratulations! You are a truely active investor, just like most everyone else.

Re:Re:Re:Re:Diehards: A Documented History of Performance Chasing

KumaJim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:32:43 GMT

Being a senior and reading these boards for 15 years, it

seems that investors keep trying to re-invent the wheel.

Backin 68 it was all about stocks.

In the 70's mutualfunds came of age

The nineties gave Us Index funds to make investing simple .

Now it's all about ETF"S.

It comes down to staying informed and keep investing.

Jim

Re:Diehards: A Documented History of Performance Chasing

marketriders — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:32:32 GMT

You've taken much of the Boglehead method out of context. The index fund or ETF is simply a tool for implementing an asset allocation methodology in investing. To me, its a joke that Morningstar and others are creating ETF / index fund rating services, as if they are mutual funds. Asset allocation with ETFs and index funds allows the investor to intelligently and precisely diversify amongst many types of assets without large fees.

Swensen, Bogle, Bernstein -- all say to buy at least 6 asset classes that don't correlate, pick asset allocation targets that reflect one's risk profile, time horizon, etc., and then rebalance, i.e. trim the winners and buy more of the losers. You'd have been selling REITs in 2006, buying them back in 2007, trimming them now. The core of the method, is that you never know what will work and what won't during a given market cycle as shown by the graph at the bottom here:

www.marketriders.com/truth1

Re:Diehards: A Documented History of Performance Chasing

0Brian0 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:23:35 GMT

Petrocelli:

I don't know how often you (or I) will check this blog but...

I think the point you make is very legitimate and very important. This kind of "closet" performance chasing is very prevalent and not particularly helpful to investors, including Diehards.

The root problem, it seems to me, is that MPT in fact offers very little guidance on asset allocation. Sure there's a lot of lip-service paid to mean-variance optimization, but that technique is terrible in practice. Also, CAPM assumes but never proves that the market portfolio is "efficient", giving a theoretical argument for cap-weighting (in addition to the no-turnover benefit), but the CAPM theory has been, in my opinion at least, completely discredited.

So once you strip away all the bad theory, all that's left is a kind of consensus opinion, which as you so correctly point out is liable to performance chasing.

No easy answers.

Re: "Has anyone noticed..."

dreemer — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:07:49 GMT

All I'm noticing is that when you make identical posts on the Diehards Forum and Petrocelli's anti-Boglehead Blog, it forces someone elses conversation down the list of Morningstar's All Posts pages, with probably less chance of being noticed or responded to.

-dale

Re:Diehards: A Documented History of Performance Chasing

Dilip — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:51:28 GMT

Petrocelli,

I agree that there is performance-chasing. 10 years ago it was "all TSM all the time". Then came the slice-and-dice - after the TSM collapsed. Then came REIT investing - after REITs went up. Then came international investing - after intl stocks beat the TSM for a few years. Then came precious metals investing - after gold and silver stocks beat TSM for about 3-4 years. And so on.

Thanx!

Re:Re:Diehards: A Documented History of Performance Chasing

zhiwiller — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:04:29 GMT

It's not a Diehard thing - it's an everybody thing. Rationalization works on everyone. They know not to performance chase, so when they salivate at those 28% REIT returns they can rationalize by pointing to a study or expert who says it is a great diversifier. I've been one of the lone dissenters on REITs and now it is nice to be "right". I don't think it will ever go away - we have access to too much information.

Re:Re:Active (Windsor II) Beating Passive (IWD)

coywesley — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:36:10 GMT

Name Change?

Did we go from non-Diehard to anti-Boglehead?

What's wrong - you afraid of offending the Bobbleheads?

Why don't you change it to the Anti-Pasta Blog?

Oh wait...., that would probably offend the Italians.

You can't say "Boo" in this country anymore, without offending someone. Hell, even that would probably offend the Ghosts!:^)

I'm-not-liable-Coy