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J Larsen

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Posts posted by J Larsen

  1. Late 19th century.

    I actually do think that I disagree with the main thrust of the article. The article states that "the differences that matter most" relate to material inequality. I agree that material inequality is diminishing, but I regard these as the least important differencies. If the point of the article is that the least important differences are decreasing, then there really isn't much of a thrust to the argument at all.

  2. I'm still with Chas on this one (assuming I understand Chas correctly, and I have to admit I've misunderstood him in the past).

    I'm coming at this one from personal experience. I grew up about as poor as one can be in America without being homeless - welfare checks and food stamps were our primary source of income. That said, we had a four room apartment, TV, VCR (it was 1990 by the time we had one, but still, we had one), I had my own stereo, etc.

    I'm 14 years into my adult life now. I have been affluent for about three years, by which I mean I have an income that would make the overwhelming majority of the population envious. I am absolutley happier now, but it has nothing to do with the fact that my stereo, TV, apartment, etc are "high class." In that sense The Economist is correct. I derive my "excess happiness" from the fact that I am no longer stressed out about what might happen if things go just a little wrong. I am competely coinfident that I can withstand economic shocks now - in fact I withstood one earlier this year when I missed a significant amount of time at work because I needed to undergo a series of breathtakingly expensive medical procedures. Simply put, I am no longer worried about the future, short term or long term. With all due respect to anyone who may be reading this, I don't think that anyone who has never been truly poor is in any position to judge the value in that.

  3. It is completely indefensible ( if revealing ) for The Economist to ignore the impact of wealth inequality as opposed to income inequality on wellbeing . What kind of wellbeing can one have if one doesn't have the security that wealth affords against twists of fate such as job loss or other interruptions of income or catastrophic illness ?

    While I do not share your general antipathy for The Economist, I thought this article missed the mark, largely for the reason you described above.

  4. Too bad. I don't remember the name, but there used to be a great store over on Burnside, on the other side of the river. They had a seperate room for classical and an upstairs area for "world music." Is it still there? IIRC, there was a pretty good Indian restaurant next door.

  5. Well, four years after starting this thread, I myself now own a video game system. I bought a Wii on more or less a whim a few months ago, and now have 10 games for it. Prior to the Wii, the thought of buying a system for myself never crossed my mind. Now that I have one, I have to admit it is a lot of fun. And you can download and play all those great SNES and NES titles if you want.

  6. Absolutely not. I think technical analysis is a bunch of bullshit.

    Have to disagree. Technical analysis is a tool. It's isn't the "answer"--nothing is. But it can be a useful tool. If you don't think the market doesn't pay attention to support and resistance levels, you're nuts! :P

    I realize people pay attention to these things, but I still maintain that it is a bunch of bullshit. Now there is constantly all kinds bullshit affecting the market, but I tend to disregard it because I find its impact to be much less predictable.

  7. I think we are saying the same thing in different ways. :tup

    You are correct that by sticking to comparing dcf valuation to observed prices, you will miss out on potential profits to be reaped from going long on overvalued stocks that continue to increase in value. For instance, I did not enjoy the benefits of RIMM's recent multiple expansion from around 60 to around 100 (those numbers are off the top of my head and are only roughly correct). To my mind, these profits are won by the so-called "momentum investors." I briefly experimented with this approach in a phoney portfolio and found that I completely sucked at it; it seems to me to be much more driven by luck than other approaches.

  8. A value assessment won't yield you any growth stocks, and vice-versa.

    I disagree with that. A properly executed value assessment should identify attractively priced growth stocks. That being said, I recognize that in the popular investing lexicon, "value investing" tends to refer to sticking with the tried-and-true names, while "growth investing" tends to refer to a focus on the up-and-coming names (although I have been floored by some of the blue chips that have been tagged "growth stocks" over the years). I personally find that focusing exclusively on one type of company or the other is a poor strategy.

  9. Just as it is more difficult to predict how long a stock will stay undervalued than it is to identify an undervalued stock, it is also more difficult to predict how long a stock will stay overvalued than it is to identify an overvalued stock. In my view, what makes sucessful investing difficult is that it is sometimes profitable to go long on an overvalued stock or to go short on an undervalued stock (depending on your time horizon).

  10. Unless you do your homework, namely spending an hour a week researching for each stock you own, "You won't beat the market, and you'll probably lose money," he writes. [Guy: It will take a lot more research than that...

    Nonsense. A person does not have to spend 52 hours a year (or more) for each stock owned to "beat the market," that's just silly.

    Cramer is an ass, but at least now what he's preaching makes more sense, especially compared to his previous churn churn churn ways.

    I agree that people experienced in following the market don't need to spend an hour per week per stock to beat the market. However, someone inexperienced could easily spend more time and still underperform the market. I maintain that it is relatively simple to identify an undervalued security*. It is far more difficult to predict exactly when it will stop being undervalued, and that is the skill that really leads one to making money.

    *It is at least as easy to identify an overvalued security, but generally more expensive and time consuming to profit in that situation.

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