Some people will then complain about the ethics of such decisions, that's fine, probably some of them are not anything to be proud of. But I would raise this point, from a trading/investing perspective the ethics of such decisions is irrelevant. He is going to go what he is going to do and bitching about how he is being unethical will just lead people to miss out on things. Also, at least he could do unethical stuff about things that will actually help the country. Nailing female interns and then committing perjury about it, was hardly anything that helped the US.
Furthermore the US civil legal system is such a huge mess. The whole jury and grand jury system and the smaller burden of proof required (compared to criminal trials) makes it so easy to manipulate companies into settlements. Anyone who has read "Circle of Greed: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Lawyer Who Brought Corporate America to its Knees" knows what I'm talking about it. When the government is helping unethical behavior from greedy laywers and opportunists by not changing the system, what can you do to protect youself? You got to use game theory, bluffs and things like that. Otherwise they clean you out
I also ask, where are the angels who are not using bluffs and game theory to protect themselves from a mess of a legal system and losing all their networth in legal fees in the process? I seriously would like to know. Because I'm sure their laywers have no problem using these tools and if they dont fire their laywers, then by extension they are ok with bluffs
I'm not saying all of his behaviors are right, but I'm raising the counter-point: its more complicated than it looks. People play arm chair psychologist and think they got Trump all figured out, what I'm saying is, the issues are deeper than that
Daal, I'm not sure if you consciously decided to start posting more, or if you are have a drawdown and feel the need to conceptualize thoughts in text. I know you are long a significant bit of EWZ...... BTW, I agree with the thoughts on Trump. Don't fight the Messiah. All hail Lord Trump!
Your post demonstrates great empathy and sensitivity. I'm not answering for Daal, rather I'm thinking of my own situation, and I'd say it all depends on how you look at it. I have about 5 or 6 EM ETF positions, most of which have taken a beating since Trump got elected. I have a mental 15% stop loss on them, but so far they are mostly well short. On the other hand I have investment positions in Thai stocks, mostly in Mass Transit. I made them based on personal observation. When the lines first opened, you could stroll in at any time of day and be comfortable. Since the network expanded, the trains are like sardine cans in peak hours; like sardines, you are amazed at how many can be crammed into a can, train in this case. There is only one way those stocks can go, and that is up, because the Network is expanding hugely and there are only 2 listed companies running the lines. I have shares in both, so I really don't care who wins the bid for which extension. Since I have that mindset, I honestly can't even tell you what the current share price is. I just don't look, from time to time my broker sends me an email with a dividend notice, the companies follow later in writing. Long story short, I suppose it is all about how you look at it.
EWZ is not doing all that bad because the decline has been mostly due to the currency. I didnt count the currency gains on the way up so I dont count them on the way down. Most of my costs are in BRL so a weaker BRL is no big deal for me But yeah, I do have the tendency to ramble from time to time. I find no other way to be motivated to write. When I sit down to write an article or a chapter for a book or something like that I feel bored as hell, no inspiration. But when I ramble in this journal, for some reason, I get a lot more creative and can just keep going
Hi Daal, Here's a good read on the CAPE ratio that should interest you. http://mebfaber.com/2016/12/02/missed-780-gains-using-cape-ratio-thats-good-thing/ Do you know of a website that gives up to date cape ratio's of country ETF's? I know that Star Capital gives quarterly cape ratio's by country and gurufocus does individual stocks but can't find daily cape ratio's for ETF's. Looking to enter EWZ around $28
Good article. You US folks are so lucky, you got people like Meb Faber and ETFs all over the place to make investing so much easier. Here in Brazil, you try to find historical returns for asset classes and its a pain. There were so many currencies, so many different laws, inflation metrics. I'm in the the middle of building up a database of asset returns since 1968 and its taking a lot of work. And there are almost no ETFs for foreign stuff, you try to use bank mutual funds to get foreign exposure and they charge you like 2% a year. US investors get everything handed so easily. I'm not sure where to get daily CAPE's
I got some plans for that database, I want to backtest different balance/risk party style portfolios and see what the returns/volatility were like. Best year, worst year, avg gain, avg drawdown, that sort of thing.