Improving Market Structure - December 12, 2011

[nickola.pazderic]

Hi Nickola,


(The only thing I am concerned about is that the Robots do not perform as well going forward as they have in the past but if they only perform half as well I will be very pleased) :O)

Trev,

This is my concern, too. Let me list them all in random order:

1. How could something so wonderful/good happen to me? (OK, some psychological set up that allows for child-like pleasure should it succeed).

2. I'm sure no matter what, I've missed the boat. (This is a clear anxiety that a lot of post-boomers feel. I got to Taiwan/Asia too late for the biggest growth but too early for "China", 1989).

3. If an investing system really allowed us only 20% per year, we'd probably own the stock market via compounding returns in 30 years or so. Think about that!?

4. Look at all those failing hedge funds, wouldn't they love to realize returns similar to those posted on the front of the website?

5. Morales and Kacher are setting up managed accounts. Now I know we operate in a different time frames, but aren't we filling up one side of the boat or acting like the apocryphal lemmings herding ourselves into sea?

6. The stock market is....

Truly, having been an academic for years, who saved pennies and dimes under the mattress, the stock market has always seemed like one of the above. In fact, as an anthropologist I can assure everyone that belief holds up the entire edifice. For these reasons, I am a predisposed bear.

7. My spouse will run out of patience with me, and something like following will occur:




Fears. Petty fears. Nightmares even.

Perhaps all these fears stem from a simple and undeniable fact: the entire edifice is so enormous I cannot imagine it. I cannot reconcile Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, New Dehli, Dubai etc... with the comfortable downstairs office where I operate. Trillions of dollars, billions of people, jillions of dreams/desires/diseases...Yet here we are.

Pascal and Billy have made this available to us. A gift to people. As Pascal writes in the book:

...the stock market provides people with a simple way to take part in ...high growth sectors by investing in companies that offer solutions to...problems

This is a beautiful vision, and it sustains my hope.