Down goes the Dow

How do you calculate your own returns? I am skeptical you were calculating them correctly all these years especially in the early 90s without online tools to do it for you.

The guy supposedly has a journalism degree but doesn't know to put ending quotation marks outside of periods or commas. You really think he knows how to calculate returns on investments?

Of COURSE you are skeptical. All of that information has been readily available even before the internet was big.

No thanks. I'm not about to give any of you any details. I've already had to in the past spend WAY too much time and energy proving people wrong about VERY small things...I mean individual fund returns. Blame Sally if you want, but he's not even the only one. Can't make ANY positive comment about stocks or you get accused of lying or making a mistake...and then, even if those two things don't come up, there's always the "you could have done better if you did this".

Well, I'm not investing to one-up anyone or do the best possible or prove anything to anyone. I'm in it only for my own financial freedom. I thought it was interesting that I was losing to the Dow by so much so far this year which is why I mentioned it. I did not and do not think of it as bragging in any way. I had no idea so many of you would get your panties in a bunch over this. So, nah. Worry about yourself.

He told a really dumb lie (I've beaten the DJIA for 30+ years!) and got wrecked for it, but he's a blowhard so he just keeps blustering and more wild claims. He actually reminds me of Trump.

Nope! I have not told a single lie in my adult life.

Oh no, this getting serious: “He actually reminds me of Trump.”

:-)

Didn't realize it was such a touchy subject

I was thinking about an interview I heard years ago with some guy who had been involved in a legal dispute with Trump and he said that at the deposition they couldn't get a straight answer out of him: "If you asked him what time it was he'd start telling you how to build a clock."

That's pretty much what FP has been doing here, anytime someone asks him for a shred of evidence to support his lie he responds with an inane wall of text jabbering about "The Dogs of the Dow" or how wonderful is family is.

“Highly unlikely” is not the same as “statistically impossible”.

That is not to say that Flagpole is correct.

Not necessarily.

Both Strunk and White and the Chicago Manual of Style say that double quotation marks always go outside the period.

S+P 500 fund YTD: -3.02%

Me YTD: +0.44%

2021

S+P 500 fund @ +26.8%

Me: - 3.7%

2020:

S+P: 16.5%

Me: 12.9%

Very happy with 2020 given I never risked more than @ 12% of my liquid assets at any time.

2021 was tough -- way up 1st 1.5 mos; then down.

2022 was under water until last three weeks.

“Commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks in American English…”

grammarly.com

Quotation Marks: Rules and Examples

There was a time when we didn’t have extensive formatting options for typed documents. Today, writers use underlining, italics, bold text, and…

Open link

What difference does it make?

It helps us distinguish between those with and without some decent amount of education and facility with written English. Nothing more.

Year to Date

Energy +40%

GME +11

Utils +6

Hussman +6

Gold +5

TSLA +3

Value +1

BTC: 0

Staples: 0

ST TIPS -1

Schwab div eTF -1

Materials -1

Healthcare -2

ST Junk -3

Industrials -3

Financials -3

REITs -4

Vang momo: -4

TIPS -4

SP500 -4

Global 60/40 -5

Developed ex usa -5

Small Caps -5

Emerging -5

Junk -5

Clean energy -5

Inter Treas -6

Weed -7

Invest Corps: -8

Tech -9

Flagpole -9

Cons Discr -10

Comms: -11

Retail -16

China -17

PTON -26

ARKK -29

Russia ETF -81%

Lots of clumping around neg 5%.

Financials doing relatively well despite inversion. Isn't their entire biz plan dependent on a poz yield curve? Although I suppose they are still paying 0% for deposits but can now get 2.5% from treasuries.

Clean energy still doing nothing in the face of higher energy prices. Weird sector. You'd think they would benefit here from a world that obvi needs to get off fossil fuels.

High qual corporates continue to do worse than junk bonds. Function of higher rates and duration I suppose. But that collapse in high qual credit is worrying a lot of people.

Utilities continue to shine. +6% this year and +22% for a year. That's not supposed to happen, right? Esp when interest rates are rising, creating a safer alternative to utility dividends.

SP500 still up 15% over a year...longer term performance is still remarkable despite this correction.

I'm still rooting for hussman to hold onto its lead but....down 4% in a month is not great. SP500 +6% in the same timeframe. Didn't this happen last year too? HUssman took a big lead and leaked it to nothing over the year? I would love to see a fund make money both ways, that's for sure.

In other words about as valuable is knowing where to place all the utensils as a dinner party at Buckingham Palace.

It's as valuable (or as worthless) as you want it to be.

People judge other people all the time, for a whole host of reasons. Some people judge others based on the way they dress, speak, write or comport themselves. If you don't care what others think of you, then none of that matters to you. Nothing wrong with that.

One thing I learned very early in my basic training involved proper place settings and utensil use at formal dinners. That was occasionally necessary in my years of service when attending formal military dinners. After I left the military nearly 30 years ago, that knowledge has come in handy from time to time, as we occasionally mingle with "higher class" folks at formal social engagements. Most people never need to know that kind of stuff, but if you're ever invited to a fairly formal event, that kind of mostly worthless knowledge can be very valuable in the heat of the moment, sparing you (me) from looking like the barbarian you (I) are.