wow. I'd love to have a conversation with you - you are assuming too much and being way too aggressive. You don't have the full picture, which is understandable in a messageboard format.
let's see.
Q: You likely never had more than 1% of your client's portfolios ever allocated to gold. Just 3% to "commodities". So why is gold one of the three examples you listed?
A: my point there was to defend the profession and to point out us large cap is not the only measure of the investment markets. Surely you would agree that a good advisor would have had clients in gold in 2000-2011. I never claimed I had put clients in gold in a large way.
When i wrote that, I was thinking of asset classes that did great while big cap US stocks did crap. Gold came to mind so I put it in the list. I'll agree that I don't like commodities much as investments - so what? I will never own more than 5% in commods, unless you count timber, which I like.
Q: A good advisor will make sure that a portfolio is truly diversified, so you get those 15% per year returns from emerging markets, and 10% per year returns from mid cap, and the massive return from gold during the 2000-2013 period.
A: I wasn't an advisor til late 2008. I started in the depths of the recession. Commodities had already crashed. I then bought commodities cheap. You can't hold that against me. It was the right decision at the right time. From when I started work in late 2008 til I got out of commods in 2011, the basket I use and gold had essentially identical performance.
Q: Why did you own commods in such small size?
A: Well, starting in 2008 at massively cheap equity prices, I thought stocks were better investments. So I preferred stocks. And I was right, again. Stocks outpeformed gold and commod baskets in 2009-2011. You are criticizing me for making the right decision in favoring stocks over commods - that makes no sense.
Q: Commodities got crushed in 2008, gold didn't.
A: yes. But I had neither gold nor commodities nor clients til October 2008, so your point is largely irrelevant. I suppose I wish I had personally owned some gold in 2008 cause it was up 5% or so that year. My bad.
in short, I understand with and agree with many criticisms of my profession. Most are indeed hacks. that's how I have built my business - by stealing clients from bad advisors. it's not hard, for some of the reasons you have stated.
But your criticisms don't touch me - I'm the good guy here.