Читать книгу Mutual Funds For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 80

According to numerous blogs, social media postings, books, newsletters, websites, and articles, mutual funds are not the place to be. They’re boring, conservative, and prone to mediocre returns. According to the pronouncements of these gurus, you can get rich quick by investing in individual stocks.

Social media platforms and blogs have been a tremendous source for misleading hype and outright fraud in recent years. Scores of self-anointed gurus and stock-picking experts claim ridiculously hyped and falsified returns, and unfortunately, many of them evade regulatory scrutiny or punishment. I’ve been quite disappointed by the large volume of obvious hype online, especially on social media platforms where I try to minimize my time because I find them to be incredible time wasters and kinda depressing.

Here are some common threads I’ve observed over time among stock pickers online you should sidestep and avoid:

 They rarely or never post their suggested stock trades in advance. They tell you after the fact about stocks they claim to have previously bought.

 They report their own calculated super-high returns and don’t have an outside or independent audit to substantiate their high and inflated claims.

 They delete postings that make them look bad.

Numerous pundits say that investing in individual stocks provides Himalayan returns, as evidenced by the following examples:

 “How we beat the stock market — and how you can, too. 23.4 percent annual return.” — subtitle of The Beardstown Ladies’ Common-Sense Investment Guide

 “Forget bonds … real estate … build a portfolio entirely of stocks. Returns an annual average of 34 percent.” — Matt Seto, 17 years old, The Whiz Kid of Wall Street’s Investment Guide

 “I have been able to obtain fantastic returns on so many stock market plays: 260,000 percent annualized one-hour returns; 10,680 percent annualized in two days and so many more…. These trades are sort of like a magic trick. At first it seems ‘stupendous’ — otherworldly. But as you learn the trick, you say, ‘It’s a piece of cake.’” — Wade Cook, Stock Market Miracles

Do the stock specialists’ claims sound too good to be true? Well, they are.