To All, The Bearded Ladies from Ohio-Unsolicited Commentary.
It warmed my heart to see the Beardstown Ladies exposed for scamsters the past few weeks. Not that I have anything against grandmas or investment clubs or small Ohio cities. It was just that from day one I found their story hard to believe. Yes, investment clubs can occasionally beat the pros. When I was in the Army, I was in one that did. And, yes, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to beat the pros. But their story of how they invested and the stocks they bought just didn't jive with the reality of beating the pros. What problems did I see:
1. They bought the big nifty fifty stocks, usually at or near tops. These were the same stocks owned by the pros, who have economy of scale working in their favor. True, they were intermediate tops, but buying from tops and holding does not beat the averages or the pros.
2. Their research method was scatterbrained. Weird methods work sometimes for a while, as long as five or six years, but they don't work for 14 years. Not on this planet.
3. When they were interviewed, they didn't seem to know shoe polish from excrement. O.K., most Wall Street analysts are just as ignorant, but they NEVER beat the averages. -g-
4. Their book was a joke. A best-selling joke. And, yes, this comes from a sourpuss who was told that if he wanted to sell his own book, it had to read more like the Ladies' fiction. -g-
So, instead of a 23 pct. a year return since 1984 that beat the pros and the indices and confounded skeptics such as yours truly, they really made 9.2 pct. a year, which underperformed buying and holding Treasury Bonds from 1984 to 1997. By a lot.
So, my question now is, since this was a scam, intentional or not, what happens to all the money they stole from unsuspecting sucker book buyers who wanted to believe in Santa Claus? Does their scam violate securities laws? Is CNBC and Wall Street Week and everyone else culpable for reporting their returns without doing any checking whatsoever?
Don't hold your breath on answers to any of these questions. In a market bubble, scamsters make money while the honest just scratch their heads (and often make money, also). I just think the whole sordid story of The Bearded Ladies shows how gullible the public and financial press really is. Back to the circus, hirsute ones. -g-
Good Luck, MB |
