Gyroscopic Investing

Just sharing my thoughts about CR forum.

During the last several months I was mostly reading BH threads, including "the great HB PP thread" and then jumped into this forum as soon as Craig started it. It just dawned on me that nowadays I spend very little time on BH and put much more attention to CR forum. Yesterday I decided to "catch up" on some BH reading and I noticed how different my perception of the BH "buy-and-hold slice-and-dice no-gold stay-the-course-no-matter-what" paradigm is now. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for long-term investing, I just couldn't help thinking how foreign all those lengthy threads about S&D portfolios look to me now. People are so deeply trapped in "asset-centric diversification" and shun gold and LT Treasuries.

I've been there and did all that slicing and dicing only to watch all my "slices" tanked in 2008. Now I'm considering CR almost like my "home forum" and whenever I want to post something or ask a question I tend to do that here. Although i do realize that it's better to keep this forum PP-related. 

foglifter wrote:Although i do realize that it's better to keep this forum PP-related.

Yes, but remember the VP can be discussed too!! 
I have to admit I have a similar reaction as you to threads on the Bogleheads forum. Even though I still peruse it daily. And even though I have only one toe (well, actually 3+ toes) in the PP water. Funny how that works...

jmourik wrote:

foglifter wrote:Although i do realize that it's better to keep this forum PP-related.

Yes, but remember the VP can be discussed too!! 
I have to admit I have a similar reaction as you to threads on the Bogleheads forum. Even though I still peruse it daily. And even though I have only one toe (well, actually 3+ toes) in the PP water. Funny how that works...

Glad to know my reaction is not unique! As to VP - I think HB paid regards to human nature (actually, male nature) by introducing the idea of VP in his book. We can't just sit and do nothing when our PP is set. Maybe we think that we do VP to enhance our investment gains, whereas the real reason is we long to play in our little playground (or hunt the game in the woods). Let's not forget that VP can be a pretty brutal playground though.

In case my use of the CR abbreviation is unclear... CR = Crawling Road.
I hope CraigR will approve.

The PP only looks strange from the outside.

Once you actually set up your own PP and begin to understand how and why it works, a lot of conventional investing wisdom begins to look like witch doctor stuff.