Some thoughts and rambling. I will be 50 soon. Hard to believe as it seems like just a few years ago I graduated college & left for Silicon Valley to chase a career & a girl. The career has changed many times & so did the girl.I started in accounting, then an auditor, later a tax
expert & honestly hated all three. Excelled as much as you can in a career you don't love & eventually found my passion later in life in the markets. I can tear apart a set of financials with the best, understand business & what it takes to make it work & these traits help me
evaluate at a level I feel confident enough to not only manage my money but the money of others. I have the right amount of skepticism, fear, mixed in with a little greed to make it work. My actively manged clients are doing well the last several years because honestly, I realize
the market price discovery mechanism is broken or at best treated with skepticism. Really, yes, broken. Just look at the game. Our President openly manipulates the market & cackles with glee. Benchmarks his presidency on market return. Tweets
false statements just to pump the street & then calls it neat. $TSLA Elon Musk commits fraud, scienter on a regular basis, is above the law & knows it. Now one of the richest men on the planet from government largess. The world's savior while stealing the work of
others & claiming it as his own. $W sells cheap Chinese built furniture for nosebleed prices & yet continues to lose more as it sells more. $CVNA has a felon leader, convicted of financial improprieties, dubious metrics & yet these stocks soar. Oh and don't forget the
Chinese Hustle, Just a couple of examples of Wall Street's darlings. Our regulators are intentionally absent. The SEC isn't a regulatory body but a stepping stone for a better job & you certainly don't want to rock the boat & risk a lucrative corporate career.
Their oversight is a Congress which loves to self-deal & openly conducts insider trading. Of course their leader, I already mentioned him earlier. The Fed, a true symbolic representation of a roman orgy in modern times. Endless printing & QE which allows bubbles to be blown, the
repercussions of bad policy to flourish, broken business models to thrive as debt is forever rolled over & if satisfied, only so by the fleecing of investors through capital raises created from fiscal gluttony. Auditors, sigh, slaves to fees & with no SEC free
to look the other way like the blind mice we sang about as kids. Thus, valuation, financial metrics, sound financial research, real tangible analysis & true price discovery are replaced with the promises of a snake oil salesman promising trips to mars, cars that drive themselves
& make you rich while you sleep, & travel so cheap why own your own car. Weave a great fairy tale and you can have my money because for certain you will be the next Amazon or Apple. Alas, as I ramble I realize maybe Buffet & Graham are like the dinosaurs of the past.
Wall Street no longer a place where capital is created or destroyed through good choices or bad. Just a place for hungry gamblers who bet on red or black or pick the best horse regardless of it's health,
they know they just have to catch it for that fleeting moment it runs it's best. #fintwit
Thanks everyone for the positive feedback regarding this thread. I also appreciate the frustration we all feel regarding today's Wall Street largess & our feckless regulatory bodies. CFA's lamenting on here regarding the devaluation of their certifications or the tools, education
& experience such a lofty designation affords. Know myself and many others appreciate the work and effort that goes into such a qualification & the dedication to become the best at your profession. I myself am in the final stages of garnering the CFP. More suitable for my clients
& my type of investment strategy/service. I fully appreciate the effort it takes to receive the CFA charter. Maybe, in the end the ethics of hard working CFA's, CFP's & other ethical professionals will be the catalyst to turn around this unbalanced playing field and bring ethics
and regulation back to our markets.
