Why Most Investment Systems Simply Won’t Work

by Alexander Green, Advisory Panelist Wednesday, August 12, 2009: Issue #1064

Early in my 16-year career on Wall Street, I made an astonishing discovery: The overwhelming majority of my colleagues – bright, educated, experienced, and articulate – didn’t have the foggiest idea what they were talking about.

This only became obvious in retrospect, when I saw how their carefully constructed financial theories and investment forecasts turned to dust rather than generating any significant profits.

(You’d be surprised to learn, for example, how many investment “pros” lose a substantial percentage of their own money in the market each year.)

The truth is that there are virtually limitless ways to take a beating in stocks – and only a few methods that work well over time. These methods are generally codified into widely accepted investment principles,

In this video interview with IndexUniverse's Jim Wiandt, Vanguard founder John Bogle takes on everything from the so-called death of buy-and-hold investing to the wisdom of buying index-based commodity funds.

The full transcript of John Bogle’s recent webinar examining exchange-traded funds and the outlook for America’s investors.

As part of the festivities surrounding the 2009 Journal of Indexes editorial board meeting, IndexUniverse.com hosted a live webinar with Vanguard founder and index industry legend John Bogle.

During the one-hour presentation, Mr. Bogle unveiled new research regarding how successful (or not) investors are when trading exchange-traded funds, and took a big picture look at the state of American finance.

Moderated by JoI editor and IndexUniverse.com publisher Jim Wiandt, the webinar features an extensive audience Q&A session. A full transcript follows below.

Jim Wiandt, editor, Journal of Indexes (Wiandt): Good morning everyone, and welcome to a very special event that we have here today. We are actually at the NASDAQ market site and we have the Journal of Indexes editorial board meeting today.

We have

Vanguard founder and index industry legend John Bogle presents new data showing that investors generally make poor trading decisions when buying and selling ETFs. This one-hour webinar, moderated by Journal of Indexes editor Jim Wiandt, also features a lengthy audience Q&A covering everything from index funds to Bogle’s life work to the future of the financial system in the United States.

Click here to view a full replay of the webinar.

Click here to view Bogle’s slides in PDF format.

Click here for a transcript of the presentation (coming soon).

Click here for IndexUniverse.com’s coverage of Bogle’s research.