Down goes the Dow

Look at the performance today of VTI versus DIA (Dow ETF). Clearly VTI dominated by mega cap growth is dependent upon the same. Good on the upside, poor on the downside. Big money uses the size of mega cap growth to manipulate markets with retail investors supplying the lubrication for the trades. Of course retail investors do not realize they are tools for their future portfolio underperformance, or likely worse.

J. Hardy wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Value approach investing would say one has missed nothing.

Then it would clearly be wrong. Time for a new approach.

Well you have missed most of the 2022 Wall Street projections of value over growth as liquidity is drained and interest rates go up.

Guess I better start shoveling snow:

https://imgur.com/a/t4tN4jO

Well this is the first time I've heard VTI be called on of the worst investments. I'm sure we could all name thousands that are worse.

Idiot you and I lead strangely connected lives. It's like we're quantum entangled from the time we spent together.

I know the museum, regardless of which one it is. We have many of those items, from the big names, and know all the players, I am counsel for one of them. I got my wife started years ago, and she took it and ran with it, now its crazy land. The 2 chairs we just got done, I put in 9k, they are now worth over 50. Pretty good. My wife is also crazy for the stuff, so it's a win-win...although I will never get my money out, because she wants to die with it all, good grief. But I could always take a loan against it if I needed to, I guess--I'm in to the tune of low 6 figures. Our place, and a few friends' places, are those museums, same pieces, same originals signed, same early production and prototype models too. Small community, really.

The funny thing is that I hate furniture in general! I hate chairs in particular--I much prefer to sit on the floor on a good rug or fur. That way if I pass out, there's not far to fall :^)

Just another diversification. Btw they have AMAZING pork over in Denmark. Also the lunch at Louisiana is quite good, and the setting is great, if you haven't already tried it. Where you are going to end up, you should look at Sugarbarrelantiques, as well as RetroModernDesign in the Peg. DMK and others have flagship pieces, if you want to go full-on. 1stdibs can have good items, but make sure you negotiate. This stuff is most often purchased by designers/architects for well-heeled clients who don't really care about the cost, and the prices can reflect that, if you're not careful.

investing noob wrote:

Well this is the first time I've heard VTI be called on of the worst investments. I'm sure we could all name thousands that are worse.

Well of course, but cheering about the last ten years without outlining the risk in the next seems foolish to me.

Maserat i wrote:Where you are going to end up ...

Curious where you think that will be, if you can say without outing me...?

A condo on the Great Slave Lake?

Maserat i wrote:

Idiot you and I lead strangely connected lives. It's like we're quantum entangled from the time we spent together.

Maser wrote:

seattle prattle wrote:

Nah, no need for that fancy stuff around the peripheries. We know better than that, don't we, Igy?!

Just the tried and true mainstream stuff we learned about from the likes of Peter Lynch and that crowd.

Buy and hold.

"Investment must be rational; if you can't understand it, don't do it." _Warren 'crypto is poison' Buffet.

Seriously, are you going to shape your whole investing strategy by the fact that some wacko cracko like NFTs happen to be in existence?

HA HA HA HA!

I mean, come on! In a year like this who needs a Santa Claus rally?!

Anyone heard from Mas lately? I could use a dose of that about now.

I’m here. You on the sauce?🍸😁

No, but i was aware it was coming off that way....

It was just a reference to your propensity to consider a wide spectrum of investment opportunities, and more importantly, to do it with a certain flare.

Funny about the discussion of chairs. I find them fascinating, and in my previous lives, have designed and built a few in my shop.

I am kind of recuperating from an injury at the moment, so my current project is rebuilding a rather nice, old walnut caned chair that was badly in need of repair and someone was discarding, and saving the more rigorous shop work for a better day.

Nice to hear that you guys have an appreciation for such things, even if some prefer sitting on the floor (LOL),

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

investing noob wrote:

Well this is the first time I've heard VTI be called on of the worst investments. I'm sure we could all name thousands that are worse.

Well of course, but cheering about the last ten years without outlining the risk in the next seems foolish to me.

Risks are always present. And risks are to be managed if one chooses to participate in the markets.

While this may hardly be the time to be overly aggressive in one's strategies, it may reasonably be felt that it is not the time to be unduly conservative either.

I find it more instructive to consider how to manage that risk than to suggest that the field is untouchable in its entirety.

I am not risk adverse at all. I just prefer out of consensus ideas, SARK and TUR the latest examples.

Seattle,

I purchased a canning kit when you mentioned it previously. Forgot about it as I got involved in the house painting. I’ll revisit that project over the next couple of days. Our chair is likely early 20th Century inherited from my wife’s family.

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Seattle,

I purchased a canning kit when you mentioned it previously. Forgot about it as I got involved in the house painting. I’ll revisit that project over the next couple of days. Our chair is likely early 20th Century inherited from my wife’s family.

Igy

Yeah, I set mine aside forever, but thought i would make the best of some down-time and free up space in the shop.

Caning is kind of cool. I never had much appreciation of it and am considering how to incorporate it in new projects, ....maybe.

The idea of restoring value to what might other wise be lost has a particular appeal to me. Like classic cars, i suppose. Sounds like a really worthwhile project, Igy. Good one.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

J. Hardy wrote:

The oldest line of thinking is that the goal of investing is to make money. Your goal seems to be to not lose money.

No, the oldest line of thinking is to invest in companies that produce an adequate return on investment. All you are doing is trading back and forth among like minded speculators thinking that process is durable over time. Nothing new, but you believe it is.

You wrote “No”, then agreed with me.

Much respect for caning lololol

Seriously though, we had 4 MR chairs (Mies van der Rohe/Lilly Reich) just re-caned, it is a serious art. Ours were done by a pro, and even at that, one of the cane strands broke after no use at all--it was just done too tightly, and when it dried out and shrank, it broke. Repair was free of course, but goes to show that because it's a natural product, you never can tell what you will get.

Super nice now, they go with the other early Thonet ones we have, with arms, for a full set. They, along with a bunch of other stuff, are ready for when we get a place on the Med or in Portugal, .

Speaking of MR chairs, I have an armless lounge in black leather, that actually belonged to the man himself, straight from Chicago. Love that chair but never use it!

I horrified the collectors I know by stripping, sanding, re-building, and PAINTING some Hans Olsen chairs, for my wife. Blasphemy! I used Benjamin Moore Impervo oil paint, with a sprayer. That stuff is amazing, the texture, the lustre, the application (with tinted primer), wow. It never really dries completely, being oil paint. Beautiful. They all thought it was an insane thing to do, until all their wives started wanting to buy them for a premium! Go figure. I am sitting on one as I type this.

Idiot, you asked me on here what I thought of a Vancouver condo purchase, and I thought you went ahead with it, so I assumed that was where you would be. IIRC I said that even though the market was ridiculous, it could well prove to be a good investment if certain factors continued to obtain, which they pretty much have.

Today, my early morning banker's meetings got bumped in favor of a client with more money than me--lots more. I met when they got back into town, which was fine by me. Funny though, they seemed to be relieved to deal with me and my chump change after being told what to do by the big fish!

Igy you will love this-one of our bankers is a Dutch guy, who before he started with the bank, was literally a tulip salesman, having a large swath of the northern US as his territory. You can't make it up! And due to bank rules, he is not allowed to personally purchase bitcoin, lol.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

J. Hardy wrote:

Then it would clearly be wrong. Time for a new approach.

Well you have missed most of the 2022 Wall Street projections of value over growth as liquidity is drained and interest rates go up.

Moving the goalposts again?

Well this is impressive. We may not have a year this good for decades.

Let's not take it for granted.

What a massive wealth-generating machine the stock market is.

Charlie Bilello

@charliebilello

S&P 500 closes at an all-time high for the 70th time this year. Only 1995 has had more all-time highs in a single calendar year.

https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1476297348187885570?s=20

Maserati,

As mentioned, my brother passed away late June. Anyway, went down to help my nephew settle the estate. My brother still had some of the original furniture of our parents. My son-in-law really has an affection for the mid-century modern furniture. We went back and forth on bringing some of it back to Idaho from the California desert. Turned out my brother had replaced many of the original pieces with cheap replicas. I found out by sitting in one of the replicas while packing a box. Screws came loose on the under carriage. Anyway dodge a bullet. Did ship back a couple of end tables, and art my nephew was going to sell at auction.

Igy