Debunking Stock Investment Myths | Paul Meeks | TEDxWWU

My talk is a colorful, irreverent look at stocks. Unfortunately, almost everything you know about it is wrong. My perspective is threefold: First, I'm a veteran stock analyst & portfolio manager. Second, I'm among America's best-known tech stock pickers. I've started & managed the world's largest tech mutual funds franchise. Third, I'm a popular stock market & tech commentator on air & in print. My shtick is my contrarian view & no-holds-barred presentation. I start my presentation with a funny tale of being a Net investment guru during that Bubble. Within only 18 months, I went from giving autographs & co-hosting THE financial television show with the "Money Honey" to receiving death threats. I then debunk 5-10 popular investment principles. Example: “Prudent” portfolio diversification is “diworsification.”
Paul Meeks, CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) teaches at WWU. He has been a stocks analyst or portfolio manager for 29 years. He's among America's best-known tech investors & commentators. CNBC introduces him as "Top Tech Investor." Paul is the Chief Investment Officer of Portland's Sloy, Dahl & Holst. He lives in Bellingham but he's often in Seattle covering cloud computing companies.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@cherylkeys1284]

There are many pearls of wisdom here. Thank you for this excellent talk!

[@CMRHM]

My takeaway from Paul's strategy is cut the loss, this is NO. 1 strategy. This is the NO1. area I am focusing to improve my investing. Thank you Paul.

[@officergregorystevens5765]

Thanks, George Costanza~!

[@jschultzf3]

Officer Gregory Stevens lol. I was thinking the exact same thing :)

[@bclaydon1]

Great advice. Invest passively except possibly 4 stocks you want to play with. I wouldn't suggest shorting though...

[@rexmundi273]

Stock market always going up is a myth. See Japan stock market.

[@tomwallen7271]

Step's 1, 6 and 2 (to an extent) are strong portfolio management tips. Go passive, diversify globally, and know the funds that you're invested in (even if you're no invested in individual stocks... know your funds expense ratios, diversification levels, and risk structure). However, steps 3, 4, and 5 seem to contradict the rest of your advice. Playing the Pendulum is a day trading strategy. As is going short. A focus on selling is all about timing the market, and trying to get out before everyone else. This seems like the antithesis of passive investing.

[@InlogixEnterprises]

I agree -- he totally played the fence.

[@stan188]

Agree. Timing IS trading. He makes no sense

[@askformoreinfowhichyouwont7510]

Ya, I agree, know everything halps in investing. Did you know bitcoin will reach 1 million dorrars by the end of this year? No? Me neither! But now we know. We are knowing now. We can profit now.

[@claudebelanger8524]

My motto is to be knowledgeable of trends that will affect the markets you are interested in. Spend several hours researching those companies that are part of that market sector. Stay away from penny stocks unless you can afford to lose all your money. If you do speculate in penny stocks make sure you understand the risk. Be comfortable that you understand what the cost will be to invest in a stock, mutual fund, ETF's etc. Be active in keeping track of how your investments are doing. Learn all about reading and interpreting financial statements. Remember that it's your money and that your broker, fund manager etc. work for you and not the other way around. If you have a broker or fund manager having free reign on how to manage your money and it's costing you money every time, find someone else. This is just a short list and I hope it helps anybody who reads this post.

[@sharadbravo]

I think when he is saying going short, he is talking about Future & Options, where one can go short for a longer duration (generally duration varies from one day to three months). But not all stocks are available for Future & Option trades.

[@Offsetter]

Man, I kinda like this dude.

[@joshf6386]

This mans slicked back hair tells me I should trust what he's saying

[@williamjames2026]

Lewis aron coach trading community is teaching newbies how to trade on the web

[@tyfighter1776]

The best advice in here is consistently investing in index funds. If you do nothing else but buy the S&P 500 every single month, or every week, over 30-40 years you will end up with $1M. Never sell, just buy and hold. It takes some strong nerve to keep buying when the market is going down, but those who do end up with the best returns.

[@jplatter6629]

4 and 5 are *kinda* the same thing- buy when it's undervalued, sell when it's overvalued. If you go the wrong way, dump it, although a lot of investors say you should ride it out. Rule #1 is probably the ugliest lesson everyone learns- you can't beat the system, you can't cheat the system, you can't win against the glacier that is "The Market." You might get lucky on occasion, but in general, just ride along.

[@jschultzf3]

J Platter buying under and selling over always sounds great in theory, but it’s hard to execute in practice.

[@jplatter6629]

Right, but either way, his point #4 and point #5 still sound very similar to each other.

[@meluk6991]

Trend is your friend.

[@patelvidhu4840]

I like your pendulum trick.

[@Rohan-cw3wp]

Great !!

[@omarfarique6304]

Don't short sell stocks and don't buy Amazon stocks.

[@overplayed3553]

pay a toll, get a map, then get on your way , just like a stock setup

[@redace6649]

I'll be a millionaire at 70, but a cup of coffee by that time will cost a million bucks from inflation. :(

[@professionalprocrastinator8103]

Invest in that cup of coffee until its value peaks, sell and wait for it to plummet again

[@DrZbo]

This is actually a really key point. Its NOT WORTH focusing on raw numbers that far out. You should be focused on what your actual income will be from your investments. 1, 2 million.... that may or may not be a lot of money on the scale we are talking about. But if you know you have dividends and rent coming in the door you can leave the exact post-inflation figures aside.

[@land7776]

only at Starbux..

[@alantan3004]

Yes, u can go "short" but u dun short and long the same stock at the same time so that makes it meaningless. U can however look at options to minimise risk and leverage your investments.

[@godsofouija]

Invest in VGT

[@DrZbo]

"The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis"

[@jeffrey8413]

Aren't "sell your losers" and "be greedy when others are fearful" (assuming because a stock is losing) opposing ideas? Confusing

[@TheeSamuelNelson]

Why can't I just double down on my 401k portfolio.

[@vincentdesapio]

Prices will decline due to technologies like e-commerce. Since Amazon, I have been paying less for products than I did before Amazon. And the trend will only grow. Artificial intelligence, electric cars, the biomedical revolution, etc.

[@luckerooni7628]

It's not true across the board. If goods can be made at surplus, then naturally being able to satisfy the greater demand through better distribution methods allows the market to satisfy their demands, and thus lowers price. However, at the same time, don't discount that the new industrial models used to improve that distribution also require their own material demands, which increase prices of other goods which typically are not as common and not found at the same surplus. We're talking about AIs packaging and driver-less trucks delivering and drones capable of lifting massive weights flying to your doorstep - this is where Amazon is heading to increase their own value, and your products will be cheaper, but Amazon itself may hit its own resource roadblocks.

[@lamy29]

GMESTONKS!!!!

[@moneymotivationmadness3275]

He lost a few billion dollars of others money. Plus never reveals his net worth

[@Osiedlowy_Platacz]

9%/year for amazon stock? Buy it!

[@ericy2158]

He meant 9%/yr for average stock market return. Amazon is like 40%

[@CapitalWorksPro]

His old man told him to buy and hold. He should have listened.

[@MadhuPravin]

whats happened to his little finger

[@delgadillo29]

Probably lost it to Loan Sharks

[@obijuan3004]

Good information, somewhat cheesy delivery.

[@spycam56]

17:23.....why does China have to be in yellow!?!?!?!?!?

[@zedzed3533]

China flag is yellow and red though

[@kirkclements4893]

learn to value companies and save your money until a crash - then buy the best companies on sale - repeat - that is investing - this guy has no clue - passive and mutual funds are for no-nothing investors and they get 7% - those who do the work as I described get over 20% per year - and it is simple but not real easy to do

[@ActingKaQeeda]

Vague suggestions are aplenty. This doesn't help an investor in any way.

[@__2561]

bc you don't know what to do with it. this is EVERYTHING you need to know and then some. go back to being poor, lulz

[@Mattjki]

A little shallow for TEDx. No one is more important because they have a large stake in Amazon.

[@danf4447]

for context jeff bezos and amazon did not return a profit or even lost money for something like 15 years..sooooo... just saying..

[@user-hh9ni8su3p]

"Not all of us is..." Really??

[@jeliqmusic9151]

I know, right? I was wondering what THAT was all about... And he said it soooo confidently lol

[@genebaughbba3479]

Who is this guy who thinks there are only 4,000 stocks?

[@Morphious117]

There are 4000 companies publicly traded in the us not world wide which is what he said.

[@HamedAdefuwa]

In the US, less than 4000 companies are actively traded.

[@officergregorystevens5765]

Wow I would have thought there were more between NYSE and NASDAQ. Does that also include the Boston Stock Exchange , Philadephia and others?

[@rasselislam5850]

i think he was comparing to US mutual funds. I think he stated that there are 10000 mutual funds and only 4000 stocks in the US. However, what he fails to realize is that most of these mutual funds companies also hold non-US stocks. lol.

[@nilsp9426]

When he said, that because of the possibility to make more money of the stock, his ideas are worth sharing, I stopped the video and left. Try for a moment to not focus on the big money you imagine, when you hear "stock market" and see left and right what happens around it and how it affects our society. And think about what role you would play, when you invested and got some lucky big profit. I prefer to not follow money like a carrot on a stick. Money is the most inhumane and un-TED-like reason to value an idea, especially when it is the only one.

[@enigmaticloremaster1700]

none of these talks about the stock market trading mention the hundreds possibly thousands of scam brokerage companies operating out there. The best roadsighn I would give is reaseach your broker and the company he works with.

[@danf4447]

the closed opaque and sometimes crooked stock market of china (and real estate market) shows this to be incredibly BAD advice!

[@jessejames88]

With all due respect, this advice is totally misguided and the future will show it to be so.

[@zivkovicjeff]

What parts do you see as misguided? All of it?

[@1wun1]

So far who did the future prove right?

[@viksamee9531]

Minimize your loses !

[@fkklkomvocl1234gv]

Pretty bad advice all around.

[@sfincione2000]

Jesus.... another idiotic powerpoint presentation that oversimplifies investing. These sound-bites are useless. Do your homework. This is only the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. There's also something about this guy that irritates me. He's too much of a salesman which means I automatically mistrust him. That said, he's actually quite right about most of what he says. It's just way too high-level. The S&P index vs hedge funds is 100% true by the way. If people come away with just that, then I guess it was worth it. But, again, a tiny bit of research will tell you that.

[@jeffrey8413]

He had 20 minutes...

[@rokyericksonroks]

“However, in 27% of those years the market actually goes down” (10:04)

[@jerryeisner1]

Learn how to speak without lowering and raising your voice every other second so people can HEAR YOU! I had to turn this off because you don't know how to speak to a group. What a shame!

[@anewcreature7]

WHAT!? HUH??