Mark Sutcliffe April 15, 2016 Starting Out Merit or chance results? A few weeks ago, a panellist on my political television show mentioned a quote to me from the Roman senator and philosopher Boethius. “The world does not judge actions on their own merit but on their chance results,” he wrote. “And they consider that only those actions which are blessed with a happy outcome have been undertaken with sound advice and reason.” When a basketball game is decided by one goal, the coach of the winning team is asked about all the things his players did well while the opposing coach conducts a post-mortem. The winning points might have gone in off a lucky bounce, meaning either team could have won, but all the efforts of the victorious team are made glorious and all those of the losing team were futile. In investing, there are plenty of people who look smart because they picked the right stocks. But is there really a relationship between their decisions and the results, or were they just lucky? The evidence shows the latter. Studies show that people who have had success in the past don’t pick any better than anyone else in the future. Let’s not confuse luck with merit, especially when our money is involved. Share: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email CIRO Advisor Report
Personal Wealth Mark Sutcliffe Beat the market? Most mutual funds don’t even meet the market Apr 26, 2017 Personal Wealth