From everything I’ve read and heard about Rich, he does indeed seem like the kind of person one could feel confident about using as a financial advisor. Rich clearly has a passion and intellectual curiosity about the field of economics and investing that the typical CFP doesn’t seem to have.
As far as where one should go for investment advice, I suppose it would depend on that person’s level of interest and the amount of time they want to spend managing their portfolio and gaining insights that might be helpful. I view money management and effective trading as a life long skill that is really worth knowing, so I like getting elbow deep in the stuff. Those who don’t want to get elbows deep are likely best off finding a CFP they trust to guide them.
I love the Blog phenomenon. Blogs consolidate relevant news and information on a subject in a way that has not been seen before. Piggington has clearly emerged as the best thinking person’s blog on the housing bubble, with many people delivering their careful thoughts on the subject that go beyond the news and the simple observation that many people are going to get screwed. It’s fantastic!
I do think that one has to keep in mind that since Blogs typically only serve as sources of consolidated news, they tend to focus on the reactions of major cyclic information announcements (the stuff that makes the papers).
So, avid readers of Blogs are continuously bombarded by interpretations of monthly and quarterly data in a manner that has not occurred in the past.
Now, many would say that this increase in information will naturally lead to better investment decisions. Or will it? Who knows? The greater availability of consolidated news will certainly increase the average person’s understanding of medium trend fundamentals, but will that necessarily lead to better investment decisions? Maybe, maybe not. That type of data and analysis is just one piece of the puzzle.
What’s another piece? Recall the posts and thoughts of ChrisJ, someone who is an active and apparently successful trader. He is someone that looks at trends one would find in an investor almanac and manipulates his positions accordingly. A sound strategy, with clear historical precedent.
There are many other pieces as well, and one of the things someone attempting to manage their own wealth needs to always ask themselves is whether they are seeing all the pieces that compose the whole puzzle.
What types of information do I think are underepresented in the Blogosphere? Personal accounts of successful investment managers (different from economists!). More are beginning to emerge. One that I like is http://www.dailyspeculations.com/. Victor Niederhoffer has made and lost and remade more money than 99.9999% of us will ever see. I like balancing my daily Roubini with someone who is much more applied and optimistic and observes the world through a lens of confidence constructed from a historical record of fairytale success and devastating failure.
