That is the answer any great trader would give you. Here is an analogy about “economists.” One day the head resident at a major regional hospital was doing the regular rounds with a group of interns in tow.
He stopped at each patient, wielding a clipboard and noting their condition. He then asked for comments from the interns. He made notes, and moved on patient by patient, until they were through.
He turned to face the group, and said, “Chris(could be any name I just used mine), in all my years of doing this I have never seen anything like this. I just reviewed your comments about each patient. It has never happened that I am aware of.
You just mis-diagnosed every single patient in this hospital, have you ever thought of becoming an economist?
This is a joke out of the wall street joke book. Economists are notorious for being completely wrong about just about everything in the trading world. I am sure Fleckenstein was alluding to that in his answer.
They have no “skin in the game,” a quote that is widely used nowadays. Would you want golf lessons from a geek who read Tiger’s book, but has never played golf?
Give him a more targeted question about trading, and I am sure you will get a different attitude in his response.
Theories are great, but it is execution that matters. That is all traders care about.
