FYI: Asset managers have more ways to manipulate returns for marketing purposes than most clients can even imagine — above all, by pretending that sheer luck is the product of skill. Here’s an old column looking at a fund family that combined several of these promotional techniques at once, luring in billions of dollars from investors who never seemed to understand that the funds’ returns were partly lucky, partly gamed and completely unsustainable. Stories like these led me to formulate one of my central rules for thinking about investing:
No matter how cynical you are, you aren’t cynical enough.
Regards,
Ted
http://jasonzweig.com/looking-out-for-no-1/
