Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Descartes
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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skepticus wrote:
Descartes wrote:This was linked via Rob Carrick at the Globe who is truly a class-A pornographer ..yet a failure as a serious journalist.
Interesting comment about Carrick. I'm no expert on these matters, so if you don't mind--would you explain why you classify Carrick as a pornographer and a failure as a journalist? :)
Tsk. Such is the state of education these days: clearly your experience with pornography is woefully inadequate. Let me then explain the parallels for you:
- you are drawn in with an enticing, flashy promise of satisfaction
- you exit with disillusionment, depression, and a feeling you've just been swindled

Joking aside, a serious journalist would strive to provide value or insight for his readers. Carrick appears to be in the business of grinding out click-bait.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Descartes wrote:
skepticus wrote:
Descartes wrote:This was linked via Rob Carrick at the Globe who is truly a class-A pornographer ..yet a failure as a serious journalist.
Interesting comment about Carrick. I'm no expert on these matters, so if you don't mind--would you explain why you classify Carrick as a pornographer and a failure as a journalist? :)
Tsk. Such is the state of education these days: clearly your experience with pornography is woefully inadequate. Let me then explain the parallels for you:
- you are drawn in with an enticing, flashy promise of satisfaction
- you exit with disillusionment, depression, and a feeling you've just been swindled

Joking aside, a serious journalist would strive to provide value or insight for his readers. Carrick appears to be in the business of grinding out click-bait.
A stretch lumping Carrick in with financial porn. He does not claim to be anything other than what he is. Most of the time he puts it our there and lets the reader decide. Not particularly inspirational, but so what?

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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Descartes wrote:Joking aside, a serious journalist would strive to provide value or insight for his readers. Carrick appears to be in the business of grinding out click-bait.
Sadly, this is what "journalism" has become at most media sites, from Internet, TV and print. The current trend is to counter the drop in paid subscriptions with more and more ads, that are more and more intrusive, coupled with click-bait headlines that lead to value-free content that even a few chimps bashing away randomly on keyboards could churn out.

It's all about monetizing eye-balls. And it's not just Carrick. Nor is it just the Globe & Mail. They're all groping and flailing about trying to find a path to profitability.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Bylo Selhi wrote:It's all about monetizing eye-balls. And it's not just Carrick. Nor is it just the Globe & Mail. They're all groping and flailing about trying to find a path to profitability.
Yeah, I agree, but I feel that Carrick is a sharp guy who has been handed the job of trying to provide some investing education to those who have little to no knowledge of investing. So he dumbs it down and puts it into entertaining and easy to understand words (and sound bites for sure to attract readership).

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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Bylo Selhi wrote:Sadly, this is what "journalism" has become at most media sites
Yes. You did say "most". For an example of someone I usually find quite worthwhile, let me point to Larry Swedroe, who I read at ETF.com. There is usually some meat on his columns. I may not agree with all he writes, but at least it gets me thinking. I point to Swedroe, but there are plenty of others. For example, I usually read anything by Cliff Asness.

Unfortunately, columnists in Canada all seem to be in a competition to make finance as simple as possible, and even simpler. There's not a single one that I follow regularly any more.

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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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ghariton wrote:
Bylo Selhi wrote:Sadly, this is what "journalism" has become at most media sites
Yes. You did say "most". For an example of someone I usually find quite worthwhile, let me point to Larry Swedroe, who I read at ETF.com. There is usually some meat on his columns. I may not agree with all he writes, but at least it gets me thinking. I point to Swedroe, but there are plenty of others. For example, I usually read anything by Cliff Asness.

Unfortunately, columnists in Canada all seem to be in a competition to make finance as simple as possible, and even simpler. There's not a single one that I follow regularly any more.

George
Let's not forget that most people still think a TFSA is for short-term money in a GIC and have no idea what those mutual funds are actually costing! :D

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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

Post by Bylo Selhi »

ghariton wrote:
Bylo Selhi wrote:Sadly, this is what "journalism" has become at most media sites
Yes. You did say "most".
Intentionally so. I was thinking of people like Jason Zweig and Jonathan Clements who continue to produce high quality thought-[sometimes outrage-]provoking material despite financial journalism's mad dash to mediocrity.

Unfortunately I can't think of anyone in Canada these days who belongs in that category. The closest is Andrew Coyne on rare occasions when he comments on finance and investing related matters like he has today re CPPIB.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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I think that Carrick does a reasonable job within the constraints that he works under of educating the general readership in financial matters. Remember that the general readership is pretty illiterate in financial matters and unlikely to seek financial information elsewhere. They are not represented by the average member of this forum - with their superior financial literacy.

The info. on the thread on HISAs here has been a subject of his columns. Sure there is info on RFD but many members of the public do not know that RFD exists and judging from some of the posts there, many who do are woefully naive.
A recent article he wrote on investment grade corporate bonds as an alternative to GICs I found useful. Sure they are higher risk as they do not have CDIC coverage but it's your choice.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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I like to read David Rosenburg's columns. Coyne as a generalist hits the odd one now and then.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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I like reading Jason Danville's quarterly essays on his web page.. His articles on ROE and the Dupont formula are excellent if one uses this type of analysis.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Thegipper wrote:I like reading Jason Danville's quarterly essays on his web page.. His articles on ROE and the Dupont formula are excellent if one uses this type of analysis.
He is not really a writer of finance/ financial journalist/columnist. He's a money manager writing on subject matter that complements his investing style/strategies.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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like_to_retire wrote:..I feel that Carrick is a sharp guy who has been handed the job of trying to provide some investing education to those who have little to no knowledge of investing.
Please read the actual quoted article and explain how he is educating those who have little to no knowledge of investing.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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ghariton wrote: Yes. You did say "most". For an example of someone I usually find quite worthwhile, let me point to Larry Swedroe, who I read at ETF.com. There is usually some meat on his columns. I may not agree with all he writes, but at least it gets me thinking. I point to Swedroe, but there are plenty of others. For example, I usually read anything by Cliff Asness.

Unfortunately, columnists in Canada all seem to be in a competition to make finance as simple as possible, and even simpler. There's not a single one that I follow regularly any more.

George
To be fair George the people you highlight - as AltaRed pointed out about another writer - are industry professionals. I have learned that many smart people in the industry are not good writers. But it's not fair to compare content of full time journalists with those of industry professionals. We get to write what we want and it only gets published if the media outlets are interested in running it.

I struggle to write an original piece once monthly. And I don't like recycled themes (though I will if a new angle emerges). Full time journalists of daily papers simply can't go too deep because they are writing a few articles weekly. And each article is shorter than it used to be so it often takes more time to keep it shorter. I spoke to a journalist the other day for 25 minutes. She will take one or two sentences - max - from our conversation. And she's doing a few interviews for this one story.

So I think we need to recognize what journalists' job is - which is to aggregate their research and the opinions of experts in the field and communicate it in terms that a broad cross section of readers can digest. That is a tough job. And Rob Carrick does a really good job of it (even when he's not quoting yours truly ;) ).

But it's also not fair to criticize Carrick because of that "how to find $10k" link because that's from a regular feature that Carrick has been doing for a while. The whole purpose is to aggregate interesting links and stories from around the web. That's completely different from his 'day job' of writing his regular Globe columns.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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DanH wrote:the people you highlight - as AltaRed pointed out about another writer - are industry professionals.
True. Although Swedroe seems to turn out a new column every other day or so. There are also the people Bylo mentioned, as well as columnists for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

But you say:
But it's not fair to compare content of full time journalists with those of industry professionals.
True. So why don't our financial news media get more professionals writing for them? It doesn't have to be the same people every day or every week. Rotating has benefits.

I know -- the talent pool in the U.S. is much richer and deeper than in Canada. And there are enough differences between the two sets of markets, institutions and regulations that transposition is not trivial. But some degree might work. Yet I don't see any.

Anyway, the very superficial articles served up by many (not all) of our Canadian financial journalists might actually be doing readers a disservice.

Fortunately there are a few on-line Canadian web sites picking up the slack (not to mention any names, of course :wink:)

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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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AltaRed wrote:
Thegipper wrote:I like reading Jason Danville's quarterly essays on his web page.. His articles on ROE and the Dupont formula are excellent if one uses this type of analysis.
He is not really a writer of finance/ financial journalist/columnist. He's a money manager writing on subject matter that complements his investing style/strategies.
You are right just the same I have found his insights and thinking to be very useful and profitable. I read Buffet's annual letter to the shareholders as well and find it most helpful. I can't say I find much from regular financial journalists.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Thegipper wrote:I can't say I find much from regular financial journalists.
Because as others have said, it has to be dumbed down for the public and cover the gamut of topics. A tough course to stick handle through and yet have some end value.

What bothers me most in much of this noise is the 'makeovers' we see in the G&M, MoneySense, etc. Some of the advice is simply wrong from time to time and some of it shows ignorance (by the advisor) of product and strategy. I could see that happening in the G&M due to editorial buffoons at the top but disappointed to see that in MoneySense.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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AltaRed wrote:
Thegipper wrote:I can't say I find much from regular financial journalists.
Because as others have said, it has to be dumbed down for the public and cover the gamut of topics. A tough course to stick handle through and yet have some end value.

What bothers me most in much of this noise is the 'makeovers' we see in the G&M, MoneySense, etc. Some of the advice is simply wrong from time to time and some of it shows ignorance (by the advisor) of product and strategy. I could see that happening in the G&M due to editorial buffoons at the top but disappointed to see that in MoneySense.
I've always found MoneySense to be incredibly shallow.

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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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Magazines like MoneySense have to appeal to the the lowest common denominator as well, so obviously a lot of eye candy. But I find aspects of it worthwhile and do subscribe to it at a deep discount with my Rogers cell account. That will stop when I abandon Rogers sometime this year.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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ghariton wrote: True. Although Swedroe seems to turn out a new column every other day or so. There are also the people Bylo mentioned, as well as columnists for the New York Times and the Washington Post.
I'm impressed at how prolific he's been for so long. I used to get his columns as a word attachment via email and it was weekly or so back then. I wrote a weekly column (800-1200 words) for 4 or so years but that ended more than a decade ago. My frequency continues to dwindle...now aiming for once monthly.
ghariton wrote:True. So why don't our financial news media get more professionals writing for them? It doesn't have to be the same people every day or every week. Rotating has benefits.
They do. The Post has David Kaufman, Michael Nairn, Ted R (can't spell his name) and Pete Hodson off the top of my head. Then there is Jamie Golombek for taxes. The Globe has our own NormR, the Chris U (growth investor) and a number of pros rotating in the quant screen section. My stuff is sometimes (rarely) in print but there's a bunch of it on globeinestor. Cestnick writes on tax issues.

Industry mags like Benefits and Pension are always looking for industry pros to write content. But there has to be a balance. Industry driven content often has sales pitches couched in articles. So good to have their content but can't have too much of it.
ghariton wrote:Fortunately there are a few on-line Canadian web sites picking up the slack (not to mention any names, of course :wink:)
I have certainly referred people to this site over the years so it should be named. And the collective community here deserves credit for helping to educate readers/visitors.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

Post by Thegipper »

Of coarse one would be remiss if Norm Rothery was not mentioned. I always read his articles when they appear.
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

Post by izzy »

And one must not forget The Financial Wisdom Forum either :lol:
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

Post by kcowan »

These last three posts should be moved out of the pornography thread?
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

Post by Shakespeare »

Buying TSX bank stocks? Analysts think GICs will do just as well - The Globe and Mail

That's the headline. But:
For the big five banks, the average analyst 12-month price targets only range from 0.5 per cent (for CIBC) to 3.7 per cent (for TD). If they're right, GICs could be rivalling those returns, if you factor out the dividends.
Yeah, when the dividend returns are larger than any of the estimated price target returns.

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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

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ghariton wrote:For an example of someone I usually find quite worthwhile, let me point to Larry Swedroe, who I read at ETF.com. There is usually some meat on his columns. I may not agree with all he writes, but at least it gets me thinking. I point to Swedroe, but there are plenty of others. For example, I usually read anything by Cliff Asness.

Unfortunately, columnists in Canada all seem to be in a competition to make finance as simple as possible, and even simpler. There's not a single one that I follow regularly any more.

George
Agreed that Swedroe's columns are usually informative. For Canadian content I've found Dan Bortolotti (Canadian Couch Potato) to be pretty good. He's simplified his offerings as well, but the blog still does have stuff of interest to more sophisticated investors. (And IMO is one of the best resources out there for new ones.)
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Re: Outstanding Financial Pornography

Post by Flaccidsteele »

Nice 'problem' to have! :thumbsup:

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