[quote=Greenbacks]

Greenhills:

Best of Luck to and others that may follow your stock picking strategies! TA

 I am weening my self of of stock picking. Some one once asked me to name a successful stock picking money manager from the 80's or the 90's that still exits in the profession today? I could not maybe you  can. But the point being they are far and few between and the odds of me finding them or coming across a successful strategy is highly unlikely!

That is why I am moving toward DFA I know I am not smarter then the William Sharpes and  Kenneth French and Eugene Fama or Rodger Ibbotson, Robert Merton, Myron Scholes. I will stick to there proven strategies! They gave up on TA and momentum strategies decades ago!

Again Best of luck to you ! Maybe you will win a Nobel Prize To

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Yah Merton and Scholes were so smart about how markets REALLY work that they managed to help folks lose BILLIONS of dollars and create a major market crisis via the collapse of Long Term Capital.

Good one Joe,

I get so tired of people blindly worshiping the Nobel winning financial scientists.  A lot of these guys have a great grasp on the left brained side (teechnical) of the market but no concept of the intuitive aspects.  I really liked in the Money Game when the author compared the market to a woman.  Yeah, when you take in aggregate all the various transactions and activities the market participates in, you get probability distribution curves, efficient markets and a whole bunch of other technically eloquent ways of categorizing and homogonizing data.  Problem is, is that we are just a speck in those homogonized statistics.  What's it mean, I don't know, but what I am concerned about is that if you follow the crowd (which now is MPT wrap programs, Ibbotson allocation driven) you'll probably end up on the lower ranges of the return distribution curve and in a low return environment people will  inevitably be disappointed (assuming of course that we're in a low return environment, which I don't know for sure).  Maybe I am an idiot or concerned about nothing.  Just thoughts that creep in from time to time.

[quote=Greenbacks]

I am weening my self of of stock picking.

I agree with Duke and you are definately not an idiot.   

Well I guess I must be crazy but I am going more and more into doing everything myself.  I use MATES for most managed accounts and it is working well.  It is an added burden I suppose however I like doing it. I screen first for top ranked fundamental equities and then I screen for technicals.  I wont buy a stock that has "great" fundamentals if the technicals don't also look right. Since I am on MATES using discretion I have specific guidelines I have to follow but all in all I am happy and it gives an added level of service to my clients that they like.  I also feel I am better able to control risk being that I am fairly tactical.

WHat ever works though is good with me.  I don't see anything wrong with mutual funds or outside managers but they arent for me.    

NOT an idiot! 

In the history of Wall Street, whenever 'everyone' is doing something because it's the best way to make money, all the excess returns are eventually wrung out of the system.  (Not sure if I really said that too well, but I think many of you know what I mean.)

I use asset allocated fund portfolios, but even those I'm always looking to tweak to add a little something different rather than just being 'trapped by the style boxes'.

I am not familiar with MATES, and would be interested if y'all could tell me a little more about this program.  What is it exactly?

Mates is a platform that enables you to place simultaneous trades in multiple discretionary accounts.  For example you can add a 4% postion into AMD accross all accounts.  It lets you also seperate portfolios so for example you want to place the above trade in your #1 portfolio.  I have three portfolios.  You can also seperate trades by qualified and nonqualified accounts.  Also lets say you want to buy 4% but you have some accounts that don’t have 4% in cash.  It will buy up to the max cash in the account or your desired % which ever is greater.  It is the same platform that institutional managers and MFD guys use.   

In other words, a buy allocation screen?

[quote=Malcolm]Mates is a platform that enables you to place simultaneous trades in multiple discretionary accounts.  For example you can add a 4% postion into AMD accross all accounts.  It lets you also seperate portfolios so for example you want to place the above trade in your #1 portfolio.  I have three portfolios.  You can also seperate trades by qualified and nonqualified accounts.  Also lets say you want to buy 4% but you have some accounts that don't have 4% in cash.  It will buy up to the max cash in the account or your desired % which ever is greater.  It is the same platform that institutional managers and MFD guys use.   [/quote]

Sounds cool.  Where do you get it?

If you really want to be an idiot, transfer to Edward Jones Investments...................GP's will have you bending over having you drink Kool Aid until you start liking it then they'll really bend you over

Malcolm may be with Smith Barney.  MATES is the trading allocation system they use.  I don’t know if it’s a proprietary system they built or a 3rd party system they incorporated.  All major firms (I believe)have similar systems available whether built internally or 3rd party.  CheckFree’s APL trading system is a 3rd party system many b/ds and money managers use.

Yea, I'm with a wire house and they have it.  Do indys have anything like it?  THat would be a major problem with me ever leaving if I couldnt have discretionary accounts and the great trading platform. 

[quote=Malcolm]

Yea, I'm with a wire house and they have it.  Do indys have anything like it?  THat would be a major problem with me ever leaving if I couldnt have discretionary accounts and the great trading platform. 

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Some do, some don't, and I'm sure there are varying degrees of capability w/in those that do, depending on what they're using.  Definitely something you'd want to look into if you start to look at indy.

In fact, don't take anything for granted re resources, or you may have some bad surprises after a move.  List all the things (products, technology elements, services, etc.) that are now important to you & your clients, and use that list as a part of your due diligence process.  Obviously no firm (whether another wirehouse or indy) may be a perfect match w/ such things, but you've got to identify those elements that are workable for you and those that are deal killers.