Posts by BenWilson
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The hard part is measuring people's intent.
Exactly. I fully intend to sell my house for a profit eventually. If I chose shares which don't pay dividends, the same would be true. But the IRD needs rules so they do the best they can.
I agree that index fund generally has a more specific meaning than managed fund.
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It really doesn't matter what the problem of the day is, the Bush solution is tax cuts for the rich.
I'm starting to think there's some truth in Klein's 'shock doctrine'. The more severe the problem, the more BushCo seem to push for their traditional solutions. Nice feedback loop, since it seems like the traditional solutions are pretty good at creating severe problems.
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Stephen, I wasn't trying to be semantic about it, just suggesting that an index fund isn't quite as purely unmanaged as it may seem. The way in which such a fund is kept in line with the index is quite a complex process which involves human judgments. The question of when to rebalance any stock which has moved in price, so as to keep transaction fees to a minimum, is not simple.
I don't really get the distinction either our or the ozzie tax departments are making about trading for gain. You wouldn't be in the stockmarket at all if it wasn't to gain. But tax systems aren't that rational either. I'm also in property to gain (in the long run). The line between having assets that you buy and sell and 'being a trader' is quite a hazy one, I guess they have to just base it on the number of transactions. But an index fund can have one hell of a lot of transactions.
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I guess an index fund is technically a managed fund though. Certainly some managed funds are index funds.
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Dunno about 'irrational'. I'd call them 'unpredictable'. It's not irrational to panic and pull out of a crashing market. But the effects of people doing that are hard to predict. Unpredictable != Irrational unless you want to call the weather irrational.
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Where are the breaks for index funds which research shows to consistently outperform managed funds?
Do they need breaks? If they're outperforming consistently, they should sell themselves.
An index fund is the only kind I'd want, personally. But paying off debt is by far the best option in NZ at the moment for most people.
I suspect part of our slightly less precipitous fall is on account of that - that margin borrowing for stock here has already taken it's hit when our interest rates kept rising. So the panic sell off will be less.
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Like I said, after a quick look at the candidates' economic policies, I wonder if they're capable of sensible policy shifts.
Watching American politics I often wonder if the candidates have anything to do with policy.
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Russell, can you get another case worker? I know for a fact that not everyone from Special Education shares her beliefs about mainstreaming, as you tell it.
Very happy to hear of the older boy's achievements, though. The mind is mysterious and wonderful.
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Rare gaffe during Clark eulogy <from Herald transcript>:
"Sir Ed's achievement on that day cannot be underestimated."
Have a good think about what that actually means....
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I expect National won't need nearly so many comms people because they'll hardly want to be telling the public what they're up to, now will they?
No, but they will spend the budget complaining about what Labour is up to. It's been working pretty well for them so far.
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