Investing - Theory, News & General • Re: The Day The Factors Died

It was very interesting seeing Ben Felix, a great mind, being flabbergasted at the discussion he had with Andrew Chen and how it "turned everything I believed to be true on its head". Wonder if he and PWL Capital will capitulate from their factor investing strategy...

To be clear, me being "flabbergasted" was a bit of a show. I had already read all the papers and knew what Andrew had to say before he said it.

I won't be changing my portfolio or the PWL models based on this episode. Here's what I said a few days ago over in the Rational Reminder Community.

I agree there is a tendency for people to want to act on new information.

It should be instructive that my personal portfolio and the portfolios I oversee for PWL clients have not changed much since we started the RR podcast, and any changes that have been made have been very small, and not in response to a recent podcast episode.

For anyone who listens to our podcast, we discuss in next week's episode why Andrew's research is not a death blow to factor investing.

I agree with this.

Eh, "great mind" might be a bit of an embellishment. I think of him as finance guy with a podcast.

Hi Ben:

Good to see you post over here at Bogleheads. I suppose I did the equivalent of beating a hornet's nest with a stick and then running like heck. Not being provocative for the sake of being provocative but I wanted to draw attention to an important podcast that was worthy of discussion. Factor investors need to hear the case against their point of view and in the long run this is healthy. For the record, I am not giving up my factor tilts and I can see that you have made very little change in your investments as well. But I can see the evidence for and the evidence against and better make my own choices.

I did have a bit of fun with the Don McLean song, Bye, Bye, American Pie and its reference to the day that the music died. Couldn't help alluding to the song and titling this thread "The Day the Factors Died". I suppose I couldn't resist, it was fun and stimulated good discussion. I am glad some Bogleheads listened to your excellent podcast. This does bring some perspective, on that tragic day in 1959, three well known musicians died in a plane crash and it was a very sad day. Hopefully the three will be remembered for a long time. The thing is, no matter how you believe regarding academic research and factors, this debate pales in comparison to real life tragic events. Hopefully though there will some serious learning here.

Keep up the good work. Love your podcast and of course I post over at the Rational Reminder Forum. I appreciate the excellent guests and the different points of view that are provided. I also enjoy your YouTube channel. Thank you for posting over here, hopefully you don't feel the need for a helmet and a flack jacket, around these parts there are fans of the podcasts and the YouTube videos.

Statistics: Posted by nedsaid — Thu Aug 08, 2024 4:14 am

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