Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

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Patzer
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by Patzer »

VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 4:36 pm These days, so many IPOs (and SPACs) seem like toys of the elite. By buying total market funds, I can't shake the sense that I'm bailing out early-stage Silicon Valley investors and funding their social activism.

Index front-running is an issue for S&P 500 funds. (Once a company is announced for inclusion in the S&P 500, its stock price is immediately driven up by investors who know giant S&P 500 funds are about to issue huge market buy orders.)

However, for total market funds and the new, illiquid stocks they need to buy, "public market front-running" might be an even greater issue! Why should I want to blindly buy companies being dumped by elite early-stage investors?

Could someone please talk some sense into me?
S&P 500 doesn't have a big front running problem, because they don't change a ton of stocks in/out of the index per year, so the assets impacted by this are usually only a few percent of a typical S&P 500 fund.
Holding VTI means you avoid the S&P 500 front running issue, because you hold everything.

Over 80% of VTI is made up of S&P 500 companies, so less than 20% of your assets could in the type of companies you are talking about, but most of that 20% is actually just small and mid-cap companies, so you actually have only a few percent of assets in the type of companies you are talking about.

There are about 2 Trillion dollars in companies in VTI that I think are BS, but that makes up ~4% of the fund, so it really doesn't matter.
Half of that is Tesla, which is not worth a Trillion dollars IMHO, but since I held it in VTI, I got to gain from it's rise in valuation all the way up to 1 Trillion. So, while I think that 1 Trillion is a bad investment, if it crashes back down to 100 Billion, I am just giving back profits on it.

In conclusion, VTI for life.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by mikejuss »

nisiprius wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:43 pm The total market is always going to include stuff that you or I think is awful, it goes with the total market territory.

But what percentage of the money we are putting into Total Stock is going into IPOs?

Let's see if I can get some numbers to do some back-of-the-envelope arithmetic.

This says
For the year, FactSet data shows that the volume of IPOs more than doubled from 2019, with 494 IPOs recorded for all of 2020. In aggregate, IPOs raised $174 billion in 2020
So we are talking about $174 billion in a market of very roughly $50,000 billion, or about 0.35%.

(And as others have noted above, I don't know that they all were bought by Total Stock).

I can tolerate 0.35% going into stuff I don't like. That's 99.65% going into stuff that is not IPOs. That's purer than Ivory Soap.

And even if most of them are junk, some of them are going to be fabulously successful. I'm not sorry VTI bought the Tesla IPO in 2010.
Thank you for this informative post.
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skierincolorado
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by skierincolorado »

VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:11 pm
skierincolorado wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:34 pm
[…]

If this were the case then buying at the IPO and PE would have gigantic outperformance and they don't. Even if they did outperform slightly, I would still be relatively unconcerned because they are a small part of the market. Although it might motivate me to go out and get at least market weight or overweight tilt into the PE and IPO markets. I just don't see any quantitative evidence that we are being seriously front run. And certainly not in any way that would significantly affect returns.
I don’t believe it follows that buying at IPO would grant outperformance. Instead, buying before IPO would.
That's why I said PE (private equity) or IPO.

You hypothesized that VTI is frontrun. VTI doesn't buy at IPO - it buys when sufficient liquidity is established. Either way, I'm not aware of signficant outperformance by PE or following IPO. If VTI was being frontrun, either or both would show major outperformance.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by oragne lovre »

nisiprius wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:43 pm The total market is always going to include stuff that you or I think is awful, it goes with the total market territory.

But what percentage of the money we are putting into Total Stock is going into IPOs?

Let's see if I can get some numbers to do some back-of-the-envelope arithmetic.

This says
For the year, FactSet data shows that the volume of IPOs more than doubled from 2019, with 494 IPOs recorded for all of 2020. In aggregate, IPOs raised $174 billion in 2020
So we are talking about $174 billion in a market of very roughly $50,000 billion, or about 0.35%.

(And as others have noted above, I don't know that they all were bought by Total Stock).

I can tolerate 0.35% going into stuff I don't like. That's 99.65% going into stuff that is not IPOs. That's purer than Ivory Soap.

And even if most of them are junk, some of them are going to be fabulously successful. I'm not sorry VTI bought the Tesla IPO in 2010.
This
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mikejuss
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by mikejuss »

This is a nonissue issue, folks.
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luckyducky99
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by luckyducky99 »

000 wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:13 pm I agree they're small potatoes, but they are a cost and costs matters.

Between IPOs, executives dumping stock, front running, and other index problems, what is the cost in basis points to the investor?
Sure. I don’t know the actual cost, but for sure you’re right it’s something. More importantly to me, I’m unlikely to trust anyone who (a) claims to know and (b) claims to be able to save those costs and (c) is willing charge less than the savings for doing so. It seems like one of those areas where distinguishing signal from noise just isn’t practical.

But if you figure it out or find someone who does, come back and let us know… :beer
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by Northern Flicker »

From: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberg ... e-is-mixed
Of all 117 SPAC merger deals—with an aggregate value of $99.3 billion—that were announced between Jan. 1, 2019 and Feb. 10, 2021, and for which definitive agreements have been entered into, 39 deals—with an aggregate value of $47.9 billion—have reached completion so far. The performance data we reviewed was of the de-SPACed entities associated with 24 of those 39 deals, all of which have had at least one month pass since their closing date and remain currently listed on stock exchanges.
How did things turnout for those 24?
...14 out of 24 reported a depreciation in value as of one month following the completion of the merger. It’s true that, as of Feb. 10, the same group of companies has shown some improvement, with one-third reporting a year-to-date depreciation in value.
Carguy85
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by Carguy85 »

It’s disheartening to think our family has in part benefited from certain companies but what is the alternative?...buy single stocks and know the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against us to come out ahead in the long run financially. I feel obligated to invest in what I think is best for my family in the long run. At times I feel like a little bit of a slimeball when I look at the performance of some of these companies since say Jan 2020. However, such companies are a very small portion...getting out of SP 500 and vtsax would certainly be throwing out the baby with the bath water.
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VTI
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by VTI »

skierincolorado wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:31 pm
VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:11 pm
skierincolorado wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:34 pm
[…]

If this were the case then buying at the IPO and PE would have gigantic outperformance and they don't. Even if they did outperform slightly, I would still be relatively unconcerned because they are a small part of the market. Although it might motivate me to go out and get at least market weight or overweight tilt into the PE and IPO markets. I just don't see any quantitative evidence that we are being seriously front run. And certainly not in any way that would significantly affect returns.
I don’t believe it follows that buying at IPO would grant outperformance. Instead, buying before IPO would.
That's why I said PE (private equity) or IPO.
I apologize. I should have caught that.
You hypothesized that VTI is frontrun. VTI doesn't buy at IPO - it buys when sufficient liquidity is established. Either way, I'm not aware of signficant outperformance by PE or following IPO. If VTI was being frontrun, either or both would show major outperformance.
A quick Google search says "yes", PE does indeed outperform public markets. However, my concern isn't whether PE in general outperforms, nor do I have any ill will toward the notion of someone owning a stake in a private business.

My concerns (both practical and emotional) are:
  • As our friend arcticpineapplecorp has explained elsewhere in this thread, it's my perception that many recent IPOs and SPACs aren't intended to raise capital. Instead, they're crash grabs from insiders over-eager to dump their bags on the unsuspecting public.
  • Even if VTI isn’t buying at any IPO, everyone who does buy at the IPO knows that giant buy orders are right around the corner. I can't imagine any scenario in which the existence of large total market funds fails to increase demand (and thus prices) for shares at IPO in modern public markets. (By the same token, the existence of public markets in general increases demand for private equity.)
  • On an emotional level, without getting into politics, I have a deep reluctance to particulate in the enrichment of the aforementioned insiders.
I don't need you to agree with anything I just said—I'm simply clarifying my beliefs.
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UpperNwGuy
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by UpperNwGuy »

I think we should all stop arguing with him. Nobody is convincing anybody.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by MBB_Boy »

Good on OP for asking to have some sense talked into them. The responses have been informative and in some cases thought provoking - maybe not enough to convince OP that there isn't a problem, but enough to reinforce that the scale of the problem in context is small, and that the bright minds who participated in the discussion don't have an easy solution.

The points around liquidity requirements and that the SP500 is actually sort of an active management index (if you squint) may actually make some people more comfortable with index investing
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by goodenyou »

skierincolorado wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:34 pm
VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:18 pm
Beensabu wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:33 pm
VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 4:36 pm Could someone please talk some sense into me?
You realize that the new very smallest cap stocks that get added to VTI are negligible as far the % held, right?

And that the performance of US Total Market funds to S&P 500 funds is pretty much the same, right?

If you're 100% VTI and pulling at straws like this to try to make sense of your anxiety, maybe rethink your asset allocation so your anxiety can chill out.
I’m actually 60%/40% VTSAX (VTI) and VTIAX (VXUS)! I chose this username due to a proclivity to collect short, rare names online.

The new companies represent a tiny fraction of the overall index at any given moment, but it’s a constant stream. Every single company that ultimately joins the index falls victim to public market front-running. (This is in contrast to the infrequent S&P 500 front running.)

However, I must admit that my frustration is not with the cost. It’s the spiritual damage of blindly bailing out early-investors.
skierincolorado wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:09 pm
Beensabu wrote:
VTI wrote: Could someone please talk some sense into me?
You realize that the new very smallest cap stocks that get added to VTI are negligible as far the % held, right?

And that the performance of US Total Market funds to S&P 500 funds is pretty much the same, right?

If you're 100% VTI and pulling at straws like this to try to make sense of your anxiety, maybe rethink your asset allocation so your anxiety can chill out.
This. And VTI doesn't even invest in all the illiquid startups anyways. CRSP has liquidity requirements. See "trading volume" on page 5.

https://www.crsp.org/files/Equity-Index ... uide_0.pdf
[ quote fixed by admin LadyGeek]

Liquidity requirements help soothe my spirit, but only slightly. Even if VTI isn’t buying at any IPO, everyone who does buy at the IPO knows Vanguard’s giant market buy orders are just around the corner.

Edit: Thank you for the fix, LadyGeek!
If this were the case then buying at the IPO and PE would have gigantic outperformance and they don't. Even if they did outperform slightly, I would still be relatively unconcerned because they are a small part of the market. Although it might motivate me to go out and get at least market weight or overweight tilt into the PE and IPO markets. I just don't see any quantitative evidence that we are being seriously front run. And certainly not in any way that would significantly affect returns.
The ‘Inconvenient Fact’ Behind
Private Equity Outperformance

"After fees, investors in private equity funds earn exactly what they would have in public stocks, according to new research. But the high fees have not only created a new billionaire class, they’re squeezing private equity-backed companies for unrealistic growth."


https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/a ... erformance
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Nowizard
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by Nowizard »

We use two actively managed funds for what we consider to be another type of diversification. They represent approximately 35% of our invested assets, the rest in total market funds.

Tim
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by arcticpineapplecorp. »

goodenyou wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:42 am The ‘Inconvenient Fact’ Behind
Private Equity Outperformance

"After fees, investors in private equity funds earn exactly what they would have in public stocks, according to new research. But the high fees have not only created a new billionaire class, they’re squeezing private equity-backed companies for unrealistic growth."


https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/a ... erformance
interesting article. thanks for sharing.
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AlohaBill
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by AlohaBill »

I agree you are starting to “look” like a schmuck too!
Just pick an asset allocation you can live with.
Invest as much as you can.
Return 20, 30, 40 years later,
very well off in time to die.
With Aloha,
Bill
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alpenglow
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by alpenglow »

This 3 fund schmuck is smiling all the way to the bank. :moneybag

OP - You are right that SPACs are a gravy train - for their sponsors!
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by mike@jb »

I’m not sure what a schmuck feels like.
I’ve never regretted any of the total market (stock or bond) funds I’ve invested in.
Can’t say the same for several individual stocks.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by abuss368 »

VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 4:36 pm These days, so many IPOs (and SPACs) seem like toys of the elite. By buying total market funds, I can't shake the sense that I'm bailing out early-stage Silicon Valley investors and funding their social activism.

Index front-running is an issue for S&P 500 funds. (Once a company is announced for inclusion in the S&P 500, its stock price is immediately driven up by investors who know giant S&P 500 funds are about to issue huge market buy orders.)

However, for total market funds and the new, illiquid stocks they need to buy, "public market front-running" might be an even greater issue! Why should I want to blindly buy companies being dumped by elite early-stage investors?

Could someone please talk some sense into me?
Total Market Index works. Owning a market at the lowest cost is mathematically certain to win over time.

Don’t forget that technology is a very material sector of the US markets.

The probably of any of us knowing which individual stock or SPAC to pick in advance is slim to none.

I would continue to buy total market index funds and years from now you will be happy you did.

Best.
Tony
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nedsaid
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by nedsaid »

VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 4:36 pm These days, so many IPOs (and SPACs) seem like toys of the elite. By buying total market funds, I can't shake the sense that I'm bailing out early-stage Silicon Valley investors and funding their social activism.

Index front-running is an issue for S&P 500 funds. (Once a company is announced for inclusion in the S&P 500, its stock price is immediately driven up by investors who know giant S&P 500 funds are about to issue huge market buy orders.)

However, for total market funds and the new, illiquid stocks they need to buy, "public market front-running" might be an even greater issue! Why should I want to blindly buy companies being dumped by elite early-stage investors?

Could someone please talk some sense into me?
There is no such thing as a perfect investment. One can find flaws in just about anything.

Frontrunning. Much less of an issue than it used to be as Index Funds as Vanguard has become quite skilled at trading. This is what Morningstar says:
Over the trailing one-, three-, five-, and 10-year periods ending December 2020, each share class of the fund trailed the S&P 500 by an amount approximating its annual expense ratio.
My guess is that revenue from portfolio lending has offset whatever losses there are from front running by traders. Also the expenses on the Vanguard 500 Index fund Admiral shares are only 0.04% a year. Four basis points, that's it.

The Vanguard 500 Index Fund remains an excellent investment.

It is true that the S&P 500 and Total Stock Market Indexes are a bit top heavy with the Mega-cap High Tech stocks but these indexes have historically been top heavy with the most successful companies in America. The top heavy effect has at times been higher in the past than it is now. It is something that I am concerned about too, the "problem" can be solved with mild Value tilting within the portfolio, that is what I am doing myself.

About 1/2 of my portfolio is indexed and when you count the individual stocks that are held but rarely traded, probably 60% of my portfolio is effectively passive. I own active funds with the other 40%. Not quite 30% of my retirement portfolio is managed by American Century Private Client Group Cautious Portfolio, the managers there do a bit of tactical asset allocation but their tactical bets are relatively small. Their approach right now is to be right in the middle between Value and Growth. So if you are right, if the Stock Market is experiencing too much speculation, I should outperform the broad market portfolio in the future a bit just as I have been trailing a broad market Index portfolio a bit since 2009. I think the Large Growth trend in the market is coming to an end but still too early to know for sure.

Over time, I would expect a Value tilted strategy to be about even with a Total Market Index strategy using the 4 "Totals": Total Stock Market Index, Total International Stock Index, Total Bond Market Index, and Total International Bond Index. If factor premiums still exist, my expectation is that a factor tilted portfolio would outperform a "Total Index" portfolio by 0.50% to perhaps 1.00% a year over very long periods of time. The jury is out whether those factor premiums of Size, Value, Momentum, Quality/Profitability, and Low Volatility still exist. So much has been published and so much money is chasing those premiums, they may have gone away, hard to say if that is temporary or permanent. My view is that the "Death of Factors" is temporary.

Even if you believe in factor premiums, a rational case can be made for not bothering with all of that and sticking to a 3 or 4 Fund portfolio of the "Total" funds. Over time, the market itself will deliver good returns. I believe in factor premiums myself but my expectations are modest, if I can squeeze an extra 0.50% a year, I will take it. For me to get that, I would have to see a great Value boom for a decade or more. The costs of implementation can overcome whatever performance premiums are achieved.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by Northern Flicker »

goodenyou wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:42 am The ‘Inconvenient Fact’ Behind
Private Equity Outperformance

"After fees, investors in private equity funds earn exactly what they would have in public stocks, according to new research. But the high fees have not only created a new billionaire class, they’re squeezing private equity-backed companies for unrealistic growth."


https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/a ... erformance
Yes. Andrew Sorkin reviewed at private equity in his 12/4/21 NYTimes column "Dealbook". According to an analysis by the American Investment Council (formerly called Private Equity Growth Capital Council), a lobbying group for the private equity industry:
As of September 2020, private equity funds had produced a 14.2 percent median annualized return, net of fees, over the previous 10 years, compared with 13.7 percent for the S&P 500...
But what return was harvested by investors?
Public pension funds invested in private equity actually had worse returns than from the S&P 500 — 12.8 percent, net of fees.
Ludovic Phalippou, Professor of Finance at the Said School of Business at Oxford, and author of the book "Private Equity Laid Bare" was cited in the article linked above by goodenyou. He is also quoted by Sorkin:
“The big picture is that they’re getting a lot of money for what they’re doing, and they’re not delivering what they have promised or what they pretend they’re delivering,” Mr. Phalippou said in an interview.
Last edited by Northern Flicker on Sun Dec 05, 2021 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by shess »

nedsaid wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 1:29 pm It is true that the S&P 500 and Total Stock Market Indexes are a bit top heavy with the Mega-cap High Tech stocks but these indexes have historically been top heavy with the most successful companies in America. The top heavy effect has at times been higher in the past than it is now. It is something that I am concerned about too, the "problem" can be solved with mild Value tilting within the portfolio, that is what I am doing myself.
The big problem with this "problem" is that nobody knows if the market is right about these valuations, or not. There's the saying "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent", which addresses the issue of an investor having a different idea than the market - but it's also true that reality itself can outlast an investor's ability to be contrarian. My beliefs in the relative merits of Facebook as a concept and whether Facebook deserves success aren't necessarily relevant to the actual success of Facebook as a company. I could be completely correct, and Facebook could still succeed, because the market doesn't evaluate things based on concepts like fairness.

Put another way, I have a ton of beliefs about whether various companies should be successful or not, and for the most part those beliefs have been wrong, so I'm loath to bet my money on my ability to ferret out those differences successfully. Years ago I joined a startup which had a product with really obvious utility, we had modest success, but ultimately failed. Later, I joined a startup and saw their internal numbers and I couldn't believe it, it just didn't make sense, and now I'm retired early because of the performance of that stock. I honestly still don't believe it. If the world was me, they wouldn't make money. In the end I just have to recognize that there was a revenue stream to be tapped, and not worry about whether it made sense for that revenue stream to exist in the first place.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by nedsaid »

shess wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 1:55 pm
nedsaid wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 1:29 pm It is true that the S&P 500 and Total Stock Market Indexes are a bit top heavy with the Mega-cap High Tech stocks but these indexes have historically been top heavy with the most successful companies in America. The top heavy effect has at times been higher in the past than it is now. It is something that I am concerned about too, the "problem" can be solved with mild Value tilting within the portfolio, that is what I am doing myself.
The big problem with this "problem" is that nobody knows if the market is right about these valuations, or not. There's the saying "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent", which addresses the issue of an investor having a different idea than the market - but it's also true that reality itself can outlast an investor's ability to be contrarian. My beliefs in the relative merits of Facebook as a concept and whether Facebook deserves success aren't necessarily relevant to the actual success of Facebook as a company. I could be completely correct, and Facebook could still succeed, because the market doesn't evaluate things based on concepts like fairness.

Put another way, I have a ton of beliefs about whether various companies should be successful or not, and for the most part those beliefs have been wrong, so I'm loath to bet my money on my ability to ferret out those differences successfully. Years ago I joined a startup which had a product with really obvious utility, we had modest success, but ultimately failed. Later, I joined a startup and saw their internal numbers and I couldn't believe it, it just didn't make sense, and now I'm retired early because of the performance of that stock. I honestly still don't believe it. If the world was me, they wouldn't make money. In the end I just have to recognize that there was a revenue stream to be tapped, and not worry about whether it made sense for that revenue stream to exist in the first place.
A person could make a rational choice to tilt away a bit from a market portfolio if someone is concerned about excessive speculation in the bigger stocks in the index. It is also a rational choice to stay invested with a market portfolio because of the belief that it all evens out in the end. There are different opinions out there and different choices that can be made and that is what makes a market. Hard to say if the Indexes being top heavy with a few stocks is a problem or not, one reason I put quote marks around the word problem. Historically, the broad indexes have been top heavy, hard to say how top heavy is too top heavy or how much enthusiasm for the Large Growth stocks is too much.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by Booogle »

VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 4:36 pm These days, so many IPOs (and SPACs) seem like toys of the elite. By buying total market funds, I can't shake the sense that I'm bailing out early-stage Silicon Valley investors and funding their social activism.

Index front-running is an issue for S&P 500 funds. (Once a company is announced for inclusion in the S&P 500, its stock price is immediately driven up by investors who know giant S&P 500 funds are about to issue huge market buy orders.)

However, for total market funds and the new, illiquid stocks they need to buy, "public market front-running" might be an even greater issue! Why should I want to blindly buy companies being dumped by elite early-stage investors?

Could someone please talk some sense into me?


Buy NTSX.

NTSX isn't S&P 500 or total market.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by bondsr4me »

fads come and go....whether it's clothing or financial.

stay the course and avoid the noise.
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by firebirdparts »

VTI wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 4:36 pm These days, so many IPOs (and SPACs) seem like toys of the elite.
I missed something here. Not seeing much excitement around the performance of SPACs and IPOs this year. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong ones.
This time is the same
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Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by BolderBoy »

nisiprius wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:43 pm I can tolerate 0.35% going into stuff I don't like. That's 99.65% going into stuff that is not IPOs. That's purer than Ivory Soap.
Howling laughter!

Nisi nails it again.
"Never underestimate one's capacity to overestimate one's abilities" - The Dunning-Kruger Effect
Ferdinand2014
Posts: 2390
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:49 pm

Re: Starting to feel like a schmuck for buying total market funds!

Post by Ferdinand2014 »

100% of my stock investments are in VTSAX or FXAIX (Fidelity 500 index fund). I pay about $1,000 year on 5 million invested. We are in a golden age of investing access for everyone. I have zero of the concerns you express. I am happy as can be. Thank you Jack Bogle and Warren Buffett for putting me on the right path. I am the happiest schmuck alive.
“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.“ — Warren Buffett
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