Investing Meetup Report (Part 1)

I have attended several trading/investing Meetups over the years. Because I perceived an inherent conflict of interest between the Organizers and the attendees, I used to be very put off by these events. I have since developed an appreciation for networking in this business, however.

The other night, I attended a new Meetup. The advertisement for this Meetup specifically included a time slot for networking. This felt different to me. For this reason and the promise of free appetizers, I decided to go.

In the end, I found this Meetup to be very typical of others in my experience. I will review the evening in this blog series.

I arrived 15 minutes early and found the auditorium to be locked. An older man, dressed business casual in a coat and button-down shirt, was also present. He was another attendee and in short order he began spouting off “knowledge” about the markets, how investments work, ETFs, etc. I didn’t ask any basic questions or do anything to suggest I was looking for him for any answers.

This guy definitely fell into the “know-it-all” classification. He started talking about “market truths.” First, everything about the markets is random. Things have a 50/50 chance of going up or down. Second, over the long-term things will go up. “Believe in the power of humanity,” he suggested. Believe that innovation and productivity will continue, earnings will grow, new inventions will be created, etc. I wonder if this guy had ever seen a dystopian movie?

His third truth was John Maynard Keynes’ “markets can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent” concept. I asked if he was therefore a trend-follower.

“Absolutely,” he said.

“What happens when the markets revert to the mean?”

“Well sometimes when you have a fractal trading within a fractal and something gets overextended…”

I’m not kidding: he honestly started talking about a fractal within a fractal. I could virtually see the stinky brown, gushy stuff overflowing from his brain compartment.

I will continue in the next post.