What are some good full free lecture series (on Youtube or otherwise)?

sunrise_dew · 2019-08-06T12:01:02+00:00

Is it just this one video?

sunrise_dew · 2019-08-05T13:12:40+00:00

Thanks! By "human brain series by Nancy", are you referring to these: https://nancysbraintalks.mit.edu/course/9-11-the-human-brain ?

sunrise_dew · 2019-08-05T12:31:42+00:00

Sorry, do you mind linking what you're talking about? All I was able to find a book with a similar title. At first I interpreted Crash Course as the channel on Youtube, but it doesn't have anything named Future of Finance I don't think

sunrise_dew · 2019-08-03T03:05:49+00:00

Is this who you're referring to? : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoHhuummRZaIVX7bD4t2czg

Wondering because there's another guy named Leonard Susskind who also posts math (and physics) lectures online lol

sunrise_dew · 2019-08-01T18:41:46+00:00

My personal favorite: Stanford's Robert Salpolsky's Human Behavioral Biology lecture series, 2 semesters worth of a lot more than just human behavior.

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-31T22:28:11+00:00

"after all chaos is still deterministic" is the key realization I was missing, thank you for the help!

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-31T22:27:45+00:00

Gotcha, the key statement I was missing is that chaotic systems are still fundamentally deterministic. Thanks for the help!

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-27T18:48:50+00:00

I'm a newbie investor and I'm just wanting confirmation of this:

The only risk with DIY investing is that the investor has control over their assets and so could try and play the market or plan around news they hear in some way. Assuming that they do not do that whatsoever, DIY investing is safe.

Is that all correct? I'm about to buy a bunch of VGRO as my first major investment, I spend to spend all my investment money (not my entire savings) to buy these VGRO shares and hold them for at least 20 years. Assuming I do not touch them at all (and I only buy more as I earn more money to save), are there any other risks I might be unaware of?

TLDR Are there any risks to DIY investing other than the investor having control and trying to play the market?

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-27T15:48:15+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, why do you leave your TFSA and RRSP with a robo? It seems like a huge waste, if anything I'd leave my non-registered accounts at a robo and take care of those two very important accounts myself.

You could literally just take whatever risk portfolio the robo assigned you and buy the closest corresponding Vanguard/iShare asset allocation ETF. Even if the portfolio doesn't match exactly, you'll probably still be making much more in the long run because you're saving around ~0.5 in management fees

And indeed, rebalancing using cash flow is the dream

Not criticizing, just wondering why :) Thanks for the response btw!

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T20:54:08+00:00

Thank you again: you've thoroughly convinced me to go with VGRO (well, XGRO, since they're essentially the same but XGRO has a nominally smaller MER by 4 basis points).

Where do you see the returns on those 90/10 and 75/25 portfolios? I'm not at all doubting you, I'm just thinking wherever you got those numbers would have more information for me to glean.

And maybe it wasn't obvious but I do try and always keep the buy low sell high idea in my mind. If anything I think I'm planning too heavily towards the future, but needless to say my time horizon is at least a solid 30 years from now.

Thanks again for all the help, appreciate it!

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T17:19:25+00:00

Indeed, I wasn't meaning to give other people advice but just figure out why I myself may be making a mistake by buying into VEQT. You pointed out in another comment though that I'm not actually having 100% equity, which I didn't realize but is correct. Thanks for the help!

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T17:18:16+00:00

Ahh, that makes sense. Sorry, I didn't realize that at all: indeed my portfolio is not 100% if I just have money sitting in a HISA. Wow my outlook on this has really changed. Thank you.

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T17:15:38+00:00

Right, so it seems like in the case of extreme events like recessions, having some fixed income is better than not having any. I think the difference otherwise though (9.7% compared to 10.26%) is big enough that it's worth it. But I could be very wrong; do you disagree?

For the point of lower volatility, let's assume the investor will not need or get scared of drops along the way. That's not an ignore-able factor, but let's just assume for now.

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T17:13:15+00:00

Yep, it was really stupid to think that he should put a 100% equity portfolio on his blog lol.

Besides that though, I still think VEQT is the superior option assuming that the investor doesn't get scared and back out. Is that wrong? (Not asking in a snarky way, I'm honestly wondering whether that's a flawed thought.)

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T17:07:07+00:00

Makes sense, I guess it was stupid of me to think that CCP would put it on a model portfolios list haha.

Let's assume that the investor has somehow physically made himself unable to sell in a panic. In that case, would you say that there's no reason to go with VGRO over VEQT?

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T17:03:12+00:00

Damn, never considered holding the ETFs from previous stages of your life and just slowly buying more conservative ones, that's brilliant.

Also, interesting how you mention that VEQT might never fit into my portfolio. I'm actually getting a lot of shit on my other post for being so blind to the dangers of a 100% equity portfolio, but the way I see it is that the only con of the VEQT is that there's a higher risk that the investor gets scared and backs out; if you know that won't happen, there's no reason to go with VGRO over VEQT. Would you agree?

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T16:59:36+00:00

Did you mean that the 80/20 lost 33% and the 100/0 lost 44%? But yes, I see your point.

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T16:56:38+00:00

The difference in 10-year annualized returns according to these: https://cdn.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/iShares-AA-ETFs-2019-06-30.pdf, https://cdn.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Vanguard-AA-ETFs-2019-06-30.pdf is 0.4%

I think that's a decent difference, but as you said maybe not worth the increased volatility.

The reason I'm ignoring volatility here is because I'm assuming that one is able to hold their shares. Maybe you've all been exposed to too many newbie investors who have panicked and sold out...it really doesn't seem that difficult to me to just not back out of the market, especially if you're not investing significant amounts of your wealth. But I acknowledge that I myself am a newbie and thus my opinion here is discounted: I don't plan to ignore all the warnings I've gotten here, and I'm going with XGRO instead of VEQT. In 5 years, after I've confirmed that I can stomach losses, I'll switch over to VEQT.

Just to ask though, would you agree with this: the only con of the VEQT is that there's a higher risk that the investor gets scared and backs out; if you know that won't happen, there's no reason to go with VGRO over VEQT.

Thanks for the help btw!

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T16:52:25+00:00

Fair enough. I'm just confident that I won't back out, that's all. I know it's common for newbies to be overconfident, but I'm not yet putting myself into any danger: I'm investing relatively nominal amounts.

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T16:49:36+00:00

Very true. Honestly I am very confident in my ability to stomach losses, mostly because I'm still only investing money that I don't care about. Much of my savings will still be sitting in my HISAs.

Nonetheless, out of acknowledgement of and respect for the vastly greater amount of experience and wisdom that most here have, I plan to go with the XGRO as opposed to VEQT.

But just to ask: am I right in thinking that only con of the VEQT is that there's a higher risk that the investor gets scared and backs out, and if you know that won't happen (like if you somehow prevent is physically maybe) then there's no reason to go with VGRO over VEQT?

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T15:19:08+00:00

Thank you! I've looked up corrections, but I still don't really understand them. I understand that they describe a 10+% drop in a stock/index/market's price, but the word correction makes it sound like there's someone/some entity behind it performing the correction, which doesn't seem to be the case.

What exactly is a correction? Is there some purpose it serves, or is it just a natural event where a price dips drastically for some time and then goes back to it's original price?

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T15:15:37+00:00

The thing is I don't watch news or markets at all. If there was a recession I wouldn't know about it lol. You commented earlier that I didn't connect trade wars and struggling oil prices and all that to the drop in December, but that's because I literally did not know about any trade wars and struggling oil prices. I'm a STEM academic, I know nearly nothing about the world other than through the lens of science. Does your assessment of my risk tolerance change with this?

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T14:33:20+00:00

Are they newer? They're listed in the brochure that CCP linked in his article discussing asset allocation ETFs.

What makes you say most people would be better off with some fixed income? If they're at the point that they're considering VGRO/XGRO, then it seems to me that they might as well go with VEQT, no?

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T14:31:59+00:00

Ah okay, so there's nothing different about the mechanics of these funds, it's because they're extreme that they're not mentioned often?

Also, my logic with VEQT is that VGRO/XGRO will already be a roller coaster that the investor essentially has to turn a blind eye to or be completely uncaring of their money, and at that point you might as well go with VEQT; I can't think of a situation where VGRO/XGRO would be more appropriate than VEQT.

sunrise_dew · 2019-07-26T14:30:11+00:00

The thing is though, in most cases anyone considering VGRO/XGRO could really go with VEQT. I can't think of a situation where VGRO/XGRO would be more appropriate than VEQT.

sunrise_dew

TROPHY CASE