Claeren, my housekeeper knows you and says to say hi.
While I disagree with some of what you espouse, you do make some good points. Among them:
Yes, following the majority does work about 90% of the time. I think it's the other 10% of the when people are screaming to buy or sell, that's when it makes sense to go against the grain and go the other direction. When the cab driver is advising you on what stocks to buy because everyone is making money, that's cause for worry, in my view. When everyone is worried and selling, that's likely the time to be looking at buying. The more the fear, the more optimism I have. YOu do make a similar point.
I do have trouble with your criticisms of financial advisors. I will give you this. I think most advisors are lousy. A good friend of mine used to be a fund company wholesaler and has now become an advisor. He used to work with hundreds of advisors and saw how they do business. He told me one, and I agreed, that most of the people in our business are poor, that they tend to do the easy thing and not necessarily the right thing. It's easy to sell a resource fund after a long run up. It's far harder to seel that fund after it's been beaten down a lot, but that's the time when people should be doing that.
I have a problem with your speculation about currencies. With respect, not you, I or anyone else knows where currencies are headed in the short term so speculating on them is futile, I'd argue. The best strategy is and always has been to have a properly diversifed portfolio with appropriate investments and not try to profit from short-term movements because we can't know that and over the long term currencies tend not to matter anyway.
There are good advisors out there. I know Slava and believe him to be one. I know that my interests are for the client's best interest. there are good advisors out there. Unfortunately, lots of investors have had bad experiences with the poor ones and it's tainted their views of our industry.
Good discussion; keep it up.