Here are the main problems with the financial services industry as I see it:
1. Broker/Client Interests are NEVER Aligned
You may be asking, “Well if I make more money doesn’t my broker make more money? And isn’t that good for the both of us?”
Theoretically, yes. However, as long as an adviser is paid based on the number of trades you make or the amount of money you keep in your account then he or she is NEVER motivated to do well for you.
They are not paid based on how well your stocks perform – whether or not your account goes up or down they still get paid a commission every single time you buy and sell a stock.
That’s like having a car mechanic who gets paid for the number of times he fixes your car – he’ll just make sure it stays broken for as long as possible and will continue to steal your money!
2. It’s Never About Making You Wealthy
The other thing to realize is that the people who work on Wall Street don’t want you to become insanely wealthy. If that happened then there’s a chance you’d leave them.
There’s a chance you’d stop playing the game.
So why would they try to make you wealthy? Answer: they won’t!
Instead they feed you products like Mutual Funds and Index Funds so you’ll just mimic the market and do average! Not good, not bad, just average.
3. They Always Keep Control
And one of the biggest scams that Wall Street has going for them is that they convince the investing public that investing on their own is dangerous. They convince everybody that in order to do well you need an army of analysts and bankers to tell you which stocks are good and which stocks are bad. Then, and only then, can you profit in the market!
If that were the case then why do most Mutual Funds have a tough time beating the market? And on the flipside of that argument, why does the most successful investor in the history of the world have an office of only 8 people?
Bottom line: There’s no good reason why you can’t do just as well investing on your own if you equip yourself with the right information!
Blurring The Line
As you can see there’s a serious problem in this business – there’s always a clear line in the sand: “you” and “them”. It’s never “us”.
We need to change that and we need to change it fast. We need to come up with a way where you and those you take advice from are sitting on the same side of the table.
The only way that gets done is if we change the nature of the client-advisor relationship – it can no longer be a “one way relationship”, it has to become a relationship of reciprocation, a “two way relationship”. Let me explain what I mean…
As of right now what happens when you buy a stock?
Your broker calls you (or vice versa) and rattles off a couple of stocks – you pick the one that sounds best and you buy it. That’s a one directional relationship – your advisor pushes information toward you.
Now, think about it this way – what if you could sit down at the same table as your advisor and have him teach you his process for digging through stocks?
Well, we know that would never happen due to the reasons we talked about before – if they gave away the “secret sauce” then you wouldn’t need them anymore. If they showed you how to invest, then you could go off and do it on your own.
Well, for most established companies in this industry that logic makes a lot of sense – it wouldn’t be in their best interests to make you a great investor. It would be in their interests to make you dependent upon them.
Tycoon has a distinct advantage here and that’s why our perspective on the situation is dramatically different from most. Our business isn’t predicated upon keeping you under our control.
And that's why we've been working day and night here at Tycoon - we want our vision of educating and empowering investors to become a reality.
We’ve tried to make the Tycoon Report the most comprehensive free newsletter on the market. We’re drastically overhauling our website and are in the process of putting the finishing touches on some exciting new features.
And for those of you who are part of the Beta program you'll be the first to see what we have in store - but remember, the benefit of getting to see these features early also comes with some responsibility. We'll need you to not only test the features but also help contribute to the community and encourage other members to do the same.
I'll have more info for you all shortly - and thanks to everyone for commenting on my photo, choosing a winner is gonna be so hard! :)
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6 comments:
Somehow I left my comments on a different web site when I thought that I was answering your article. When I signed in I was redirected to Google's Blogspot. The URL is:
http://volumespreadanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/06/volume-spread-analysis.html
bfez
Hi Wayne,
I totally agree with your comments about the relationship between the brokers and us. They would always recommend you to buy.. never sell because when you buy, you will also have to sell sometimes or rather. Also the brokers always says nice things about the stocks they cover and never bad about them for they want to be invited every time the companies have their annual/semi-annual parties and company's tours where they are lavishly treated.
Cheers.
Hua Siam - very good points on all fronts and the main reason for all of that is your interests and your broker's interests are never aligned. And this is coming from the mouth of a former stock broker - I couldn't stomach the business anymore and that's why we're here trying to change the game. I hope you have started your article and this would actually be a GREAT topic to write about!
I really like the Tycoon's concept for the newsletter of "teaching a person to fish" - many people will be able to eat well because of your reports. As for me, I'm working my way up, from sardines to tuna to shrimp every now and then; one day I'll be able to have shrimp and lobster every day.
Much Thanks!
Wayne ruminated:
"Now, think about it this way – what if you could sit down at the same table as your advisor and have him teach you his process for digging through stocks?"
Well that's easy. The broker, if working for a firm of any reasonable size, has a list of approved and "researched" investments to offer to the investor. The brokers are encouraged not to stray from the message.
Any monkey can read from a list. The broker's job is to determine what kinds of companies the investor likes and recommend the ones on his list that match what the investor likes. Sensible or not doesn't matter.
- John
John, then the real question becomes "why" are those companies on the "approved list"? Is it because they're really good companies? Or is it because the brokerage is courting those companies for Investment Banking deals?
In any case the client still isn't getting the benefit of sitting down with the analyst who went through those companies to begin with. I think you could even agree that it's better to be equipped with as much information as possible.
-W
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