Top all-time · #2737
The Irrelevant Investor
Personal blog · theirrelevantinvestor.comeconomicsbusiness
The Irrelevant Investor is a personal blog at theirrelevantinvestor.com about economics and business. Since 2016, 28 different Hacker News readers have linked it 54 times, most often “Buybacks are the wrong boogeyman”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (11) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite The Irrelevant Investor as a source for investing data, such as who owns US stocks (pension funds, 401ks, foreign holders) and how markets behave after downturns and missed best days.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 11 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/3 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2020-03-30
- /2020/10/25/who-owns-the-stock-market/3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-05-11
- Buybacks are the wrong boogeyman2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-08-09
What Hacker News says?
When your friends lose a ton of money, introduce them to the concept of "catching the falling knife" [0] [0]: https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2020/03/06/dont-catch-a-fa...
Comment linking /2020/03/06/dont-catch-a-falling-knife/
on “Trading halted as U.S. stocks plummet”Submitted It Feels Like the Game Is Rigged as a story · 161 points
HN discussionNo this is actually true. Most stocks do go down (or at least only match much less risky investments like short-term bonds), but the stock market goes up because some stocks go up a lot. This is why all investors diversify. For example, the Russel 3000 Index goes up ~10% a year because they remove bad stocks and replace them with ones that seem better. But, employment at a single company with stock-based compensatio…
Comment linking /2020/09/10/most-stocks-suck/
on “Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job”Submitted Advice for Aspiring Writers as a story · 125 points
HN discussion> […] and that people regularly buying into indices at any price is skewing the market. And at what price should people be investing in the market? Sitting on the side in cash, waiting for the dips and crashes to occur, will give you mediocre results: * https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-co... Further, trying to miss the worst days on market down turns often means missing the days with the bes…
Comment linking /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/
on “Ask HN: I have $450K cash, what should I do to maximize my return?”Submitted The Race to a Trillion as a story · 123 points
HN discussion> Something is true with index funds that was less true historically, which is the concentration of a few large companies in the largest indexes Which is to say, exactly like has been for the last several decades: * https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2020/07/the-nifty-fifty-and... * https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2018/11/26/the-nifty-fifty... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nifty_Fifty * https://etfdb.com/history-o…
Comment linking /2018/11/26/the-nifty-fifty/
on “Ask HN: I have $450K cash, what should I do to maximize my return?”Submitted The Price of Progress as a story · 56 points
HN discussion> Is the landscape of 1991 the same as the landscape of 2020, with its 10% of the s&p in just a few companies Yes, it is the same: * https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2020/07/the-nifty-fifty-and... * https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2018/11/26/the-nifty-fifty... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nifty_Fifty * https://etfdb.com/history-of-the-s-and-p-500/ * https://www.qad.com/blog/2019/10/sp-500-companies-over-time Th…
Comment linking /2018/11/26/the-nifty-fifty/
on “Ask HN: I have $450K cash, what should I do to maximize my return?”Submitted We Built a Crypto Index as a story · 4 points
HN discussionYup: follow Ben Carlson (the author of that weblog). As well as his colleague Michael Batnick ( https://theirrelevantinvestor.com ) and Nick Maggiulli ( https://ofdollarsanddata.com ). All the publicly facing folks at Ritholtz Wealth Management seem to be top tier.
Comment linking /
on “Reddit's Stock Threads Become a Must-Read on Wall Street”Submitted Rules for Buying Crashing Growth Stocks as a story · 3 points
HN discussionNick Maggiulli: > Logically, it seems like Buy the Dip can’t lose. If you know when you are at a bottom, you can always buy at the cheapest price relative to the all-time highs in that period. However, if you actually run this strategy you will see that Buy the Dip underperforms DCA over 70% of the time. > This is true despite the fact that you know exactly when the market will hit a bottom. Even God couldn’t beat d…
Comment linking /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/
on “When buying the dip doesn’t work: An analysis of the dot-com crash”Submitted I Got Scammed as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> A small number of companies are almost 20% of market value. That's been a 'tradition' for a long time: * https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2020/07/the-nifty-fifty-and... * https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2018/11/26/the-nifty-fifty... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nifty_Fifty * https://etfdb.com/history-of-the-s-and-p-500/ * https://www.qad.com/blog/2019/10/sp-500-companies-over-time It's just that which compani…
Comment linking /2018/11/26/the-nifty-fifty/
on “Bogleheads”Submitted An Inside Joke for the Super-Rich as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe author's colleague had a blog post on the topic, reasoning that missing either the best or worst was not a particularly interesting "what-if" since the best and worst days are both associated with the same bouts of higher volatility. He used the 200 day moving average to try and model the effect of 'missing' both. It honestly didn't turn out so bad, but one takeaway is that backtesting (aside from not being a ne…
Comment linking /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/
on “Stock Market Returns Are Anything but Average”Submitted This Is Your Nightmare Scenario as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIf you try to miss the bad/worst days you'll probably miss the best days: * https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-... * https://aaiila.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tuchman-Best-a... * https://www.capitalgroup.com/individual/planning/investing-f... * https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/this-chart-shows-why-investo...
Comment linking /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/
on “Ask HN: How to deal with markets down turn? Feeling down”Submitted A Reverse Minsky Moment as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> Market is collapsing. If you are not retired, then markets being down are a good thing, because everything is "on sale" / at 'discounted' prices. At least for the US† (S&P 500, NASDAQ, Russel 2000), the historical 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year returns after a 25% drop are quite good: * https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2022/10/getting-long-term-b... If you've been foolish enough to cash out—which should really never been…
Comment linking /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/
on “Ask HN: How to deal with markets down turn? Feeling down”Submitted Investors, Prepare to Be Disappointed as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI'm not trying to humanize Capital. There are plenty stock market analyses that matter-of-fact-ly complain about wages and demand more buybacks/dividends. And the profit have also been increasing more than wages or reinvestments. To the extent the "new inequality" is these institutional investors, well it's "first time as tragedy, second time as farce" all over again. > https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2020/10/25/w…
Comment linking /2020/10/25/who-owns-the-stock-market/
on “It’s not a ‘labor shortage,’ it’s a reassessment of work”Submitted Buybacks are the wrong boogeyman as a story · 2 points
HN discussion"Capital" is just faceless organizations wanting to park their wealth somewhere to get a return. 40% of US corporate equity is owned by the foreign sector 40% is in tax-advantaged retirement accounts and pension funds as well as tax-advantaged non-profits. 20% is in various taxable accounts of US citizens and US based corporations. source: https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2020/10/25/who-owns-the-st... It used to be…
Comment linking /2020/10/25/who-owns-the-stock-market/
on “It’s not a ‘labor shortage,’ it’s a reassessment of work”Submitted The Scapegoat as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> Anecdotally I sold all of my non retirement stocks and am sitting on cash. This is a bad idea. Even if you could predict when the dip occurs—which is impossible—it's still better to be in the market: * https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-co... While you may miss the bad days, you will almost certainly miss the good days—and those are key to getting good long-term returns: > If you missed just…
Comment linking /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/
on “Today in the U.S. we are in the fourth superbubble of the last hundred years”Submitted Gradual Improvements Go Unnoticed as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe best thing to do, given that most people's largest saving goal in life is retirement, is to put away a little away every month. Sitting on the sidelines will give you absolutely abysmal long-term returns, even if you were omniscient and knew ahead of time when the crash(es) would come: * https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-co... If you know when the peak and the trough will be, then you can…
Comment linking /2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-days-miss-the-best-days/
on “The Hazards of Asset Allocation in a Late-Stage Major Bubble”Submitted A Few Thoughts on the Selloff – Everybody Be Cool as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
