Michael Eisenberg's  Instablog

"Larry Swedroe (LS): First of all, it's important to understand that the education system has entirely failed the American public and I'm assuming that's true in other countries as well. The odds are great that if you don't have an MBA, you haven't taken even a single course on capital markets, leaving you to seek your investing advice from people that have a direct conflict of interest: Wall Street and the media."

"Funds are often created to encourage people to chase the current hot sector. That's why there were so many tech funds in 1999. All of these sector funds, double leveraged and inverse funds, they're all terrible products. They're meant to be sold, not bought. No one should own them. They lead to taking uncompensated, idiosyncratic risk and there's no reason to think anyone can identify which sector will outperform the market long-term. They don't offer any additional exposure to risk factors that add to your level of diversification. And there's no reason to think any sector-specific information you have is value relevant. If you know it, so does Goldman and Morgan Stanley and it's likely already baked into the price."

"The sad thing is many of the people taking these unnecessary risks with hedge funds and the like are high net worth individuals. They've already won the game. They don't need to try and generate alpha. They have enough to live off of comfortably without taking risks. If they blow up and go from rich to poor, it'll be unbearable, whereas if they double their money, it'll probably make little difference to them. All they'll get is bragging rights. And no one ever had "I achieved alpha" inscribed on their tombstone."

"I think that's the most important message in the book. If you're a passive investor, you don't have to spend your time listening to Cramer or reading Money magazine. You get to spend your time on the things that really matter in life: spending time with your family, doing community service, in short, winning at the game of life."