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This was in the paper this morning.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...financial-advice/story-fndo2j43-1226527878811
It appears he has been banned for life.
On this, I think perhaps the pessimism derives mostly from the ongoing global uncertainty, with no apparent solution for the debt problems of the US and Europe.Great example: A recent survey of 1,000 investors showed an average of more than half of respondents said the market declined in each of the last three years. But it didn’t. The S&P 500 rose 26.5% in 2009, 15.1% in 2010, and 2.1% last year. Pessimism trumped reality.
That's very good, Bunyip.
Everything we do is coloured by our existing biases, most of which we don't recognise.
Then the need to rationalise our mistakes just extends these biases.
As a result we learn little.
On this, I think perhaps the pessimism derives mostly from the ongoing global uncertainty, with no apparent solution for the debt problems of the US and Europe.
Thanks for posting. A good reminder to us all.
Can anyone tell me if Storm and the Banks had kept their end of the bargain ie . selling down when they said they would. Is it feasible that an investment in a managed fund covering the ASX200 and using a Margin loan with a maximum LVR at 60 % would have worked ? This includes paying down the loan and handing it in so as not to incur any more interest. Also moving the leftovers if any ? to a term deposit for example. I understand there would be losses but would it be possible to walk away with something and play another day ?
I'm just curious as all the above scenarios and all the previous crashes dating back to 1929 / 30 and including the 1987 stock market crash and 9/11 were all covered in the Storm seminars .
No problem, Julia.
I’ll probably cop the usual scornful, sneering comments from the usual people. But what the heck – someone needs to post something useful on here to help educate investors.....it may as well be people like you and me and Doobsy and SJG and Judd, and one or two others who try to help.
I don't think Doobsy said it was illegal in its design and purpose.
How you could just ignore the home loan in your total LVR calculations is beyond me.
What did you think had happened to that debt?
....
Risk perception bias
Attempting to eliminate one risk, but exposing yourself to another, potentially more harmful, risk.
Here’s an example I’ve written about before: In the year after 9/11, air travel fell, and car travel jumped. Understandably, people suddenly felt planes were more dangerous than cars.
But statistically, the opposite is true. In his book The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner notes that if there were a 9/11 every day for an entire year, the odds that you’d be killed by terrorists are one in 7,750. By comparison, the annual odds of dying in a traffic accident are one in 6,498. German professor Gerd Gigerenzer estimates that the increase in automobile travel in the year after 9/11 resulted in 1,595 more traffic fatalities than would have otherwise occurred. Add in the impact stress had on our health, and the reaction to 9/11 may have been more deadly than the attack itself. “People jump from the frying pan into the fire” said Gigerenzer.
...
Before dealing with your comments which I think are surprisingly harsh for someone that is a financial adviser, I will make some general observations about your industry and its attitude to Storm. In so doing I am doing what quite a few on this forum do and that is using conjecture without any real evidence. I can only base it for the large part on your attitude and your readiness to label Storm as a rogue operator whilst defending your industry at every available opportunity despite that industry’s obvious failings. Storm Financial was a financial advisory firm that had everyone's approval whilst it existed.
I believe that Storm was a thorn in the side of most other financial advisers in the industry because it became a dominant player in the market. Storm had the infrastructure in place and arrangements with certain major banks that very few could match. It was also selling a commodity that few could match. What Storm was doing was not illegal in its self because it seemed to be operating within the legal parameters laid down. However, appearances can be deceiving as we have all found out since.
What you and your ilk forget, Doobsy, is that when you give people advise you play with their lives. They rely on you for sound advice, and if that advice is perverted because you as a financial adviser are putting your interest above theirs, the consequences can be appalling. The death count in Redcliffe alone from the Storm fall-out is 10 to date so what must it be in Queensland and other States?
What was that you said? “Stormies in their earlier years have been taught a nasty lesson on getting rich quick.” In the circumstances this is not only an uninformed statement to make but one that contradicts an earlier statement by you. It seems that your opinion differs depending on your mood.
You sound like a mouthpiece for the banks! And why, may I ask are you constantly talking theory which has no place in any discussion concerning Storm. It’s what happened that counted; not what should have happened or how things all work in normal practice. There was nothing normal about what Storm and the banks did. If there were, the cuprits would not find themselves in the dock today.
The assigning of the responsibility by the MBL to Storm for making margin calls is one such instance.
“On the monitoring of loans. BS BS BS BS BS BS. Lets look at LVR on the margin loan. Loan value - pretty frickin simple to get from the lender. As most pre-paid interest the value did not change throughout the year unless there was another step taken. This was TOO EASY to know correct values.”
Everything seems pretty “frickin simple” to you! Is it because you’re a financial adviser perhaps? Is it because you are trained in these things? Is it because you are paid for giving clients advice because you are a professional and your clients are not? If everything is "fricking simple" as you claim, why do people need you in the first place?
Nothing was simple as far as Storm’s clients were concerned so stop trying to say that it was! By claiming that it was, you and others in the industry are trying to pass the buck. Storm managed our portfolios and Storm was responsible for everything connected with that process. We didn’t pay them a fortune to just pick their noses!
I say to you now that you and others in the industry are guilty by association. You have let greed get in the way of your clients’ interests and you are protected by inept laws and leniency when any of you does the wrong thing. The bitter pill for investors is that you blame your clients for your own inadequacies when anything goes wrong.
If you want to get any runs on the board this years, focus on the ball, and not on pet theories that do not match the facts. Better still, sit for a while in Court with me and find out what really went on. For that matter, some on this forum should join you because there is a lot of cant still being expounded here which does not tally with what really occurred.
Hi Bunyip!
Do I detect a hint of sensitivity? Get a life! We've been copping sneering comments from all quarters for four years now.
"...someone needs to post something useful on here to help educate investors.....it may as well be people like you and me and Doobsy and SJG and Judd, and one or two others who try to help."
I agree with the sentiment but not with your method of going about helping people. The only way this forum will be useful to would-be investors is to make clear to them what caused the Storm Financial disaster so that they can avoid what we could not.
You were not involved! Therefore, you are not in a position to inform them of anything because you weren't there. Only those that were caught up in this financial debacle can say it as it really is because we know what really happened. We are not using conjecture or uninformed opinion. We are talking from personal experience. Why, therefore, do you believe that anyone should listen to what you say?
With respect no one is interested in what you and others would have done. That is not the issue. The focus of this forum should be on what really happened and how any future would-be investors can avoid the same happening to them.
"If people are not prepared to learn from history, the same mistakes will continue to occur." We know what happened. I suggest therefore that you listen to what we have to say rather than give us your version of something you know little about.
Have a good day!
I believe that Storm was a thorn in the side of most other financial advisers in the industry because it became a dominant player in the market. Storm had the infrastructure in place and arrangements with certain major banks that very few could match.
It was also selling a commodity that few could match.
I’d be very interested to know the details of the Storm strategy back in 1987.
Storm claimed their strategy withstood the ‘87 crash. If this is correct, then there were clearly some significant differences in the strategy in 1987, as opposed to the strategy which was so disastrous in 2008.
Remember that the 2007/08 crash was tame compared to the crash in October, 1987. Once the market peaked and then stated falling in late 2007, it took several months to shed the first 20% of its value.
Compare that to 1987 when it plunged 25% in one day, and 50% in just over a month. No way in the world could the Storm strategy have withstood such a sudden and brutal plunge if it had occurred in 2007/08, without inflicting brutal losses on Storm clients. And there’s no way it could have withstood the same plunge back in 1987 either.......unless it was a substantially different strategy back then compared to what it was in the last few years of Storm’s life.
From what I also was told, Storm had a successful track record, which included the 1987 crash. Operating under a different name then, of course.
My opinion is that when Cassimatis's goal of floating Storm (and making a mega motza) became his holy grail, and all consuming passion, he needed to maximize funds under management to make the float as desirable as possible for potential investors, in the float (not his client base investors).
Existing clients borrowings and investments were then maxed out. LVR's became higher, and more risky. I doubt this level of risk characterized Storm's early years. I suspect there were special arrangements with banks, that clients new nothing about. Some banks lending to clients may also have had vested interests in financing the float. Just my speculations, for what they're worth.
I am confident that Storm could have easily managed their clients investments safely through the GFC, if it was their first priority.
Hindsight bias
Out of literally millions, only a handful of investors truly saw the financial crisis coming.
If you disagree with that statement and respond, “No, any idiot could have seen it coming from a mile away,” you’re suffering from hindsight bias. Only after the fact do all the puzzle pieces make sense. That’s why bankruptcies outnumber billionaires.
(I disagree with their opinion on this one. Almost every media outlet was giving dire warnings almost every day for a good 12 months before the economic crisis hit with full force. To be unaware of what was coming you’d have to be blind or deaf or just plain disinterested.)
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