The reasons I might see fit to lock or otherwise interfere with a thread or post is if it deliberately attempts to promote a specific security or investment. In other words, posts that say "You need to buy stock in XYZ company RIGHT NOW!!" are over the top, as I think most of you would agree.
On the other hand, a post that said "You should check out XYZ company! They seem to be ready for a huge upswing (or whatever) and here's why", THAT would be perfectly fine, in my view.
Telling someone to make a specific purchase or execute a particular trade are things to avoid. Pointing out a trend or offering research to back up an opinion is a different story, and that is the point I'm trying to make.
I don't have a problem with this. But I can't think of any time this has happened here -- unless something was blatant spam in which case it was alerted and a jury voted to Post Removed before I saw it.
If I wrote a post like this to someone who was suggesting that people look at longer periods than a year, like 3 years, 5 years, and so on, would this be considered promoting Vanguard or a specific investment (VFIAX)?
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11554850Here's how the Vanguard S&P 500 Index fund did thru Friday's close, YTD, 3y, 5y, 10y per Morningstar
1st number is average annualized return (except YTD which is actual percent change from 12/31/17 close)
2nd number is what a dollar invested at beginning of period would be worth today.
Includes reinvested dividends and other distributions
-0.95% , $0.9905 # YTD
10.96% , $1.366 # 3 years
10.14% , $1.620 # 5 years
13.82% , $3.650 # 10 years
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/vfiax/quote.html
The 10 year is very much enhanced because it is comparing Friday to 12/14/08, just 4 months from the Great Recession's market bottom.
In case anyone has YTD, 3y, 5y, 10y info on their accounts to compare to a common benchmark, the S&P 500 (which is 75-80% of the U.S. stock market by capitalization). I use VFIAX (the Vanguard 500 index fund) because it includes reinvested distributions and expenses, so is not some theoretical thing.
The S&P 500 is the most common U.S. stock market benchmark that U.S. equity funds are compared to, and is a capitalization weighted index of 75-80% of the entire U.S. stock universe. (The Dow 30 is not particularly representative of anything, but is an old legacy thing that people just can't let go of).
But I prefer using a mutual index fund instead of an index as a benchmark to compare one's returns to because the funds' returns are total returns (includes reinvested dividends, very important) and include expenses (likewise important), and is something one can actually invest in and get those after-expense returns (some people think expenses are 2%/year and eat up 2/3 of your return and that kind of B.S. because of some dreadful Frontline program). Whereas one can't invest in an index, and I haven't found e.g. total returns on S&P 500 index that is up to date to the last close.
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Maybe you can share with us what it was you shared with the administrators as examples of things posted here that should have been locked.
= new reply since forum marked as read