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Taken together, some 2,000 stocks recommended on a popular television show over the course of the past 12 years by the show’s guests, most of whom are successful consultants for multibillion-dollar stock portfolios, performed less successfully than the market as a whole for this 12-year period. So clearly, no one should ever follow any recommendation by these so-called experts.
Understand: 2000 stocks - which were recommended by experts over the course of 12 yrs - less successfull than the market as a whole for this 12 yrs period.
conclusion : NO ONE should EVER follow ANY recommendations by these experts . (Not that the argument only talks about STOCKS and concludes about ANY recommendations... CLassic pattern : One group = all group)
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Each of the following, if true, weakens the argument EXCEPT:
Weaken framework : anything that tells us that DESPITEthe 2000 stock failure , recommendation of expert CAN STILL BE TAKEN.
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(A) Taken together, the stocks recommended on the television show performed better than the market as a whole for the past year. -WEAKEN
- we are considering over 12 yr period. But what about individual year comaprison?? Even though on 12 yr old scale the stocks may have been unsuccessfull comapred to the overall market but what if annually the stocks did great compared to the market? "last year also counts"
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(B) Taken together, the stocks recommended on the television show performed better for the past 12-year period than stock portfolios that were actually selected by any other means. - WEAKEN
- The recommended stocks did great than portfolios . SO recommendation still worked
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(C) Performance of the stocks recommended on the television show was measured by stock dividends, whereas the performance of the market as a whole was measured by change in share value.- WEAKEN
- Different parameters were used to judge stocks and markets. If different parameters were used then how can we compare onthe same scale??
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(D) Performance of the stocks recommended on the television show was measured independently by a number of analysts, and the results of the all the measurements concurred. - CORRECT
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Who measured stocks is not important as long as all the parameters used to compare were the same.Quote:
(E) The stock portfolios for which the guests were consultants performed better for the past 12-year period than the market as a whole- WEAKEN
-Portfolio recommedations were great. COncluiosn is : do not follow ANY RECOMMENDATIONS. But if portfolio recommendation did great then , exoerts are great !!!