Subject: Re: What constitutes success?
We aren't running multi-billion dollar mutual/hedge funds; I see no reason we should have to be limited by their concerns. You can buy an index fund essentially for free and have a risk of large drawdowns anyway. I for one am willing to have higher volatility for higher returns, and while there are no guarantees of future success based on backtests there is little else to use for data points than history. "Success" is having enough money to do what you want to do not beat a given metric; why should we be limited by a need to not take on any more risk than an index fund if the return is great? The trick is finding volatility that is acceptable to you personally. We don't need to match laws on diversified mutual funds nor professionals whom can't buy small stocks. Sure, reduced risk is nice; nice returns are better.