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First, that's not really that good as 25% is significantly underperforming the market which is up around 40% over the last two years. Second, even if you were

First, that's not really that good as 25% is significantly underperforming the market which is up around 40% over the last two years. Second, even if you were beating the market, how do you know you're not just being fooled by randomness (In the Nicholas Taleb sense)

Danieru 13y ago
pnathan is not beating the market return and he is not aiming to. One buys ETFs to try and match the market. And any decent ETF will get very close to the ETF's benchmark. This tells us that the markets he is following must not have raised 40%. Which is good because it means he is diversified. As for randomness, ETFs provide exposure to thousands of stocks which better than anything else averages the randomness.
pnathan 13y ago
First, I'm diversified and I'm fundamentally seeking to beat the savings & CD account rate. The ETFs I generally buy are holding around the DJIA, occasionally beating it. Woo. Second, I don't care if it's just a large number of random numbers or an actual performance: if I can draw out lots of money (lots more than I put in) when I am ready to, I win. :-) Angsting hard about this doesn't gain me much.