I need to spend more time with this, but it seems to hit a sweet spot for me: managing my returns across the spectrum of funds that I’m currently invested in, and giving my money to things that I believe in (or in this case, avoiding things that I’m uncomfortable with).
A common argument against this strategy would be that I’m losing out on potential returns, but I think that argument is moot here - these companies make up such a small portion of my investments, that I’m able to find similar substitutes and not miss much of anything, really. Plus PLUS, I’ve been meaning to look into my fees, and see if I could get cheaper options. It was surprisingly easy to this for that end.
Forget about the gun thing, this is a nice fund screener. Unfortunately, my guess is that they may get more interest and support if they removed the gun feature entirely. People hear “guns” and prepare themselves for war. In my experience they tend to turn up the volume on their own meatholes, and drown out all others.
Disagree about gun control, but I am intrigued by the idea of divestment to drive changes we care about.
How hard would it be to create a generalized version of this? Imagine fossil fuel, guns, private prisons, child labor, animal cruelty, weapons, tobacco all in one, and you could go either way on any of the topics.
IMHO it's definitely feasible. Takes a solid team for data collection, working with the interest groups, and app development. Real challenge is in the business side:
1. Is there big enough market for this?
2. Can you capture the right segment with your offering?
3. Can you come up with a logistics (trading, registration, taxes, certification...) for a streamlined and enjoyable user experience?
We've prototyped & want to build a multi-topic version where each customer can personalize their investing criteria. Wanted to address one topic as an experiment.
I would be personally curious to see some sort of analysis or breakdown on the cost of missing out on the (lately) great returns of these gun companies, not from a self-interested perspective, but what use one could have put that money to.
Basically, it would be interesting to have someone put a dollar amount on the “damage” caused by investing a dollar into a gun manufacturer, and compare it to the benefit of putting a dollar into it’s equivalent opposite (mental health support for example, but you can imagine an infinite number of alternatives). If I lose out on returns by switching my investments to something that’s gun-free, returns that could have been spent on something that provides a counter benefit, what would the net loss/gain to society be?
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 33.2 ms ] threadA common argument against this strategy would be that I’m losing out on potential returns, but I think that argument is moot here - these companies make up such a small portion of my investments, that I’m able to find similar substitutes and not miss much of anything, really. Plus PLUS, I’ve been meaning to look into my fees, and see if I could get cheaper options. It was surprisingly easy to this for that end.
Forget about the gun thing, this is a nice fund screener. Unfortunately, my guess is that they may get more interest and support if they removed the gun feature entirely. People hear “guns” and prepare themselves for war. In my experience they tend to turn up the volume on their own meatholes, and drown out all others.
In fact I compiled a couple things that I found/was told after using this as a fund screener https://medium.com/@keywonc/3-things-that-surprised-me-when-...
- “International” funds may not be so international after all.
- In the age of free robo-advisors, mutual funds are still expensive.
- There are more than 30 fund categories, including very adventurous ones.
How hard would it be to create a generalized version of this? Imagine fossil fuel, guns, private prisons, child labor, animal cruelty, weapons, tobacco all in one, and you could go either way on any of the topics.
1. Is there big enough market for this? 2. Can you capture the right segment with your offering? 3. Can you come up with a logistics (trading, registration, taxes, certification...) for a streamlined and enjoyable user experience?
We've prototyped & want to build a multi-topic version where each customer can personalize their investing criteria. Wanted to address one topic as an experiment.
Basically, it would be interesting to have someone put a dollar amount on the “damage” caused by investing a dollar into a gun manufacturer, and compare it to the benefit of putting a dollar into it’s equivalent opposite (mental health support for example, but you can imagine an infinite number of alternatives). If I lose out on returns by switching my investments to something that’s gun-free, returns that could have been spent on something that provides a counter benefit, what would the net loss/gain to society be?