[man_bear_pig]

most stock brokers don't know wtf they're talking about. that's because most can't even beat the snp. most hedge fund managers (intellectually the smartest of the smartest bunch) also can't beat the snp.

you are correct in that you should stick to your core competency. as far as investing, on the side you can invest for shts and giggles but if you think that the market is somehow not that efficient when there's 100,000 ivy league grads who spend 18 hours a day researching in the same markets then, i'm not sure what else i can tell you. trust me, i know a ton of people from wall street. for example, most people who work in private wealth management (people with 10m+) get the stupid bunch out of the entire stack of investment bank. the smartest trade for the company and institutional money/ engage in billion dollar transactions.

now an interesting thing is to study about 1000 hours on the stock market and valuation principles and then invest in a sector you have domain expertise. then you may have an edge. even then you will realize that there's not much of an edge b/c in my old job, i would just expense $10,000 bucks and call you and your bosses and your competitors' bosses up and get the insight into the industry and info i needed to know to make my decision to pull the trigger. so combining commercial due diligence mixed with my investing acumen and access to 100 institutional stock brokers (not the plebeian wealth managers) would ensure that i have an edge.

hope this helps. don't want anyone to lose money.