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Jbay76 (< 20)

Shame on MF

Recs

4

September 15, 2010 – Comments (10)

Fools,

A travesty has been occuring akin to finding out one of your investment holdings have been cooking their books.  It turns out that TMF Alex Dumortier has been calling himself a CFA when he wasn't listed as a CFA charterholder until late last night.  One of teh allures of TMF is the openess and unbiased investing advice and information that one aqcuires here.  The collegial debates on teh blog forum is nice as well.  When I learned of this chicanery by Alex, I was blown away.  Not only have we been lied to by Alex, but also by TMF, who employs Alex.  This level of deciet is no different than the nonesense foudn on CNBC, CNN or some other media outle sponsoring its own agenda.  Adding insult to injury, TMF nor Alex have made a move to apologize for this snak-in-the 0grass activity or even acknowledge that it occures and what activities it will take to ensure that they're employees are who they are and, above all things, that they are trustworthy.  Calling yourself something you're not and expecting people to beleive you have some sort of credibility when in actuality you don't or shouldn't is slander.

 

So how about it MF or Alex...got something to say about this trickery you've been promoting? 

 

Here's the link to the article that resulted in exposing the falsification of Alex's credentials.

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/09/14/buffett-doesnt-double-dip.aspx?source=ihpsitth0000001 

10 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On September 15, 2010 at 11:28 AM, DJoshuaRubin (97.99) wrote:

I'm speaking entirely as a regular Fool, and not on behalf of the Fool or anyone else when I give my opinion on this. I think you are grossly distorting what appears to have happened here. I do not know Alex personally - aside from one meal with him while visiting Fool HQ - and enjoyed it very much. I have read many of his articles and find them to be intelligent and well thought out. 

I do not know what happened, but from what I can tell, he apparently did not pay his dues and, as a result, was not listed in the appropriate registry for CFAs. After this was discovered by a poster in the comment section, Alex apparently paid his dues and was reinstated. You are making it sound as if he entirely faked being a CFA and that is apparently not the case. It's like saying Derek Jeter is not a baseball player because he forgot or failed to pay his union dues. Absurd. I'm sure the Fool passionately believes that all Fools must avoid even the appearance of impropriety and there appears to be commitments made along with CFA's paying dues that are important, but again, let's put the pitch forks down. 

I'm in the Writers Guild of America and for over a decade have forgotten to pay my dues many times. I also have had some good years where I'm in "good standing" and some awful stretches where I'm in "arrears" and technically not in. To be honest, at the moment I don't know where I stand. I could easily find myself saying I'm in the union when technically I'm not.

From what I can tell, this is a minor mistake. Alex has earned respect by his body of intelligent work. To compare this to a company "cooking the books" is totally unfair. I agree that with a financial site, trust is vital. Of course. But if you're going to attack all of the Fool and call for public shaming, at least have the courtesy to do the most basic typo checking and look up the meaning of the word "slander." I think you're coming a lot closer to the definition of that word than Alex ever has. 

 

 

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#2) On September 15, 2010 at 11:43 AM, binve (< 20) wrote:

+1 for HollywoodDan

-1 for the original post. This flying-off-the-handle rant / bone-picking helps nobody. If you were really concerned about this, there are far more constructive ways to approach this topic

(And, for the love of God, if you are going to write a caustic post like this one, *at least* use spell-check or proofread it.)

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#3) On September 15, 2010 at 12:00 PM, blake303 (29.89) wrote:

Sounds like the kicker got liquored up and ran his mouth off

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#4) On September 15, 2010 at 12:16 PM, TMFAleph1 (94.05) wrote:

I was hoping to avoid responding on this topic, as I don't like to gratify trolls, but the underlying question is legitimate.

I did allow my membership to the CFA institute to lapse in error and I was alerted to that fact by the CFA Institute a little over a week ago. I was in the process of moving from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles so I didn't get around to paying my dues then. Thanks to henryking's friendly reminder, I paid my dues yesterday and re-activated my membership.

Note that when I submitted this article, I did not include the CFA designation in my byline. However, I should have explicitly warned my editor not to include it, as it ended up being added as a matter of routine.

I trust this clears up the matter and we can all move on to more important issues.

Alex Dumortier, CFA

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#5) On September 15, 2010 at 12:18 PM, TMFAleph1 (94.05) wrote:

Oh, and thanks Hollywood Dan for your words of support. See you around Tinseltown!

Alex D

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#6) On September 15, 2010 at 12:30 PM, truthisntstupid (95.99) wrote:

Where is the minus rec button?

-1.   Alex has written many intelligent, well thought out articles, articles that may have helped many people.  People who don't give a damn if someone sees an opportunity to bushwack and ambush him over some title.

Titles have no more relevance than the number displayed by our names.  The intelligence and thought process, or lack of it, in our comments and analysis is more important.

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#7) On September 15, 2010 at 1:08 PM, TMFBabo (100.00) wrote:

I've found that it's better to bring up the issue and ask some clarifying questions than to come out guns blazing. 

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#8) On September 15, 2010 at 1:59 PM, blake303 (29.89) wrote:

Titles have no more relevance than the number displayed by our names.

Depends on the title. CFA pass rates are low enough that the title adds a lot of credibility, especially on a website where anyone can make unsubstantiated claims anonymously. The fact that Alex holds a CFA designation and uses his real name in all of his posts is relevant and deserves more respect than JBay's juvenile rant. 

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#9) On September 15, 2010 at 2:07 PM, TMFHousel (95.18) wrote:

The original post reminds me a lot of the Birther Movement. 

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#10) On September 15, 2010 at 3:54 PM, Jbay76 (< 20) wrote:

In response to everyone’s post

Disclaimer, I agree with others that Alex and TMF provide A LOT of great commentaries, investing information etc. and provide a wonderful service to the rest of us.  And thanks Alex for answering the troll, me, and clarifying the issue. 

In reading yesterday’s post and the comments that followed, it seemed “sneaky” to be using the title of CFA when it was found that you hadn’t renewed your registration.  In my field, titles and ones affiliation hold A LOT of water when you speak, and hiding behind a title or affiliation of an organization when you in fact do not have that tile or affiliation is very suspect.  If titles or affiliations meant little, I could call myself a PhD even though I walked away from my dissertation defense. Thanks blake303 for the info.  And in retrospect, I did come out “guns blazing” (thanks bullishbabo) and didn’t take into consideration what blake303 wrote, which does make sense.  And my post is a bit like the birther movement (thanks TMFHousel).

Needless to say, I should have asked about the issue as suggested by bullishbabo instead of assuming a few things and coming out the way I did.  However, this would not have been the first time that information was misleading on TMF.  In fact, I think back to the uproar made when Wal-Mart was the 11 o’clock stock tip when “The Death of Wal-Mart” banner was viewed on the web pages.  The banner went off air and is now back, leaving us to wonder which one is right.  I guess DD is needed for that one.  But, the two are contradictory and helped facilitate the idea of something sneaky going on when Alex was found not to been in the CFA registry.  Again, thanks for clarifying the issue Alex.

So, again, I approached the situation in an inappropriate and reckless manner and apologize for that.  It’s a humbling learning experience to recognize the errors of one’s actions and pull one’s foot out of their intestine. This is something not to be repeated. 

This is not meant to detract from my belief that it is not right to claim an affiliation or title that one does not have because it can be misleading and is a lie at that point in time, regardless of the how’s or why’s. And this is not meant to detract from the viewpoint that such erroneous information should never occur in the first place.

Troll

PS I will use spell check from here on out

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