Self-study
Taken together, Support some 2,000 stocks recommended on a popular television show over the course of the past 12 years by the show's guests, most of whom are successful consultants for multibillion-dollar stock portfolios, performed less successfully than the market as a whole for this 12-year period. ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████████ ██ █████ █████████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that no one should take the advice of so-called expert stock consultants. This is because the stocks such experts recommended on certain a TV show over the last 12 years performed worse than the market did over the same period.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the stocks these experts recommended on this particular show are reflective of what the consultants recommend in general. The author also assumes that performance over this certain 12-year period is sufficient to draw conclusions about the consultants’ abilities.
11.
Each of the following, if █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████
a
Taken together, the ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ███ ███ ████ █████
This indicates that it’s sometimes a good idea to take the consultants’ advice: last year, their stocks outperformed the market. This weakens the idea that one should never listen to these experts.
b
Taken together, the ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████
Since you can’t buy the market itself, you have to put together a portfolio. Other portfolios all performed even worse than thosee stocks selected by the consultants, meaning their advice was worthwhile.
c
Performance of the ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██████
The stocks and the market were measured by different metrics. This means a comparative conclusion can’t be drawn about them, which weakens the author’s argument.
d
Performance of the ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ████████████ ██████████
Several different measurements confirmed the stocks recommended on the TV show performed worse than the market. This certainly doesn’t weaken the argument, but in fact strengthens it.
e
The stock portfolios ███ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████
Even if the recommended stocks didn’t all do well together, the consultants were nevertheless each able to create strong portfolios in the course of their work. This suggests their advice may be worthwhile.