Copying the Smart Guys in Personal Finance

Have you often wondered how the big mouth at the office or your goofy brother-in-law does so well in the stock market? Do you know a smart investor that you would like to learn from – in the privacy of your own computer?

Enter Covestor, a new site I discovered that encourages copycat investing.

The concept is simple but unique. Covestor allows self-directed investors to track their portfolios online,  including the trades they make. Nothing new there. The novel part is that successful investors can share their personal portfolios and trades with other Covestor members. If you don’t have the time or expertise to pick your own stocks, just follow other smart Covestors and do what they do.

I can envision the Covestor concept making sense with investors having a special working expertise or personal knowledge-base in a certain industry or sector. If that expert is willing to put his or her money where their expertise is, it could help the rest of us to know where that money is going. Anyway, it may be worth checking out. Heck – maybe Warren Buffet will sign up, although the shine has come off his brass somewhat in recent months.

Speaking of copying the smart guys, how about sending the Obama economic team to Norway for some schooling? According to this article, Norway’s conservative ways in banking, housing, and saving have left it largely unscathed by our otherwise worldwide economic meltdown. Of course, not everyone is buying the Norwegian success hype. One economist quoted in the article believes that Norway has become soft from overdependence on generous oil and gas reserves. He calls Norway’s economy an “oil for leisure” program and is hoping that Norwegians will “get out of the sauna and back to work.”  It’s nice to know that there are tough love guys writing about money just about everywhere!

I wonder if economic historians will look back on our recent experiences as a nation and refer to it as the “debt for leisure” program? All of our borrowing and spending has led to an excess of involuntary leisure, a/k/a unemployment.

For some other mid-week reading, you will probably enjoy some of the articles in the personal finance carnivals in which my writing was featured this week: Carnival of Personal Finance, Carnival of Pecuniary Delights, and Carnival of Money Stories.

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