> No need to even debate this result.
agreed.
> rob is smart enough to know that this exercise is ridiculously impossible to validate.
true enough ... I took the reports as they were, without requirement for absolute proof (screenshot your brokerage account, etc.).
that being said, it'd be over-foolish to just dismiss things wholly out-of-hand:
i) there were no individual rankings, so the latent urge in those who would flaunt or peacock things by inflating their report is perhaps diminished. it's not a popularity contest, there is no "winner".
ii) if one were to take the view that the results are bogus, examine the sample size ... all 188 people reporting aren't going to be boolshiters.
the results are what they are, with the added value this time around (imo), that there is a YoY trend to mull over.
people can take from the poll results what they will.
some will envision it as gospel, others will deride it as heresy; a proper reflection of reality is probably somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
again, thanks to all who participated.
GLTA,
R.