CoBF Demographics? Percentage of XX chromosomes?

[Nell-e]

I wanted to ask about L-Brands (LB), maker of Victoria Secrets and other stuff, which has fallen ~46% YTD. 

 

Which leads me to the question - what percentage of users on here are female?

 

Has anyone run polls asking about demographics on this forum asking age, gender, location?

 

 

[rb]

I don't think there's been a poll. But the bottom line is this. There are women here, but it's pretty well known here that CoBF is a bit of a sausage fest.

 

Now about LB. I'm a dude, but I've been going in the same direction as you're thinking. I've polled a lot of females I know about the subject. Favourability goes by chest size and income level. Basically the bigger the chest size the more they care about the product. But price also plays a big part in the decision. Anything below a C cup they don't really care about the product, anything will do. In terms of income, obviously richer people are willing to pay more for fancier stuff.

 

I'd say that my surveys left me unconvinced that the customer base is solid and will pull the company through.

 

The other thing that makes me hesitant about LB is that we had a lingerie company here in Canada called La Senza - it was bought by LB about a decade ago. La Senza was universally loved and the product was a fraction of the price of LB. Panties were like 3 for $5 and bras were starting from 2 for $10. he product was good. So I'm thinking if a company like La Senza could do it, why not someone else?

 

Taking all of it in, I've decided that the signs are that LB isn't that solid. It's vulnerable on multiple fronts. And while it has a loyal customer base I don't think that's enough with all the leverage the company has.

 

This is probably (a lot?) more than you've asked for, but I hope it helps.

 

 

[Nell-e]

I appreciate the commentary.  LB isn't my type of stock but it's good to ask about because you never know what you'll learn.

 

It would be nice to know when you're getting a female perspective.  It feels like 99% on here (and other places like Seeking Alpha) are male but maybe that's because I'm assuming users with names like WarrenBuffettFan are guys.  There are a lot people with names that can either be a guy/girl.  I just learned about an economist dude named Lacy Hunt, so maybe a user named BigDick is really a girl.  Who knows?

 

It's also good to know if someone chiming in on what's trendy is 50 or older and also where they're from. 

 

   

[bizaro86]

I would wonder how forthright the average female would be about talking to a male about their lingerie preferences. Maybe not a big deal, but worth considering...

[Foreign Tuffett]

I would be surprised if a single active* member of this forum is female.

 

 

* By "active" I mean someone who posts on at least a semi-regular basis

[Lakesider]

http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/profile/?u=9507

 

 

[Nell-e]

I'm not buying it.  There are dudes named Tracy, Shannon, Ashlee, Michelle, Whitney, the before mentioned Lacy, etc. 

 

https://www.verywellfamily.com/unisex-baby-names-2759884

 

More than likely Emily is a guy too.

 

 

[rb]

You know you guys could ask him or her.

[rb]

I would wonder how forthright the average female would be about talking to a male about their lingerie preferences. Maybe not a big deal, but worth considering...

I never found that to be a problem at all. Do a bit of research so you know what you're talking. Ask pointed, relevant questions, and be professional and respectful. It may be a bit awkward at the start but I've found that once they figure out that you're serious they tend to open up and be quite forthcoming.

 

Basically, simple rule. If you don't want to creep them women out then don't be a creep. Works well.

[Nell-e]

You know you guys could ask him or her.

 

I was being sarcastic.  One or two ladies on this and other financial forums does not change the overwhelming sausage-festedness.

 

The thing is you see women on Twitter engage in political debate which can be as contentious or even more nasty than exchanges on financial forums.  Which begs the question - Why don't women engage in financial forums?  Avoidance of mansplaining?  General disinterest?

[rb]

Well it could be a multitude of things. For one thing there's not that many women in finance. Finance itself is a sausage fest. Though weirdly enough most of my bosses in high finance (back when I was getting paycheques) have been women.

 

The other thing is that CoBF is actually a pretty civilized internet place, but even here things have gotten a bit misogynistic more than a few times. So I don't think that as a woman you're particularly incentivized to identify as such. Another thing is that women that may be into investing may be a bit different from women that get into twitter brawls.

[rkbabang]

You know you guys could ask him or her.

 

I was being sarcastic.  One or two ladies on this and other financial forums does not change the overwhelming sausage-festedness.

 

The thing is you see women on Twitter engage in political debate which can be as contentious or even more nasty than exchanges on financial forums.  Which begs the question - Why don't women engage in financial forums?  Avoidance of mansplaining?  General disinterest?

 

I know this is VERY un-PC to say these days, but just as the Google memo author was correct about the lack of women in Computer Science and other tech fields is simply general disinterest, I believe the same is true for finance.  It has nothing to do with intelligence or aptitude, it is simply that women don't pursue these as interests.  Not only professionally but as hobbies either.  There are many like me for whom investing is a hobby, not a profession, but not many women.  There are many for whom tinkering with programming or electronics is a hobby not a profession, but not many women.  Now whether this is nurture or nature I don't know.  I suspect to some extent it is both.  The same reason you don't see very many men teaching Kindergarten.

 

 

 

[gfp]

I asked my wife at lunch today why, in her opinion, there weren't very many women on this message board.  She said that most women she knows are too busy to spend hours every day shooting the shit and trolling around online discussion forums.

[rkbabang]

I asked my wife at lunch today why, in her opinion, there weren't very many women on this message board.  She said that most women she knows are too busy to spend hours every day shooting the shit and trolling around online discussion forums.

 

 

She could be on to something.  That's really an interesting theory which thus far I hadn't considered.  That the females of the species are very busy, while the males of the species have time to shoot the shit.  I wonder if anyone has ever studied that?  Surely there are men out there who would have the time for such an inquiry.  :)

 

[gfp]

Not all men, of course.  Just the men on value investing message boards like this one

[rkbabang]

Not all men, of course.  Just the men on value investing message boards like this one

 

Of course.  That goes without saying.

 

[John Hjorth]

I asked my wife at lunch today why, in her opinion, there weren't very many women on this message board.  She said that most women she knows are too busy to spend hours every day shooting the shit and trolling around online discussion forums.

Not all men, of course.  Just the men on value investing message boards like this one.

 

At first sight it perhaps reads hilarious. But one actually have to take answers to such open questions seriously from the person replying. The answer represent the replying persons perception and personal, honest & upright opinion on the matter at hand. That persons "truth". It's all about personal & individual priorities.

[Spekulatius]

Woman on average have better returns than men accord8ng to a fidelity study. Men care about being right, woman care about returns.

 

https://www.fidelity.com/about-fidelity/individual-investing/better-investor-men-or-women

[Nell-e]

A female CoBF member (who wants to remain anonymous) PM'd me and asked why a female perspective matters?  I'll answer here in case other females are reading but not participating:

 

Personally, I care about diverse perspectives from a CONSUMER point of view.  L Brands (Victoria's Secret) fell another 13% today while a stock like Etsy has more than doubled YTD.  Both have exclusively female customer bases.  Even though I will never have an edge on either of these companies, every successful investor has the basic habit of paying attention. 

 

You should seek the perspective of 50% of the global population on companies like Apple and FB.  You might learn that guys spend most of their time on iPhones playing Fortnite and girls spend most of their time on social media and that they're ditching Instagram in favor of Snapchat.  Perhaps, the prevailing narrative is wrong and far more girls play Fortnite than assumed.  You get the point.

 

As far as accounting and economic opinions, I'm not sure gender matters much.  Accounting is accounting.

[gfp]

Etsy is not even close to an exclusively female customer base.  I have purchased around 10 items from Etsy in the past year.  Address numbers, antique signs, several antique rugs from overseas, leather "poufs" from morocco, black walnut picture frames, paintings, prints etc...  There is also a fair bit of semi custom furniture sold on Etsy to both sexes.

 

(I should add that Men also buy products at Victoria's Secret, primarily as gifts - although it has been years since I have bought anything at that particular retailer)

[LC]

To play off a Buffett analogy, if we're looking for 1 ft hurdles to jump over, investing in retail is already like a 6ft hurdle. Investing in women's retail is like a 10 ft hurdle.

 

Just look at how many companies have gone in and out of the space in the last 5 years. Is there a more volatile mature industry?

[Nell-e]

Etsy is not even close to an exclusively female customer base. 

 

Sorry, I wasn't paying much attention to precision in explaining why a female perspective is helpful.

 

[Nell-e]

To play off a Buffett analogy, if we're looking for 1 ft hurdles to jump over, investing in retail is already like a 6ft hurdle. Investing in women's retail is like a 10 ft hurdle.

 

Just look at how many companies have gone in and out of the space in the last 5 years. Is there a more volatile mature industry?

 

Mainly, I consider anecdotes to be helpful and I'd like to understand where money is shifting i.e.  Are ppl abandoning Bed Bath and Beyond and shopping on Etsy? 

 

 

 

 

[Jurgis]

Or you could just ask what I buy and short the companies making the products. Some people have highly idiosyncratic tastes and anecdotes don't mean crap. In a lot of cases CoBF population is highly non-representative too.

 

I've had numerous products that I like discontinued, restaurants closed, companies not doing well.

 

In case someone takes the first sentence seriously, it's not 100% sure call YMMV.

 

 

[boilermaker75]

You know you guys could ask him or her.

 

I was being sarcastic.  One or two ladies on this and other financial forums does not change the overwhelming sausage-festedness.

 

The thing is you see women on Twitter engage in political debate which can be as contentious or even more nasty than exchanges on financial forums.  Which begs the question - Why don't women engage in financial forums?  Avoidance of mansplaining?  General disinterest?

 

I know this is VERY un-PC to say these days, but just as the Google memo author was correct about the lack of women in Computer Science and other tech fields is simply general disinterest, I believe the same is true for finance.  It has nothing to do with intelligence or aptitude, it is simply that women don't pursue these as interests.  Not only professionally but as hobbies either.  There are many like me for whom investing is a hobby, not a profession, but not many women.  There are many for whom tinkering with programming or electronics is a hobby not a profession, but not many women.  Now whether this is nurture or nature I don't know.  I suspect to some extent it is both.  The same reason you don't see very many men teaching Kindergarten.

 

Here is a role model for men to be Kindergarten teachers,

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099938/

 

As you can see I have nothing better to do than to try to post humorous things on a message board.