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Preet Banerjee, B.Sc., FMA, DMS is a former stockbroker and financial advisor in Toronto. Information on this site is for entertainment purposes ONLY. Always seek individual professional advice before making any financial decisions.

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Market Mavens

June 17th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
                                                         
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Market Mavens

Again taken from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: Market Mavens are people who truly enjoy helping others when making purchasing decisions. For example, if you were looking to buy a new car you may consult with a friend who is a ‘car-guy’ – who will tell you about all the features about the car you are considering buying. However, this is NOT necessarily a market maven. The ‘car-guy’ will talk to you because they like talking about cars, whereas the market maven will talk to you because they genuinely enjoy helping others and enjoy disseminating the information they collect to others solely for the purpose of their empowerment.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about the ‘maven trap’ in his book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. An example would be the placement of the customer information phone number that might be printed on the packaging of a bar of soap. How many people do you know would ever think about calling that number? Probably very few. The person who would call that number would either be very passionate about soap or very knowledgeable about soap – and this person would be a market maven. The soap company would be well advised to listen carefully to the opinions of mavens who, according to The Law of the Few, have very loud and respected voices on behalf of the larger population.

Many Personal Finance Bloggers are Market Mavens

Many personal finance bloggers would be market mavens in that they are very passionate and knowledgeable about personal finance and investment products and strategies, and are gladly willing to share that information with very little personal gain (for the most part, income from the advertisements on blogs are not enough to persuade one to quit their day job). In addition, many personal finance bloggers are also price vigilantes (see yesterday’s post) – quick to point out the price-to-value ratio of various investment products.

Some examples of Market Mavens and Price Vigilante personal finance bloggers are:

The Canadian Capitalist
Michael James on Money
The Million Dollar Journey
Canadian Financial DIY
Thicken My Wallet
The Quest for Four Pillars

…to name but a few.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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There Are 16 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by MillionDollarJourney on 17 June 2008:

    Thanks for the kind words Preet, I’ve never been called a market maven before!

  2. Comment by Canadian Capitalist on 17 June 2008:

    Thanks for the kind words Preet. I should probably read Tipping Point. I’ve read Blink and thought it was brilliant.

  3. Comment by Preet on 17 June 2008:

    @MDJ – tomorrow’s post builds on the equity collar, make sure to take a peek

    @CC – I thought it was absolutely fabulous. I have it on audio CD (listened to it on the way back from Montreal and I’ve re-listened to it again, and will probably listen one more time!)

  4. Comment by Michael James on 17 June 2008:

    Preet, thanks for including me in your list. Speaking of Market Mavens, my best advice when buying a car in Canada is to check the Lemon-Aid books by Phil Edmonston that come out each year. This is the only source of unbiased car information in Canada that I’m aware of. I would never buy a car without checking it out in Lemon-Aid first.

  5. Comment by Thicken My Wallet on 17 June 2008:

    Thanks for including me in your list. If you don’t read it already, Gladwell also has an interesting blog.

  6. Comment by Preet on 17 June 2008:

    @Michael James – I think Consumer Reports is also unbiased if I’m not mistaken and a friend used CarProof to find some interesting things out about a car that he was about to buy – the CarProof report was apparently well worth the $30 or so bucks it costs to check the claims history (and this was almost a brand new car – apparently the report showed that it was almost written off before it even made it to the first owner! – it’s a long story)

    @TMW – he has a great writing style. I’ll probably follow his blog for a bit to give it a try, but I’m nearing my capacity for how many feeds I can follow… :)

  7. Comment by Michael James on 17 June 2008:

    Preet: You’re right that Consumer Reports is also unbiased. I have looked up cars in the Lemon-Aid books at the library, but perhaps Consumer Reports is also available at the library. I’ll have to check the next time I’m in the market for a car.

  8. Comment by Mr. Cheap on 18 June 2008:

    Thanks so much for including us in your list. I *loved* Gladwell’s books, so its especially nice! What did you think of Freakanomics?

  9. Comment by Preet on 18 June 2008:

    Haven’t read it yet – but hopefully I will get to it sooner rather than later…

  10. Pingback by Pages tagged "market" on 19 June 2008:

    [...] tagged marketOwn a Wordpress blog? Make monetization easier with the WP Affiliate Pro plugin. Market Mavens saved by 1 others     Jennygyuon bookmarked on 06/19/08 | [...]

  11. Pingback by How To Read A Basic Stock Quote : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com on 25 June 2008:

    [...] been experimenting with topics that have more mass appeal – like the posts on Price Vigilantes and Market Mavens for example. Along that vein, I decided to not only change the look of the blog, but also to change [...]

  12. Comment by CanadianInvestor on 26 June 2008:

    Well, this is a new thing to be called! Made me chuckle. Only thing is I’ve noticed that the people who probably should be listening about investing don’t. You only start on the road to becoming smarter when you realize how poor your knowledge really is. Most of the poeple who read financial blogs seem to be other financial bloggers!

  13. Comment by Four Pillars on 1 July 2008:

    Market Maven eh? Sounds good!

    Mike

  14. Pingback by Subprime Blogger / Will Low Mortgage Rates Help the Economy? on 24 May 2009:

    [...] one thing that all economists and market mavens agree on is that the economy is in horrible condition.  Just how bad of condition is up for [...]

  15. Pingback by The Financial Suite » Will Low Mortgage Rates Help the Economy? on 25 May 2009:

    [...] one thing that all economists and market mavens agree on is that the economy is in horrible condition.  Just how bad of condition is up for [...]

  16. Pingback by Will Low Mortgage Rates Help the Economy? on 2 July 2009:

    [...] one thing that all economists and market mavens agree on is that the economy is in horrible condition.  Just how bad of condition is up for [...]

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