"Long-term Investing" Professor Zhou Guan-nan from NCCU Finance Department clashes again with the giant Jack! Which is better: index investing or active investing?

Well-known trader Giant Jie’s lecture received high praise, and many participants shared their experiences online. However, Professor Zhou Guan-nan from NCCU made a remark that escalated the incident into a confrontation. Zhou Guan-nan sarcastically commented that these gamblers who specialize in cutting leeks even hold a worship gathering, asking you to pay to enter and listen to how they win your money. Giant Jie responded that Zhou Guan-nan’s theories are just a bunch of concepts he doesn’t know how to use to make money, only writing books to stir up trouble and earn royalties.

Zhou Guan-nan retorted: “Giant Jie’s words are just like his trading strategies—untrustworthy and non-replicable. Is making money your only belief? Making illicit gains and then donating money to atone for sins—that’s just coincidence.”

Zhou Guan-nan sarcastically criticized Giant Jie: “Specializing in cutting leeks and holding a worship gathering.”

Last week was the lecture by the well-known trader Giant Jie, with mysterious guests including Joeman, Zhou Xingzhe, and others. It is understood that Giant Jie has accumulated a trading volume of one trillion TWD over the past five years, with over 100 million TWD in commissions. He is a full-time trader, author of the bestseller “Giant Mind,” and many online participants shared their insights from the seminar. Most feedback appears positive, with attendees saying they learned something.

Professor Zhou Guan-nan from NCCU wrote on Facebook: “Short-term trading is a zero-sum game, meaning the money gained by winners plus the money lost by losers sum to zero. That is, short-term trading does not create any positive social value.”

He has long advocated buying 0050 because it is suitable for most investors. He pointed out: Do retail investors like you understand the theory of interest rate parity, options pricing formulas, or the capital asset pricing model? At the end of his post, he sarcastically added: “And these gamblers who specialize in cutting leeks even hold a worship gathering, asking you to pay to enter and listen to how they win your money.”

Giant Jie: Zhou Guan-nan is a trading loser who profits from stirring up trouble and selling books

Giant Jie himself also responded in the comment section, criticizing Zhou Guan-nan’s poor investment skills and lack of practical application of his theories. He questioned whether Zhou Guan-nan truly knows how to use the interest rate parity, options pricing formulas, or CAPM to make money. He stated that Zhou Guan-nan, a professor at NCCU’s Department of Finance, has long sought ways to profit from these theories and combine them with practical trading.

He bluntly said: “I know that besides your academic brilliance, you are actually a trading novice and a loser. You try to stir up trouble everywhere to attract traffic, then exchange it for book royalties and speaking fees. I know your salary and investments are not great, and you feel lost, which makes you think everyone else is lucky. Maybe you also can’t gain recognition from your colleagues at NCCU, leading to a pitiful inferiority complex, and thus you seek comfort and validation online.”

He mentioned that he and Zhou Guan-nan are from the same marketing company and publisher. The royalties from his book “Giant Thinking” and his speaking fees are all donated, which Zhou Guan-nan is well aware of. He sarcastically asked: “Do you still want to continue using your professor title to earn royalties, speaking fees, and tuition? Are you afraid it might affect NCCU’s reputation in finance?”

Zhou Guan-nan’s reply to Giant Jie: “Profiting from illicit gains and donating money to atone for sins is just right”

Zhou Guan-nan responded to Giant Jie: “You’ve touched on the source of the leek-cutting, right? Full of a sense of crisis, I suppose? These baseless personal attacks, full of conjecture, are just like your trading strategies—untrustworthy and non-replicable. Is making money your only belief? Making illicit gains and then donating money to atone for sins—that’s just coincidence.”

Giant Jie said: “When you say that making money in the stock market is illicit, it also reveals your inferiority and sour grapes mentality. No wonder you’re so jealous. Do I have any conjectures? Why not ask your fellow professors in the business school? Ask them who is doing subjective trading, who is doing quantitative trading, and who is working with researchers to use AI to profit from price differences.”

He also explained why Zhou Guan-nan is pitiful: “Because whether it’s the Department of Financial Management or the Finance Institute, these professors, in order to keep up with AI and apply what they learn, work with graduate students and PhD candidates to find ways to earn what you call illicit gains in the market. They also know how many students join the TMBA program at NCCU each year—thousands of students and professors—continuously entering the stock market. During my graduate studies, I took courses from Professor Wu Qiming in the Department of Financial Management, which benefited me greatly. Can you ask him to stop encouraging everyone to seek subjective investment opportunities?”

He further pointed out that Zhou Guan-nan only wants to earn royalties, tuition, and speaking fees, and to increase his salary, which is why he frequently stirs up trouble online. Giant Jie also said he once took Professor Wu Qiming’s course and the first thing he did was to have everyone research industries in groups, which benefited him greatly at the time. He also recommended Wu Qiming’s book: “Smart Investment Rules,” and mentioned that not every professor is so ignorant and stubborn.

Can 0050 really be invested in blindly? Which is better—index investing or active investing?

Zhou Guan-nan’s opinions online are highly controversial. Many retail investors with little or no investment experience support his belief in 0050, but many of the operations that reinforce this belief are also questioned. For example, buying stocks when they hit the daily limit-down, being ridiculed that if you want advice on gambling, you should find a dealer rather than a desk. Because hitting the daily limit-down indicates that the current market price is greater than or equal to the intrinsic value.

( “Long-term buying” NCCU Department of Financial Management Professor Zhou Guan-nan’s Taiwan Stock Market Kill Day adds 0050, sparking debate: Do you understand investment if you understand academia?)

On the other hand, some in the crypto community might understand why Giant Jie believes Zhou Guan-nan is stirring up trouble. Zhou Guan-nan’s friend Zhang Senlin once said that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will eventually be a Ponzi scheme, with increasing scams and a strong causal relationship with rising Bitcoin prices.

Zhou Guan-nan also reposted this article, saying: “I agree completely—it’s a Ponzi scheme. There will be retribution.” The metaphysics of causality will not be discussed here; I previously organized reasons why Bitcoin does not meet the definition of a Ponzi scheme, and I recommend listening to the Hardcore Financial Literacy Podcast’s discussion on Ponzi schemes.

(Is Bitcoin a scam? The decline caused by Prince Group’s raid? What errors do NTU professors have regarding Bitcoin based on the Ponzi scheme definition?)

Taking 0050 as an example, its mechanism of淘汰弱者留強 (eliminate the weak and keep the strong) is quite suitable for ordinary investors who lack time to research individual stocks deeply; but if you go back fifteen years, choosing to deeply research TSMC and holding it long-term until today is a typical active investment. Buying 0050 at the same time and holding it until now is index investing.

From the results, both investment paths have a significant proportion of TSMC, but the difference is that the former requires extensive research and risk judgment, resulting in more pure corporate growth dividends; the latter involves less time and effort, capturing the overall market performance. Essentially, these are different investment philosophies, but due to some stirring-up remarks, they have been exaggerated into a confrontation.

In reality, both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. The key is whether the returns and costs meet the investor’s own conditions and risk tolerance. It’s worth noting that the less emphasized point in the index investing camp is that the impressive returns of 0050 are highly correlated with Taiwan’s long-term bull market over the past decade and the strong performance of large-cap stocks. In extreme bear markets like the financial crisis, the experience and results might be entirely different.

This article “Long-term buying” NCCU Professor Zhou Guan-nan clashes again with Giant Jie! Which is better—index investing or active investing?—originally appeared on Lian News ABMedia.