“Most ignorant statement ever uttered”, “cynical idiot”: Mark Minervini lashes out at Indian finfluencer

The posterboy of self-taught trading Mark Minervini unleashed a series of furious tweets in response to a finfluencer’s advice to traders/investors to stop reading books and start acting independently in the stock market.

Minervini also pointed out the irony of the finfluencer having a stack of books in his background and and  book cover as his Twitter pic.

Also read: Finfluencers need to be regulated urgently: Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath

“This may be the most ignorant statement ever uttered from the mouth of a cynical idiot,” wrote Minervini, in his tweet, with an emoji of a finger pointing to the tweet posted by Rajarshi Shome.

Shome describes himself as a personal-finance coach in his Twitter description, along with mentioning his interest in equity research.

Minervini wrote, “If not the number one, certainly one of the most important inventions of all time is the printing press. Without the dissemination of information, all research and advancements would be stuck in the stone age. The best value on planet earth for self-improvement is a book written by someone knowledgeable and great. Books change lives! reading is fundamental!!”

He added, “My entire career and wealth was built on and made possible from reading books. If you want to become successful, Rule 1 - don't listen to morons that tell you not to read. Rule 2 - study those who have succeeded. Start by reading books. Now I will probably be accused of trying to sell my books. Lol! To that, my reply... book sales account for far less than 1% of my income AND I'm already massively rich. Few authors write books to make money. If you are lucky, it may turn out that way, but it's a labor of love and a desire to give back and change lives.”

'Waste of time'

Shome had written a few days ago that reading books is a “complete waste of time” and that “fund managers want you to read more books so you give your money to them”.

Calling reading books “productive procrastination”, Shome made an impassioned appeal to people to start taking responsibilities in their life, join the gym, and learn equity research.

“Nobody got rich just by reading books on a couch. Do the hard stuff, listen to the con calls and make independent investing decisions to have a chance to make big money!” he wrote.

Also read: MC Investigates: The two big, illegal reasons why finfluencers don't want to be SEBI-registered RAs

After posting the first tweet in response to Shome’s advice, Minervini shared his reading list for traders which included all of the books.

Minervini said that the a blanket statement like ‘Stop reading books, complete waste of time’ will invite ridicule.