They sold books by the truckload and were favorites on the talk-show circuit, but the Beardstown Ladies weren't the stock-picking gurus they were cracked up to be. The silver-haired investment club from a small town in downstate Illinois claimed annual returns of 23 percent from 1984 to 1993. A new audit shows a less spectacular result: 9 percent, several points below the market's performance. "The Beardstown Ladies are just really, really sorry," treasurer Betty Sinnock told the Associated Press.
Ladies in Stocks
They sold books by the truckload and were favorites on the talk-show circuit, but the Beardstown Ladies weren't the stock-picking gurus they were cracked up to be. The silver-haired investment club from a small town in downstate Illinois claimed annual returns of 23 percent from 1984 to 1993. A new audit shows a less spectacular result: 9 percent, several points below the market's performance. "The Beardstown Ladies are just really, really sorry," treasurer Betty Sinnock told the Associated Press.
