What is the game that Wall Street protects? It's the idea that "gurus" can make predictions good enough that they are better than random guessing. Not just predictions about future market movements - but in choosing sectors and individual securities that will out-perform or under-perform.Wall Street and its minions (financial media) very rarely check their "gurus" prediction accuracy by going back in time and checking each one. This isn't caused by a lack of oversight or incompetence - this is an orchestrated protection of Wall Street and their profits.One of our favorite authors, Larry Swedroe, does check from time to time, see below.Wall Street is a marketing machine - not a "great advice machine". They use fear and greed - the fear of losing money, the greed of making a killing - to sell, sell, sell. It's all smoke and mirrors - and the fundamental idea that supports it all is that "gurus" can predict with some regular degree of success.I have to admit - it's very compelling! Listening to forecasts can be fascinating! Business people love it. Each year, local chambers sponsor a big gathering where a local economist offers their predictions of the year ahead. (Do they review how this forecaster was wrong last year? No! That would be rude!)It is alluring. Similar to the attraction that some may have with the weather forecast, political candidates or simple gossip. Should business owners make plans based on these predictions? Well, only if their planning contains contingency plans for the situation that the prediction they are assuming is correct - is dead wrong. This problem gets people into less than optimal to downright disastrous situations on a daily basis.The problem here is we're talking about your livelihood - your money - your family's security - your family's happiness!Think about it. A guru convinces you that the markets are too dangerous - fear. Your fear drives you to buy an annuity with an internal rate of return - if you wait ten years to use it, and live to age 95, of just 4%. The stock market would have conservatively provided 7-8% return. Yet people are buying annuities left and right. (Is there a place for annuities? Yes, but only for people can still meet their goals with a very low rate of return. Annuities can also be considered part of the bond portion of a portfolio although they are illiquid for portfolio balancing purposes - so they should not make up the entire bond portion.)Keep in mind that if the guru predicts up, down or sideways - three options - they have a one in three chance or 33% probability of being correct! When they are correct - it is most likely luck not skill.In this article (click here) Larry Swedroe picks one regular visitor to CNBC and does something that Wall Street never does - goes back in time and checks his predictions for accuracy!By the way - how do you account for the fact that markets/securities can go any which way? Your planning and strategy ASSUMES they could go any which way. Your strategy accounts for big market drops - and by the way - big market drops are common and expected events!