1. If you're right 51% of the time when you invest you're going to get rich. Unfortunately the odds of you being right 51% of the time are incredibly low.
2. Heed Rule #1, and put most (if not all) of your money in broad market ETFs.
3. If you DO decide to actively invest, think about your strengths both in terms of character and industry knowledge and play to those. I don't know jack about healthcare and have had my head handed to me in Biotech because I am willing to hold through a lot of pain. What I AM good at is seeing strong secular trends in tech stocks and value discrepancies there. So most of my cash is in broad market ETFs, and I do a small amount of active investing in tech and telecom. And I work in Equity Research..
It astounds me that so many people think they can be great investors. It would be like me trying to build an ark with no experience in carpentry or ship-building. Really it just strikes me as a legal and socially acceptable way to gamble. Please recognize that this is a zero-sum game, and the other person taking your trade is likely a professional who spends their entire work week doing deep analysis.
It astounds me that so many people think they can be great investors. It would be like me trying to build an ark with no experience in carpentry or ship-building. Really it just strikes me as a legal and socially acceptable way to gamble. Please recognize that this is a zero-sum game, and the other person taking your trade is likely a professional who spends their entire work week doing deep analysis.