Festus, you did the right thing, of course, by educating yourself on the market. An important lesson to learn, IMHO, is to never invest in a tip. A tip is information given to you with no details on how it was arrived at. Always, expect to examine details and if your tipster is not willing to give details then red flags should shoot up, bells and buzzers should ring and this message appear, "Warning, gambling can be hazardous to your financial health!"
I first got started listening to Brinker back in the late 80's and I listened to him on and off as I was not really into the stock market then. I'm also a born skeptic and have a healthy BS filter. But Brinker had the right approach I always thought. You manage your risk, build wealth over time, learn enough to control your own finances. Also his bromides seemed right that no one can time the market but there are certain trends that reasonably can be expected to reoccur and if you can make intelligent decisions then you should act on the best information you have. Little did I know then that he was really practicing Vegas style gambling.
Well, back in the 80's and up to the early 90's it was fairly hard to invest in the market. It cost serious money to open accounts and even just to get delayed quotes. You were considered either brilliant or foolhardy if you dabbled in the market and practically no one you knew took the Wall Street Journal. There was a built-in barrier to entry.
Then the raging 90's hit and everyone started jumping in with both feet. The Internet made quotes free and Brinker's popularity soared, I'm sure. And as he predicted back then and used to say often, when the bear market hits, all the sheep will wish they had never heard of Wall Street. That's where we were in October 2001. It does indeed go in waves and markets tend to repeat themselves in ways that must delight the heart of every addicted gambler.
Brinker said some pretty wise things back then and much of it made sense. Then, along the way, he got lost and became somewhat bitter. Today, he's a mere glimmer of what he once was. Maybe that's the way he likes it. He has that kind of dualistic reclusive gambler mentality that thinks the fewer people that listen to him the better it is for his predictions, yet he needs to be heard to fulfill his need for importance and power.
Everyone wants to get a good tip that will pay off. Brinker is on a roll right now. But I don't think for a minute, that he has any infallible insight. He just has a gambler's instinct. |
