Hi Kevin; Regarding fools:
Yep. The guy who bot INTC without knowing that it means Intel
was a fool. And not a motley fool, just a regular, run of the mill,
dime a dozen, fool. What he does for a living doesn't have
anything to do with it. Most of the mid-level managers at my
company are fools too. (I laugh when I see the results of polls
that find that 50% or more of the people in advanced positions
have feelings of being inadequate. The authors suggest these
feelings are irrational. I disagree.)
Some Ferengi rules of Acquisition:
219. Always know what you're buying.
44. Never confuse wisdom with luck.
bradley.edu
In addition, I would suggest:
Never, ever, ever, buy on someone else's advice.
And, of course:
The fool opens his mouth about a subject, of which he knows
nothing, and proves he is a fool - the wise man just keeps quiet.
I don't avoid the subject of stocks with strangers. Recently it
has become extremely easy to get their opinions, and they all
have bullish tips. With me, recently, it has been the clerk where
I bought my new snowboard boots, and the grocery clerk.
None of these people actually understand investing at a level
beyond a platitude like "Buy when blood is in the streets."
That one, for instance, will have them buying into the current
way above historical norm prices because now bad news about
south east asia is out. These people are fools, and that is all
there is. And a good thing, too. When I used to teach calculus,
I told the students (jokingly) that the ones getting the lower grades
were performing the important duty of making the other students
look good. ( Incidentally, I had a higher pass rate than the other
instructors, and my students did better in later classes than other
students did, so I probably didn't permanently damage their egos. )
I should note that I don't think the day-traders currently going long
in this market are fools. Instead, they are playing a time horizon
a lot shorter than mine. I don't pretend to understand what they
do, and they should not pretend to understand long horizon players
like me. It is possible for both of us to make money, just not on the
same days. Certainly the floor finisher wasn't day trading INTC.
-- Carl |
