Thanks to Diamond, Baird, MonsieurGonzo, and all the others who responded (variously, of course) to my questions.
Let me answer you, one at a time.
Diamond, since you, too, will be writing for a living soon, you will learn that everything is grist for a writer's mill, even -- or perhaps I should say especially distressing and unpleasant experiences. (The only experience I would exclude is one's own death, because one can't write about that.)
So, even if the market grinds us up and spits us out -- we can write about it! And maybe even make some money doing it!
On a more serious note, however, let me say that I can't quite agree that "...long-term investing shouldn't take a lot of time IF you do the right research in the first place." That is, I would agree if the "you" involved is 1) a full-fledged financial analyst, or 2) a specialist who is investing in the one sector he knows inside out.
There is a financial columnist who writes for the Washington Post every Sunday -- James Glassman -- who has done more than anyone else, in my opinion, to propagandize the myth that if you do your research "right" and choose your stocks "correctly," you can then just stash them away and relax and check your stock quotations no more than once a month. I like Glassman, but that is flapdoodle! Irresponsible flapdoodle!
Even with the finest companies, sh*t happens, and if you aren't looking when it happens, your goose is cooked. Things move too fast, so if you want to invest in individual stocks on your own, you absolutely must keep up with the latest company/industry/stock market/international news, which is, no matter how you slice it, time-consuming.
My original question, as you recall, was, basically: why do it yourself if you can't beat the mutual funds, let alone the market indices?
I would say there's no point at all -- unless you get a bang out of it. And I would say, reading some of your responses, that many of you really do.
Revelation! It isn't really about money! (If it were, I'd hazard the guess that most folks here, like myself, would indeed be better advised to hand it all over to the Heartland Value Fund, as Diamond suggested, or better yet, to any European fund.) It isn't even about greed/fear, greed/fear, greed/fear. It's about the excitement! The risk! The danger! The thrill of the roller-coaster! The thrill, in short, of war!
Actually, I recently had occasion to experience my first war (as an observer, only), and I must confess that I came to understand why some people become addicted to it. I am a peacenik. But let's face it, peace can be boring. War is, if nothing else, exciting (for non-combatants too). You are more alive when your life is at risk!
So, I presume, it's back to the battlefield?
jbe |
