Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Morning Ted, Some here will be able to obtain insights related to investing and themsevles, from Mr. Merriman's points; that may help them going forward. This is the nature of MFO, education. Take care, Catch
Any of the 12 notes Mr. Merriman presents will offer something to the reader. In particular, in my opinion: points number 1, 5 and 12.
---number 1, the predictions from experts and/or charlatans. In our (you and I, and many other older members here) younger days we were bombarded with mailings about every form of magical investment method, process or other fantastic vision. The internet provides even more of this today. In particular, an investor needs to be able to sort the fact from the fiction. Marketing a thought or product is here to stay, and investors will be subject to these methods, too; not just from a tv ad or the local car salesperson.
---number 5 In my opinion, and from numerous personal observations over the years; the emotional side of one's investing can be the most destructive and difficult to resolve. An investor really has to have sound personal insight into what makes them tick; in order to have a positive investing outlook and reward.
---number 12 defensive vs offensive investing. If one is an investor, this is the offensive portion with holdings. Protecting the gains (the defensive) is more critical to obtaining investment goals. The wonderful world of compounding towards the long term positive return does not work well when a portfolio is not managed to protect the gains. Everyone will have their methods of dealing with the protection of gains.
I don't understand how the above may be viewed as "so yesterday". If one does not guard against or have a better understanding of the marketing folks selling their grand ideas or of the often highly educated talking heads who don't get things just right; or learn to understand the self-emotions aspect of investing; or of the value of attempting to understand how to protect the portfolio gains to the best of their ability, well, none of these are yesterday issues for investing. These aspects continue and are here and now, and will remain long past my time on this planet.
I find one item that could remove portions of the above considerations. Set personal investing parameters, hire an excellent programmer to establish a trading algo that suits one's needs and auto-link portfolio buys and sells into the system.
Fortunate to those who have discovered MFO; especially at a young investing age.
Hey, take care. I gotta get back to work here. Catch
Reply to @catch22: You are right. Things change but some things about investing remain the same. I think Mr. Merriman is trying to do some good. He is retired at this moment so he is not part of Merriman.com business anymore.
I wouldn't let one person's cynicism detract from a useful article. What Ted may have meant is that Merriman's points are very basic to investors and probably already well understood by 90% of the folks here at MFO. Yes - for the latest "inside scoop" look elsewhere. But, occasionally we need to be reminded of the basics. You really can't talk investing without an awareness of risk & risk assessment. That's the underlying premise for all the various target-date funds often discussed here and for many other funds as well.
I thought shutting-out daily financial news was great advice if you can do it. As I find the daily dribble often entertaining or amusing, it's hard for me to shut it out completely. A heavy dose of cynicism towards all the stuff that gets reported is probably about the best I can achieve. Can only hope that no one here is continually "adjusting" their investment plans based on every breaking morsel from CNBC, Bloomberg, or anywhere else. Yikes - the recent waffling over whether or not we're going to war with Syria would probably be enough to drive such a individual nuts!
Comments
Some here will be able to obtain insights related to investing and themsevles, from Mr. Merriman's points; that may help them going forward. This is the nature of MFO, education.
Take care,
Catch
Regards,
Ted
Any of the 12 notes Mr. Merriman presents will offer something to the reader.
In particular, in my opinion: points number 1, 5 and 12.
---number 1, the predictions from experts and/or charlatans. In our (you and I, and many other older members here) younger days we were bombarded with mailings about every form of magical investment method, process or other fantastic vision. The internet provides even more of this today. In particular, an investor needs to be able to sort the fact from the fiction. Marketing a thought or product is here to stay, and investors will be subject to these methods, too; not just from a tv ad or the local car salesperson.
---number 5 In my opinion, and from numerous personal observations over the years; the emotional side of one's investing can be the most destructive and difficult to resolve. An investor really has to have sound personal insight into what makes them tick; in order to have a positive investing outlook and reward.
---number 12 defensive vs offensive investing. If one is an investor, this is the offensive portion with holdings. Protecting the gains (the defensive) is more critical to obtaining investment goals. The wonderful world of compounding towards the long term positive return does not work well when a portfolio is not managed to protect the gains. Everyone will have their methods of dealing with the protection of gains.
I don't understand how the above may be viewed as "so yesterday". If one does not guard against or have a better understanding of the marketing folks selling their grand ideas or of the often highly educated talking heads who don't get things just right; or learn to understand the self-emotions aspect of investing; or of the value of attempting to understand how to protect the portfolio gains to the best of their ability, well, none of these are yesterday issues for investing. These aspects continue and are here and now, and will remain long past my time on this planet.
I find one item that could remove portions of the above considerations. Set personal investing parameters, hire an excellent programmer to establish a trading algo that suits one's needs and auto-link portfolio buys and sells into the system.
Fortunate to those who have discovered MFO; especially at a young investing age.
Hey, take care. I gotta get back to work here.
Catch
I thought shutting-out daily financial news was great advice if you can do it. As I find the daily dribble often entertaining or amusing, it's hard for me to shut it out completely. A heavy dose of cynicism towards all the stuff that gets reported is probably about the best I can achieve. Can only hope that no one here is continually "adjusting" their investment plans based on every breaking morsel from CNBC, Bloomberg, or anywhere else. Yikes - the recent waffling over whether or not we're going to war with Syria would probably be enough to drive such a individual nuts!