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The Pomposity of Investing

The Pomposity of Investing

| October 09, 2018

I was reminded that investing is not a pastime, while looking at this collection of seashells in our home. 

It's a lifetime collection from some unknown person that I purchased for a mere $6 at a garage sale. 

To me, it represents someone else's time spent with family, beautiful weather, and hundreds of interesting little animals that created the shells. 

It represents the byproducts of a fun and memorable pastime, but in the end had no material value. 

It reminded me that some people like to pretend investing is a pastime.

It's so frustrating, that with all the unknowns in the world, to see people arrogantly assume they can predict the future. 

Investing is not supposed to be fun. 

  • It's not supposed to be a means by which to signal your masculinity. 

  • It's not a means to exert your political views. 

  • It's serious business that will determine whether or not you meet your goals. 

The next time you feel an urge based upon a belief that you can predict the future, remember who you are trading against.  Literal football fields worth of people with six screens in front of them, algorithms backed by supercomputers the likes that we have never even imagined, and a marketplace with thousands and thousands of inputs across the globe that cannot possibly be reliably predicted. 

The wiser path comes from experience, acknowledging what cannot be known, focusing on what can be controlled, and investing accordingly. 

That's what we do here. 

Thanks for taking a look!

Tom

This article represents opinions of the authors and not those of their firm and are subject to change from time to time, and do not constitute a recommendation to purchase and sale any security nor to engage in any particular investment or legal strategy. The information contained here has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed for accuracy.