Jake Bernstein no bull investing_2

14 NO BULL INVESTING ContraryOpinion Is One of the Most Important Tools to Success The contemporary way of saying this is “Think outside the box.” In other words, you will want to go contrary to the crowd most of the time. This won’t make you feel too good, and it won’t rest well with some of your friends, family, or associates. By “contrary opinion,” I mean simply that you must assess the pre-vailing majority opinion, and you must be willing to think and DO the opposite. When most people are afraid to buy stocks or to begin a certain type of business, then you must seriously con-sider buying stocks or starting a business. When most people are convinced that things are good, and that the good times will never end, you must take actions that will serve you well when the good times do end. When most peo-ple are panicking, you must be calm and collected, taking logical steps instead of reacting irrationally. When most people are pessi-mistic, you want to be an optimist. There are literally hundreds of examples in business where contrary opinion paid big divi-dends. The most recent example was the much-vaunted, much-feared “Y2K bug,” which was supposed to bring with it financial chaos, the collapse of the power grid, anarchy, mass confusion, and worse. Some of the most well-known analysts, politicians, and scientists staked their reputations on the belief that cataclysmic events—socially, politically, economically, and technologically— would happen when the new millennium started. And nothing happened. We were warned by the prophets of gloom and doom that banks might close down, that we might not have electricity, that we might not be able to have medical prescriptions filled, and that food distribution would stop or be curtailed. The Y2K bug was one of the most obvious examples of how panic can be WANT TO MAKE MORE MONEY? DO THESE THINGS FIRST 15 infectious. If you’d like more examples, read McKay’s Extraordi-nary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Xlibris Corp., 30 November 2000). I’ll make it very simple and straightforward for you: What most people think is wrong and when most people are thinking one way, odds are that events will develop the opposite way. Yes, it will be very difficult for you to be a contrary thinker, but it can yield great rewards. You Have to Think for Yourself This seems very obvious, doesn’t it? We all want to believe that we think for ourselves. In truth, we are brainwashed daily by the media, by newspapers, and by friends, family, and those we love. Does this mean that you should not read newspapers, watch television, or listen to the radio? Should you also disrespect those you love? Not at all! The answer is simple: Develop your ideas in-dependently, evaluating all other ideas and statements within the framework of what you believe yourself. It’s easy to be influ-enced by other people, especially if you love and respect them. The sophisticated, intelligent-looking, smooth-talking anchor-person on business television or the nightly news may appear to know what he or she is talking about. The odds are that they know nothing more than what they’re reading. Their script has been prepared for them; they’re merely reading the words that other people have written for them. Who are these other peo-ple? Do they have hidden agendas? Do they know what they’re talking about? Are they merely reflecting the opinions of oth-ers? You’ll find that most of the time their thinking is very stan-dard, very average, and very wrong. So, remember to think for yourself! 16 NO BULL INVESTING The More Complicated Your Methodology, the Less Likely It Is to Work During my more than 30 years in the investment field, I have seen literally hundreds, if not thousands, of trading strategies, investment schemes, programs, multilevel marketing programs, Internet sales programs, computer trading programs, real estate methods, and more. Most of them don’t work. And the ones that are the most complicated seem to be the least successful. Al-though it has likely been grossly overused, the “Keep It Simple, Stupid,” or KISS, rule is still one of the best rules you can learn. You don’t need a degree in economics or business to make money as an investor. All you need is a plan, some rules, motivation, some money, discipline, and consistency. These, then, are the universal truths I discovered during my lengthy search for methods that would make me financially in-dependent. I will elaborate on them throughout the course of this book. Rest assured that if you learn them and apply them to any business, investment plan, or trading program, they will serve you well. Ignore them, and you will be destined to learn the same lessons over and over until you finally get them right! ManyRoads Lead to Success This book is not just about the stock market; it will give you a general formula for making money in any market, whether real estate, rare coins, options, futures, single stock futures, bonds, mutual funds, or other moneymaking ventures. The way I will achieve this goal is by providing you with concepts, structure, ex-amples, and a general model you can follow. The model will serve you well as long as you use it. It will not serve you, if you try to WANT TO MAKE MORE MONEY? DO THESE THINGS FIRST 17 sidestep it or change it. I will also give you specific examples of how to put your plan for financial freedom into action. As we move forward and explore the various avenues and methods by which you can achieve your goals and realize your dreams, know that the journey ahead will not be an easy one. Success will not “fall out of a magazine.” It will take work and ef-fort, but vast rewards await you. In fact, you may even enjoy the challenge. Remember that attaining and maintaining success re-quire a diversified approach. Keep the big picture in mind as you specialize in one area or in one type of investment, because there are other aspects of investing and financial planning that will need your attention as well. All too often, individuals focus on a single aspect of investing and make good money, but fail to plan ahead. The result is that they lose money either to taxes and inflation or in other investments they should not have ven-tured into without full information and knowledge. In short, you have to learn how to make money, how to keep it, how to make it grow, how to protect it, and how to spend it wisely. 18 NO BULL INVESTING ... - tailieumienphi.vn