Those so called experts can really screw you up. For example, if you are a long term holding investor who has positioned your portfolio for the coming debacle, those experts can skew your long term outlook just when you should be keeping your rudder on course. The herding effect is a powerful bias and it is what those talking heads incite. Herding is also a critical component in many things such as building a business. Know how to identify it and question its value from your own experience and knowledge. If you don’t have that knowledge, build it. If you don’t want to build it yourself, you are best served by just indexing in a low cost index fund. There is no free lunch in investing!
The result of following the talking heads is that you do things that aren't in your best interests. You shoot yourself in the foot. Take it from me, I’ve made those mistakes and work diligently not to repeat them. Making mistakes is a given in investments. The important point is learning from those errors, minimizing their impact and constantly triangulating various information sources to get accurate information.
This is also why I almost always ignore when CEO's speak. They’ll always tell you what they think you'll "buy". Let the numbers and the mosaic theory craft your outlook and approach. Forget those talking heads, they make their dollar by "shock and awe". Click that crap off or it will make you manic depressive!
I have a close friend who constantly follows CNBC. Almost every day we talk stocks and almost every day he has a different idea from CNBC. He was big on SPACS, crypto, Tesla, AMD and many other herding subjects that have ended up f_cking his returns. Add Jim Cramer’s rantings and he is all over the map. Bloomberg is no different. Just say NO!
There are no "secrets" to successful investing. The key is to constantly educate yourself from many different vantages. The more you know, the better you are to be successful in your investments. Unfortunately, many are grasping for some magic holy grail believing it is there if they just "turn over a few more rocks". The result is they are whipsawed by nefarious talking heads and other “financial” people who are working their own angles. Returns can seriously suffer as a result.
If those folks had all the answers, they wouldn't be telling us. They would be making gobs of money. Wall Street has always been known to encourage investors to take risks while they make riskless profits from fees, and other means. So you take the risk, but they take the steady, risk free route to stable returns. Makes you wonder.
No one, no matter who they are, has the golden answers, including me. Stop looking for the "fountain of youth". It doesn't exist!
I always find this funny. A good sales person can seem like your best friend, but should you start entertaining moving your portfolio elsewhere, they usually become highly agitated, at a minimum. Why is this? They get paid fees by the AUM (Assets under Management). This means get paid a portion of the percent the brokerage companies steadily charges the investor on AUM. Times are good and you're making money. The broker gets their cut. Times are bad and you're losing money. They also get their cut. This increases your losses during times like now.
Educate yourself by reading and studying. Dip your toe in the pool versus jumping straight in when you are trying something new. Then, learn and adjust for your errors and avoid repeating those errors. If you invest for a long time, you WILL have errors. That is just life in general, but you must constantly strive to improve. Understand people's motivations when they are "helping you". Usually, they are helping themselves to more fees while your returns suffer.
So just turn those TV jokers off and seek other sources of information. Your returns will thank you. JUST DO IT!
Be smart, be well-read, be aware and be successful.
"Face your fear, empty yourself, trust your own voice, let go of control, have faith in outcomes, connect with a larger purpose, derive meaning from the struggle."
-Jigoro Kano - Founder of Judo
