We are at the Post

 We are at the Post

Investing in the stock market involves using both sides of your brain, the left (reasoning logical side) and the right (intuitive feeling side). As your knowledge base expands your feeling intuitive side will play a much bigger role in your investment decisions. My advice after being in the market a number of years is do not rush and try to learn everything at once. Take your time and learn it bit by bit and enjoy the journey. Investing in the market will offer you many rewards but it will test you at the same time. It will shine a light on your character weaknesses and expose them to the light of day. I think this is all part of the learning process we all must go through.

As I believe we create our own reality, whatever happens in our lives and in our investing is a reflection of what is going on inside of us. A person who is willing to examine himself and his own behavior will do better in the market and maybe in his life as well. If we do create our own reality as I believe, our thoughts and feelings are the tools we use to carve out our existence as we know it. Since the Stock Market is the sum total of all of its participants it is the result of everyone’s consciousness. This would make it an ideal barometer of raw emotion and feeling. You can see this in the market as Fear and Greed as the market swings wildly from one extreme to the other. As it moves through these extremes it presents the self-aware investor with opportunities to make good long term investments at attractive prices.

It’s been my experience so far that investing in the Stock Market involves

1)      Psychology  (what’s going on inside your own head)

2)      Current Market Environment  (what's going on inside the market's head)

3)      Stock Selection

4)      Portfolio Management

I’ll discuss these topics in future posts. The market is essentially a discounting mechanism, it represents the sum total of everybody’s information (left brain) and feelings and emotion (right brain). At times of extreme market behavior (fear and greed, oversold, overbought) it pays to be contrary and do the opposite of what everybody else is doing. Sort of what George did in the old Seinfeld series (my favorite episode by the way).

I guess that’s all for now. I decided to write this blog as sort of a diary to myself. Maybe somebody out there in cyberspace will benefit from it as well.