With so many gurus and talking heads out there, it’s hard to know which advice to follow, and which to ignore. I’m talking about making things personal, making investment plans that fit you and your needs and risks and comfort levels.
These are important questions that any financial advisor would ask you… right before he pigeon-holed you into some risk category or growth box.
Performance is important. But so is personality.
Have you ever taken those personality tests online? There are so many out there, I’m sure you have. Maybe you’ve taken more than one… as I have. On one recent test, I was classified as a “Good-Natured Realist.”
This suites me perfectly. It means I like harmony and helping people. It means I’m naturally optimistic.
The best piece of investment advice I’ve ever received was that there’s always a bull market somewhere.
I spent years learning technical and fundamental analysis from Adam Lass… Many of you know him and have read his stuff. He’s got a knack for hitting the nail on the head. But many of you that know him also know that he’s not a naturally trusting guy.
He doesn’t trust the markets, especially when they climb higher. He’s written extensively about how they’re being manipulated by the government, by the Fed, by the whales.
In other words, he definitely leans bearish most of the time.
I learned a lot from him, but I don’t think I would like to spend my whole career leaning that way. The idea that there’s always a bull market somewhere has given me license to be optimistic. Not with naïveté, and not without questions and hard and thorough due diligence… but definitely with an eye towards going long.
In fact, I’d call myself a “PermaBull.”
Now, when I say that word, I’m sure many of you just cringed. And some of you may have thought of some choice synonyms for PermaBull. Like unrealistic, head-in-the-sand, irrational optimist.
But I’d like to argue that you’re wrong. A successful PermaBull can “go long” in a market full of pitfalls because she is adaptable and all-inclusive. It’s the equivalent of seeing not just diamonds in a pile of coal, but the 200,000 other products that coal can produce.
Opportunity Always Exists
In other words, PermaBulls see possibility, and we’re always looking for an opportunity. Sometimes it’s just a matter of perspective.
I could show you a tiny biotech company ready to release clinical trial results. An aggressive opportunist would pounce on that catalyst, get in and get out with gains in a very short timeframe. An investor with less risk tolerance might not take the chance.
Sometimes it’s a matter of time.
I could show you a huge demographic shift in an emerging market that will send consumer stocks to the moon… in five or ten years. The long-term investor would get in that game while another might not want to tie up his money for a decade.
In each case, however, there’s the chance to see things as an opportunity. Personality matters. How you see the world matters. It affects how you invest by giving you a unique perspective on everything from risk to time to asset classes. See that as an opportunity to tailor your own investment philosophy.
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