What to expect

May 17, 2011 20:35

So you decided to invest. What are you expecting to get out of it ( Read more... )

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r_ness May 18 2011, 09:08:45 UTC
There's the quote from John Maynard Keynes, in his General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money: "The game of professional investment is intolerably boring and overexacting to anyone who is entirely exempt from the gambling instinct; whilst he who has it must pay to this propensity the appropriate toll."

(A recent study has a detailed analysis of his investment record.)

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dirque May 18 2011, 10:06:04 UTC
The problem with my graph analogy of course is the unwritten assumption.

1. As X approaches infinity :),
2. There is no limit on the amplitude or the frequency of the graph oscillation.
3. As myopic as we are, we have no idea where we are on the graph :)

There's a political tangent (read rant) that I can go on which is the upward slope is assuming an expanding global economy. A belief that puts me at odds with people insisting on the gold standard.

Next post will probably be something boring like managing debt and leveraging which I should talk about just to seem competent as I go into more interesting topics to me. I take a lot of pre-knowledge for granted.

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r_ness May 18 2011, 10:16:15 UTC
we have no idea where we are on the graph

Yeah, I remember a conversation with a very intelligent friend who had no experience with investing where this was the key point.

"Well, if we're here on the graph, why would anyone buy?"
"We don't know that we're here on the graph; it could go like this...or like this."
"Oh! Okay."

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flit May 20 2011, 02:05:17 UTC
Haha, even being the house, the comparison of the market to gambling makes me want to whimper and keep my money in the "mattress". Except that doesn't beat inflation, darnit.

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