Intangibles.
If you’re reading this missive, you probably have money. Some of you are ultra-wealthy, others might be comfortable. Others, still, have just enough to get by. In any case, having money means having certain rights and responsibilities. Our parents taught us that, remember?
One of those rights is to do with your cash as you please. That’s your prerogative. You also have a responsibility to be wise with the allocation of your financial resources, not to be indiscriminate or capricious.
Why, then, do so many of you fall victim to the hucksters and hype that tries to separate you from your money?
Greed?
Here come the pitchmen.
Wall Street and the banking fraternity have a non-altruistic mission to get you to buy something. Sometimes the message is delivered in dulcet tones, with images of children, beach houses, and expensive cars. Other times, the message comes at you in fractious, staccato pace delivered by an almost “infomercial” frenetic salesman, sleeves rolled up, his face contorted into a funny or disfiguring image. You know those guys. They talk fast, their peers pump them for today’s hot stock. They are seen by you on reputable distribution channels with 24-hour access and global reach. You buy it all.
Consider, that very few of them actually interact with you. Maybe you buy their books or phone-in to their program. But, ostensibly, their pitch is directed at you not necessarily for you.
And still you buy.
“Buy real estate, buy stocks, buy gold, buy (fill in the blank)…”
Fundamentals.
All good investing is relevant, respectful, and based upon methodology. It makes you feel good and it produces the desired result. It connects you to your environment in a way that depicts your culture and your morality. It produces something greater than the individual. It defines capitalism, complete with risk/reward parameters. It is better than gambling. It creates leverage.
Today, the climate in the financial markets is tenuous. Despite the public’s low levels of trust and confidence in their institutions, particularly their financial institutions, they continue to invest.
The subtleties cannot be overlooked, that those financial institutions which you mistrust also need you to keep buying, selling, and trading. Their job is to invent new products, new trading platforms, new software that makes it easier for you to commit. Given that you feel the need, and they have “the goods,” an uneasy marriage is thus consummated.
I would love to see an overhaul in the delivery system. Shut down the do-it-yourself software packages, muzzle the hype, and return to a long-term non-synthetic marketplace in which patience replaces immediacy.
It’s no laughing matter when you get taken-in by wildly unrealistic expectations, and then bemoan your unfortunate fate.
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