10 problems with investments in 2014

1) Stocks: people buy stocks when they see a lot of profit is made (high)
    And sell when they fear they will sink lower (low)
2) Savings accounts have low yields
3) Funds: there are very few good ones.
4) Bonds: when interests rise, bond prices drop
5) Real estate: not liquid, temptation to use too much leverage. Price?
6) It's subjective to determine the intrinsic value of a company
7) A lot of costs in internal bank funds (commissions, management fee, performance fee, subscription fees)
8) A lot of people are not interested in investments, don't put a lot of time and thought in them and think they are hard
9) There are a lot of greedy people in the investment industry. A salesman rarely holds your best interest
10) Alternatives are hard to find and to evaluate. (good performing funds, good advisors)

Next post: Solutions

What 20 years of investing taught me.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of my first investment transaction.
We always remember the losers better. Because thousands of years ago, when we saw a pretty flower and a lion, we tended to focus more on the lion for obvious reasons. How cruel nature really is, making us focus on the bad; A recipe for unhappiness.
Thousands and thousands of transactions later, these are the most important things I have learned:


If you find yourself worrying about your positions in the middle of the night: get out in the morning. At any price. This is important. You are either using too much size (too big a position for your portfolio or your mental state) Or your subconscious doesn't agree with your position.
Remember: you can always get back in!
A stock is never trading too high to buy or too low to sell. It can always go lower or higher.

When a journalist complimented Paul Tudor Jones, one of the best performing investors of all times, how he bought the exact low in the S&P 500 somewhere in the nineties. He replied: Thanks, I finally got it right on my eight try.