You - YES, YOU! - should not trade or invest -- EVER!

https://youtu.be/_dAQ0WYQklI

http://www.blueowlpress.com/video-presentations

Howard Bandy is really worth paying attention to.  I'll say that again, in case you missed it:  HOWARD BANDY IS REALLY WORTH PAYING ATTENTION TO.  As he says, "the biggest problem is risk".  You must know what your risk tolerance and survivability is.

In this video interview, he clearly defines why YOU SHOULD NOT TRADE, or invest - YES, YOU!  But the standout bit goes something like this:

You are a keen golfer.  Imagine you see a local golf tournament advertised, $1000 entry with $1,000,000 prize.  It's a single elimination tournament.  You turn up to play, and you find out your first opponent is Greg Norman (insert here any major player here - Tiger Woods, for example).  Swap that over to trading, and your opponent is Goldman Sachs.  There are no challenger tournaments, so your first ever - EVER - trade is against the biggest money on the planet.  It's very difficult...

Ouch!

Why doing nothing is profitable in investing

Don't feel you have to trade today!  Wait till the time is right.  Just for my own benefit, today was a prime example of this in action.

One of the stock tips from "MoneyWeek" I picked up on is cyber security business, NCC.  Recently the person who provided the tip pointed out that NCC is up over 112% since recommendation.  But for me, that's 133%.

The original recommendation was on 12 January 2012, but I bought in on 12 April 2013.  I then had the uncomfortable experience of watching the stock rise a fair bit, before coming back down to earth.  Then I bought, and have enjoyed a roller-coaster upwards drift since.

Be happy!  If the price isn't right, walk away, leaving it on your watch list.  Other opportunities always exist, or will be along shortly.

Capitalism and why I like "MoneyWeek"

I'm unsure of how long I've been a reader of "MoneyWeek" magazine.  I seem to remember I discovered it by mistake when the magazine I was subscribed to at the time went bust.  What serendipity!

In the 15 January issue, number 776, there are three nuggets which illustrate why I read this publication:

In "The best blogs" on page 31 are entries from CafeHayek.com and StumblingAndMumbling.typepad.com. The first outlines why capitalism is so great, and outlines why we've "never had it so good".  The second says why "there's a long way to go".

I read these one after the other, and it left me thinking.

CafeHayek.com's contention is that "it's hard not to conclude that capitalism is delivering".  Granted - mostly, I feel.  But it also touches upon the fact that a huge proportion of the world's wealth is in the hands of far less than 1% of the population.

SumblingAndMumbling.typepad.com points out that for most in the west, this wealth comes at the cost of being a wage slave;  "...we shouldn't overlook capitalism's inability... to provide higher, non-matierial goods for all - goods such as real freedom, security, self-actualisation and workplace autonomy."  That sounds reasonable, too.

BUT -- hang on, isn't the fact that wealth is so skewed, and wage-slavery so prevalent in the west a result of crony capitalism?  Isn't this what we really have?  True democratic capitalism lifts all boats in a pretty equal fashion, surely?

Then I turned to page 32, where the late and much mourned (by me for sure) David Bowie, who provided a substantial part of the soundtrack to my formative years, is profiled.

Buried in the page is this: "He was subversive because capitalism is subversive, overturning the status quo, restless, and profoundly democratic."

And that, dear reader (if there are any!) is the nub of my thought: allow democratic capitalism to thrive, and we're on to a winner!

Thank you, "MoneyWeek".  Please continue to your unbiased account of humanity, which is what the story of wealth accumulation ultimately is all about.