39 year old software developer in the Seattle area.
I have been investing since I was 20, and over the years have read countless books and sites on finance, economics, and trading, many of which offer mutually contradictory strategies.
I used to trade individual stocks, then got pulled in by "Nobody can consistently win at the stock picking game", and moved to low cost ETFs. Mind you, conventional knowledge also stated you can't time the market either, and therefore should be fully invested all the time. However, I think such rapid swings in market valuations indicate the market really can become very obviously cheap at times. It's harder to tell when things are overvalued.
I am back ...More to investing in individual stocks again, which I buy when they dip below what I deem fair value. I am willing to wait a long time for the right price, and if it never gets there, well, there are plenty of other stocks.
I also came to realize that even when something is "obviously" wrong, the market can just choose to ignore it; I lost money on Fannie Mae puts by being years too early betting against the housing bubble. After that, I stopped speculating on such things.
Of all the strategies I have ever read, I found that Seth Klarman's book, Margin of Safety, resonated with me the most.
I have been investing since I was 20, and over the years have read countless books and sites on finance, economics, and trading, many of which offer mutually contradictory strategies.
I used to trade individual stocks, then got pulled in by "Nobody can consistently win at the stock picking game", and moved to low cost ETFs. Mind you, conventional knowledge also stated you can't time the market either, and therefore should be fully invested all the time. However, I think such rapid swings in market valuations indicate the market really can become very obviously cheap at times. It's harder to tell when things are overvalued.
I am back ...More