Risk, The Essence Of Investing

by Steve Selengut

Most investors incorrectly think of “risk” as the possibility that the market value of a financial asset might fall below the amount that he or she has invested in the asset. OMG, how could this be happening!

Think about it. The harboring of these misconceptions (that lower market price = loss or bad and/or that higher market price = profit or good) is the greatest risk creator of all. It invariably causes inappropriate actions within the large mass of individuals who are uninitiated in the ways of the investment gods. Continue reading

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Cruise Control Hedging Strategy

by Steve Selengut

The first page of search engine research tells you that: “Investors use hedging strategies when they are unsure of what the market will do”— isn’t that always the case? Further along you learn that there are many different kinds of strategies, nearly all of which rely upon some sort of derivative betting mechanism.

But what is hedging all about in the first place? Continue reading

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Chefs, Actors and Leverage

What’s the difference between bus drivers, chefs and surgeons on the one hand, and football players, actors and Web site operators on the other?

The answer is leverage, or what Nassim Nicholas Taleb refers to in The Black Swan as scalability. Whether, and how much, to leverage is one of the biggest decisions to face in choosing a career. Continue reading

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What’s Your Investment IQ?

by Steve Selengut

Many of the things you think you know about investing are part of a mythology designed to make you bounce around between investment products. Modern day “conventional wisdom” just isn’t all that its cracked up to be. Concepts you worship are inaccurate; indices and averages you trust do not tell the complete story; the basic investment concepts still work — but Wall Street won’t tell you what they are. Continue reading

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Income Investing And What You Really Know About It – Survey Results

by Steve Selengut

The results are in! Roughly 260 people took the time to respond to the first income investing survey and I thank y’all very much for being so generous with your time. First, the generalizations: Continue reading

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