Musings On Investors' Attitudes and Behaviour

You know what they say, you can never really know what someone's motivations really are, but some will leave traces of the imprint of their hearts by their flawed thinking. If someone is charitable, what are their underlying motivations?? Is it a genuine concern for their fellow man ... or fearful that in case there is really a God that punishes "bad works" and rewards "good ones" ... or is it to gain respect and admiration from friends and the public ... Of course, all charity is good, the motivations of an individual only matter if I am your friend. However, to me the underlying motivations will tell me the kind of real person he/she is, they way they think, the real genuine person they are.



It is the same in investing, even though its a free for all market place, we can still do things with a generous heart, and that we can sleep at night with a calm and peaceful conscience. I will give you some examples.

If you have sold your stocks, do you openly wish that all share prices collapse? There is actually no need for that. If you sold, you don't have to be absolutely right and ensure that you are the last man standing. Why the need to laugh devilishly in the end? It should be ok if prices rise after you have sold, it is ok as well if they fall, but do not wish harm or bother on others. Be magnanimous.

Its like you are short the markets in futures and then there is the Japan disaster, do you celebrate that? What is the shape and colour of your heart? You reveal so much by what you do or say, you cannot hide it. You can make money with a professional attitude, and at the same time your heart can be totally aligned as well. We all need to do more self introspection to make sure our compass in life is always headed in the right direction.



Then there are those who will hoard information and analysis as if they are the only one in the whole fucking world who have come up with that information or analysis - they will not share for a variety of reasons, heck they may even behave as "the gatekeeper" ... "no-la you don't know what's happening ... do you know what really happened?? ... " they say these things as if they know, and then smugly say nothing more. Shitmebricks, we have met tons of those aholes, haven't we? You want to say, say la, you waiting for people to kowtow to you, go hang yourself.



Then there are the spongers, the parasites of life. They will only take in information and ideas, and share nothing back. What extra information or ideas they have, they regard it as a useful edge for them and them only. When you share, they consider it diluting the value of the information or idea. Of course, there are professional reasons and respect for information / ideas as well when we cannot share something.

So, who are we fraternising with.