One of the classic rules of investing, intoned to all entry level financial professionals, is that one must develop the art of controlling the highs and the lows---and that to be at the top of one's savvy game, one must in fact reverse human emotion ---when there is fear, develop greed....and when there is greed...develop fear.
Why it was only last week, when Warren Buffett, the top gun guru who owns Berkshire Hathaway, and who recently bought GE at 22 and has been telling everybody in America to buy, buy, buy...especially since he has a big position in GE now, and he has even wryly said that it is important for America to buy since otherwise he might not look good----
The only problem----it is a rare person who can reverse human emotions--why recently when a friend owned Apple Computer at 180 and had purchased it only months before at 120, I mentioned that taking profits was good---to which he responded that he was holding for long term and I could tell that he was multiplying it out---why at that rate of increase, he..well..it would be worth a ton...but in the plunge it came down to 80 or so.
On the other side, when the market plunged a week ago I mentioned to a loved one that it might be nice to buy...a little, not the whole S&P, just a little....and even that suggestion was met with...well...glares that telegraphed that that individual thought I might have lost my mind.....
So there it is----the vast disparity between the platitude and the reality---if anyone out there has indeed reversed human emotions, or has a simple way to do it with maybe a combination of taiche, yoga and zen meditation....email me at the Observer at fre2observe@yahoo.com I am all ears.
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