After training and interacting with investors for the past 8 years, here’re some bad world views I have observed.
1) Some don’t want to hear that they can have $x millions if they invest for the next 30 years. They want it within the next few years. Yesterday if possible.
2) Some think they are long term investors but they sell a stock when it goes up 10% in the next month. Only losses are kept long term.
3) Some want 50% returns with 0% downside.
4) Some believe that they can make money on every stock.
5) Some believe that a good investor is one who can predict what’s going to happen with high accuracy.
6) Some want to turn $10,000 to $1m in 1 year.
7) Some think that lottery is gambling and stock market is not. But they are actually gambling in the stock market.
8) Some think that they understand the stock market. But panic when the market is down 10%.
9) Some are always chasing performance. They are quick to abandon a strategy when another strategy is doing well. They probably hop strategies 6 times a year.
10) Some believe that stock tips is an investing strategy and a form of due diligence.
11) Some don’t track the returns because it is too painful to look or too tedious to do it.
12) Some saw a few reported examples of people making millions betting on one stock and suddenly believe they can do it too.
13) Some believe the best time to buy is during a market crash. But they are so scared to buy when the crash arrived.
14) Some want to wait for the stock price to come back down. But when it happens they are too scared to buy because there’s usually accompanied bad news.
15) Some believe they are long term investors but check the share prices every few minutes.
16) Some want to pick their own stocks but don’t want to do the work to build the conviction.
17) Some believe they are better than warren Buffett when their investments made money within a short period.
18) Some believe they are always right.
19) Some believe that good luck will happen to them and bad luck would not when they invest.
Strategies are easy to teach. World views are hard to change.