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Presenting The 10 Most Spectacular Financial Speculations Of The Past 300 Years

Sometimes it seems like the investment community operates on the assumption that the world started in 1929 – or at least that the financial booms, busts and speculators preceding the 1920s are irrelevant to the modern investor. We think this is misguided. Just consider that this common worldview ignores an age where speculators lived in sprawling mansions on Fifth Avenue (as opposed to apartments in the same place measuring about 1/100th the size)! We imagine that there’s a lot to learn from looking at the past 300 years as opposed to the past 80. With this in mind; here we present what we believe to be the best trades of all time.

The most expensive 4 words

The longer a given condition or trend persist and the more comfortable we get with it, the more dramatic the correction will be when the trend fails. This does not mean that you should try to catch tops or bottoms. Only fools believe that they can be consistently lucky in fading established trends. But when a trend ends, prices often overshoot in the opposite direction.

The crowd may be stupid, but they are stronger than you. Crowds have the power to create trends. Never fade a trend. If the trend is up, you should be long or on the sidelines. Never sell short, because “prices are too high” – never argue with the crowd. You don’t have to run with it – but you should never run against it.

The most expensive 4 words in the world are “This time is different”. The underlying reasons might be different, but the psychology behind all booms and busts is always the same.

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