Be Aware Of Your Knowledge Limitations With Investing

Be Aware Of Your Knowledge Limitations With Investing

Most regular investors know it’s not worth it to try to time the market or keep up with stock prices. To avoid any investing pitfalls, it’s important to acknowledge our own limitations. Wealth advisor Jonathan K. DeYoe does a good job of explaining why: If you’ve read about a stock in the news, that means it’s old news.

Photo by OTA Photos

He writes:

What we read about in the media is “old news”: Every portfolio manager out there already knows this information, and it is already factored into the stock’s price. If you are ever in a position to KNOW something that others don’t know and you use that information to make buy/sell decisions, it is likely called “insider information,” and you go to jail for trading on it. The rules of the game make it so that, if you know it… so does everyone else. There can be no information advantage gleaned from public media sources and those gained from private sources, if they are accurate, may not be legal.

I like DeYoe’s reminder about not tricking yourself into believing you’re an investing pro. And his point about “old news” suggests it’s probably also unproductive to use news articles about specific stocks to make our investing decisions. He’s got more information in his full article.

When Investing, Be Mindful of ‘Knowledge’ Limitations [Huffington Post]


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