While I do believe it’s possible to beat the market long-term, most people who try fail. To use the language of my wife’s family, most of us aren’t “special bunnies” when it comes to unearthing great, new trading schemes. If you’re going to beat the market consistently (aka Warren Buffet and whomever else you want to name), you need a great strategy that has performed well under significant backtesting and that you have reason to believe should continue to do well in the future. For example, I backtested my strategy with 60 years of data. If you don’t have a great strategy, you need to hitch your wagon to somebody else who (a) has a strategy you trust and (b) ideally doesn’t charge more in fees compared to how much the strategy is likely to beat the market.
The investing landscape is not an even playing field. There’s insider trading. There’s high speed trading. There’s AI driven models. There are institutional investors. I can go on and on. You’ve got to find advantages that others ignore.
If you do come across a great strategy, be patient. For example, I seeded my experiment being posted about here with less than 10% of my nest egg. I’m angling for steady compounding returns over time, rather than winning one big bet in the near term.
I’m hoping this site can be a boon for somebody who wants to actively trade but otherwise had no access to a winning strategy. While I’m admittedly self-confident, there’s also 100+ hours of research intermittently over ten years layered on top of a bunch of econometrics and finance education behind what I’m posting today. Hopefully, we’ll find that my strategy is a steady upward climb rather than a fun year at the stock market “casino.” And if it’s not, I hope you took my advice above to be patient and not plow too much money into one investment idea. After all, how well do you know me? 😉
Lastly, be a good steward with what God has entrusted you (whether a lot or a little)! “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 5:24. “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money…This also is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 5:10. I want this site to help people, but if you treat the investing advice here as a panacea for your problems, you’ll be sorely disappointed. I have back problems, a chronic sinus infection, a special needs child, challenges at work, etc. Ultimately, this strategy is not my source of hope for the future. Please, keep life in proper perspective.