Are we having fun watching our investments? Well, of course not. We shouldn't.
Today, I saw an add for some internet investment service.
One of all those thousands of ads that scroll past in a day.
I'm not sure if it was consciously designed to make me stop scrolling because of the stupidity of the message. If so, the ad creators succeeded, but on the other hand I don't remember the company behind. Only the ill-advised question stuck.
The ad asked: "Is this a Happy or a Sad day?"
To replace the divine sensation of comedy and tragedy with quick thrills of if an investment went up or down, and to add to the stupidity, within only a day, is tantamount to spending a road trip in Tuscany with only eating on Kentucky Fried Chicken.
If this is even close to one's view of investing, one can be sure that it's the absolutely worst kind.
Emotional neediness and one's life's savings should be kept far apart. The real struggle is in keeping emotions and investments separate. Not the opposite, deliberately joining them together.
It is easy to have a look if the portfolio went up or down within a day, because the internet brokers are designed that way, to make us want to log-in and do something, usually stupid, so they can gain on their fees.
If the most thrilling thing that happened over the day had anything to do with the stock market then:
a) the 'investment' strategy is guaranteed to be seriously flawed
b) one should rethink what one finds 'happy' or 'sad' in life.
If one is out of thrills, may I for instance suggest getting a squirrel suite?
I think it's every billionaire's right to die in a self-inflicted flight-accident, so if one has high hopes one better start practicing now. And it's probably beneficial to the development of the stash, as a dead investor is likely to be the best investor.
Or even better than getting superficial thrills from the stock market or a squirrel suit: grow up from toying around like an underdeveloped teenager.
Get a challenging, interesting vocation in life instead; one that actually matters to someone.
//lucilius
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