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The Deipnosophist

Where the science of investing becomes an art of living

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Location: Summerlin, Nevada, United States

A private investor for 20+ years, I manage private portfolios and write about investing. You can read my market musings on three different sites: 1) The Deipnosophist, dedicated to teaching the market's processes and mechanics; 2) Investment Poetry, a subscription site dedicated to real time investment recommendations; and 3) Seeking Alpha, a combination of the other two sites with a mix of reprints from this site and all-original content. See you here, there, or the other site!

02 June 2008

"It's the sitting, not the thinking..."

In their quest for the Holy Grail of Investing, many investors shun the important role psychology plays; specifically, their own. And, really, more than this indicator or that signal, if the investor cannot pull the trigger for whatever reason, then what good are those indicators?

"Humans, no matter how hard we try, act in ways that cause us to make the wrong investment decisions almost all the time."

That quote is from the article, How Thinking Costs You, which includes several interesting, although well-trod, investing insights. Such as...


"The more closely you pay attention, the more you do things. And the more you do things, the worse off you will be."

Hmm, ain't that the truth? It so happens that I watch every tick each trading day (Do you, as well?) awaiting the signals to act. In the effort, I strive to prohibit price volatility, whether intra-day or intra-trend, to confuse me -- and thus to confound my true objective and purpose.


Enter Jesse Livermore, stage right...
"It's the sitting, not the thinking..."


So I create rules to save me (my portfolio) from... me. This blog is one form of that effort; to memorialize those rules for me, and to share them with you.

-- David M Gordon / The Deipnosophist

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