Investing

I have been reading up on the subject of investing.  I think the subject is interesting, and I have been trying to learn more about it.  I have read a few books on "value investing", and they immediately clicked with me.  This school of thought started with Benjamin Graham, and continued on with Warren Buffett and others.

The first thing I learned is that if you don't know how to play the game, you're better off just putting your money in an index fund like Vanguard and hitting the snooze button for a few decades.  It's boring, but it's the right strategy if you don't know what you're doing.

For the more ambitious, value investing lays out the principles of buying good stocks at cheap prices and then holding them for the long-term.  Again, this isn't necessarily exciting, but academic studies shows it beats the other strategies over the long run.

I think a lot of the short-term stock trading is just gambling.  People like to gamble, and the stock market gives people another way to do it.  I read stories about people who blew their whole savings on a stock tip from some self-proclaimed expert.  I am just in awe of this. 

You would have to pry a dollar from my cold, dead hand to get it into a stock chosen by one of these "expert investors".  Most of these guys appear to be crooks who are just peddling books and nonsense, or trying to make money off of commissions.  I'll take my chances with thinking for myself.