Why do we invest, actually?

[Temperament]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKn3GGCbh_0
Relax and enjoy whatever will be, will be.

[chialc88]

我是小溪　源自山中
潺潺流过　郁郁青葱
吐向大海　鱼鸟与共
晨光一催　缕缕升空
浮云一片　飘南北西东
谁也不知　我的行踪
轻轻化作　烟雨蒙胧
丝丝落在　你的心中

This is why I invest, what about you?

Love Compassion

[spiritgate]

Invest is to make our money work.... sometime we earn, sometime we lose. So have to better manage on our goals. If we want to achieve big money, then the risk is higher, if not go for stable and low risk stock like blue chips

[Jack31]

I wasn't interested in investing at all even when some friends/bankers/insurance agent were telling me tons of reasons for ages.
Until one fine day, a person came and told me 1 word. Just one. Then told me to go back think about it. Start investing and never look back since then.

The word: INFLATION

True story.

[Temperament]

I wasn't interested in investing at all even when some friends/bankers/insurance agent were telling me tons of reasons for ages.
Until one fine day, a person came and told me 1 word. Just one. Then told me to go back think about it. Start investing and never look back since then.

The word: INFLATION

True story.

Am i correct to say nothing can make you to invest except FEAR?
Is it just simple fear herself or a very complicated FEAR encompassing everything connected to you?
i think FEAR is the main driver. Then greed comes next. Fear and greed, greed and fear and fear and greed and so on and on we invest.
It's better to have more fear than greed.
After all, how can we, retailers compare to the professionals of the markets?

[Musicwhiz]

Am i correct to say nothing can make you to invest except FEAR?
Is it just simple fear herself or a very complicated FEAR encompassing everything connected to you?
i think FEAR is the main driver. Then greed comes next. Fear and greed, greed and fear and fear and greed and so on and on we invest.
It's better to have more fear than greed.
After all, how can we, retailers compare to the professionals of the markets?

I don't think it's FEAR which is a motivator for people to invest. It's a simple desire to obtain returns which are higher than inflation, and what's provided by banks and financial institutions. It's more of GREED than FEAR, but I do agree there's an element of each in every investing decision.

You'd be surprised that retail investors have two advantages over the "professionals". We can spend more time understanding each company (brokerage analysts don't bother to do this - their analysis is frequently not in depth enough and do not focus on the right metrics e.g. ROIC and FCF), and we have a long time horizon for our investments to bear fruit.

[Temperament]

Am i correct to say nothing can make you to invest except FEAR?
Is it just simple fear herself or a very complicated FEAR encompassing everything connected to you?
i think FEAR is the main driver. Then greed comes next. Fear and greed, greed and fear and fear and greed and so on and on we invest.
It's better to have more fear than greed.
After all, how can we, retailers compare to the professionals of the markets?

I don't think it's FEAR which is a motivator for people to invest. It's a simple desire to obtain returns which are higher than inflation, and what's provided by banks and financial institutions. It's more of GREED than FEAR, but I do agree there's an element of each in every investing decision.

You'd be surprised that retail investors have two advantages over the "professionals". We can spend more time understanding each company (brokerage analysts don't bother to do this - their analysis is frequently not in depth enough and do not focus on the right metrics e.g. ROIC and FCF), and we have a long time horizon for our investments to bear fruit.

i think comparing to them (professional investors), we may have our advantages mainly we don't have to report to anyone. But they have vast resources in terms of time, finance, manpower, etc...
Ha! Ha!
And they are usually aiming to be wrong (in the market) for the right reasons rather then right for the "special reason" They want to or need to keep their jobs ma even when they are wrong.
So we have our advantage here over them.

[opmi]

Am i correct to say nothing can make you to invest except FEAR?
Is it just simple fear herself or a very complicated FEAR encompassing everything connected to you?
i think FEAR is the main driver. Then greed comes next. Fear and greed, greed and fear and fear and greed and so on and on we invest.
It's better to have more fear than greed.
After all, how can we, retailers compare to the professionals of the markets?

I don't think it's FEAR which is a motivator for people to invest. It's a simple desire to obtain returns which are higher than inflation, and what's provided by banks and financial institutions. It's more of GREED than FEAR, but I do agree there's an element of each in every investing decision.

You'd be surprised that retail investors have two advantages over the "professionals". We can spend more time understanding each company (brokerage analysts don't bother to do this - their analysis is frequently not in depth enough and do not focus on the right metrics e.g. ROIC and FCF), and we have a long time horizon for our investments to bear fruit.

i think comparing to them (professional investors), we may have our advantages mainly we don't have to report to anyone. But they have vast resources in terms of time, finance, manpower, etc...
Ha! Ha!
And they are usually aiming to be wrong (in the market) for the right reasons rather then right for the "special reason" They want to or need to keep their jobs ma even when they are wrong.
So we have our advantage here over them.

Yes. Career risk is overriding factor. Even Keynes said it is better for professionals to fail conventionally. Unlikely to stick out their necks.

Like what Buffett said, anyone can beat Bobby Fischer (chess king), just dont play chess. If want to beat professionals, dont play with them in blue chips. In small caps, professionals can be 'blind' without their analyst reports. Most dont even attend AGMs.

"But they have vast resources in terms of time, finance, manpower" - these things can actually work against them.

[Temperament]

Am i correct to say nothing can make you to invest except FEAR?
Is it just simple fear herself or a very complicated FEAR encompassing everything connected to you?
i think FEAR is the main driver. Then greed comes next. Fear and greed, greed and fear and fear and greed and so on and on we invest.
It's better to have more fear than greed.
After all, how can we, retailers compare to the professionals of the markets?

I don't think it's FEAR which is a motivator for people to invest. It's a simple desire to obtain returns which are higher than inflation, and what's provided by banks and financial institutions. It's more of GREED than FEAR, but I do agree there's an element of each in every investing decision.

You'd be surprised that retail investors have two advantages over the "professionals". We can spend more time understanding each company (brokerage analysts don't bother to do this - their analysis is frequently not in depth enough and do not focus on the right metrics e.g. ROIC and FCF), and we have a long time horizon for our investments to bear fruit.

i think comparing to them (professional investors), we may have our advantages mainly we don't have to report to anyone. But they have vast resources in terms of time, finance, manpower, etc...
Ha! Ha!
And they are usually aiming to be wrong (in the market) for the right reasons rather then right for the "special reason" They want to or need to keep their jobs ma even when they are wrong.
So we have our advantage here over them.

Yes. Career risk is overriding factor. Even Keynes said it is better for professionals to fail conventionally. Unlikely to stick out their necks.

Like what Buffett said, anyone can beat Bobby Fischer (chess king), just dont play chess. If want to beat professionals, dont play with them in blue chips. In small caps, professionals can be 'blind' without their analyst reports. Most dont even attend AGMs.

"But they have vast resources in terms of time, finance, manpower" - these things can actually work against them.

"But they have vast resources in terms of time, finance, manpower" - these things can actually work against them."
Yes can be but if they started to be interested in the small caps you are also interested then it can be a blessing only for you for a short time only. By then everyone will be interested. After saying this, i think it's not so bad for average to lazy investors to invest mostly in "BLUE CHIPS". (Still have to do some works or take some risks hoh). Only it may not make you rich to super rich but survival is the aim to beat inflation of the day.

[weijian]

Invest is to make our money work.... sometime we earn, sometime we lose. So have to better manage on our goals. If we want to achieve big money, then the risk is higher, if not go for stable and low risk stock like blue chips

I didn't know that blue chips are stable and low risk, regardless of the timeframe. Didn't the recent oil rout affecting our O&G blue chips tell us anything? I do remember Blue Chip Developer Capitaland was going for 7sgd/piece in 2007? Or are you talking about the blue chip banks? but wait, they are anything but stable since they have been on a good ride in the last 2years.