Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful

⚠️ I wrote this in 2016 (yes, 10 years ago), and never actually hit publish 🤦

I found it now while I was going through my drafts. What’s funny is that it holds true today more than ever…

So, I’m hitting publish this time:

The title is a quote by the ever-so-slightly-great Warren Buffett, and it’s worth repeating:

Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful

See, today (11.11.2016) I got a taste of that medicine. As you may know, yesterday my fellow Americans voted in a new president, and I thought the dollar would plummet. Quickly, after reading a few headlines, I rushed to convert all my hard-earned $ into my local currency. However, what do you know — by the end of the day, the market “welcomed” this, and if I had just waited one day to see whether it would fall further, I could’ve exchanged then. Instead, I missed out on 0.7% in just one day.

The percentage may sound funny to you; however, given the amount, I learned a valuable lesson the hard way. And, as it seems, those are the only ones that “stick”.

In hope of a better future self; I wish you well, dear Padawan.

It seems that we’ve turned into mere “headline readers,” without even reading the content — let alone reading a book on the topic, or, God forbid, spending some time researching the subject. All we do is read the headline and immediately form an opinion. That doesn’t sound too scientific to me.

So, dear people, please read and research more. Oh, and on that point of research: I’m not talking about “I hold one opinion, let’s Google that and see what I find.” I can guarantee you’ll find websites that affirm your thoughts. However, did you know there are so-called “content generators” that create content so searchers like you find it — boosting view counts and helping dumb us down as a race?

We’ve got to snap out of this Matrix.